Risk and Security Management (Distance Learning)

University of Portsmouth

I’m a second-year student at the University of Portsmouth, and I’ve really enjoyed my experience so far. The course is well organised, and I genuinely like what I’m learning. The lecturers are supportive and always ready to help, and the university provides great academic and well-being support. I’m happy with my choice and feel confident about my future here.

I am a distance student, so don't get to utilise the facilities, however I have lived in Portsmouth & know many students that have had good experiences on campus. As for the distance element, the university makes you feel part of the furniture and you're treated no different to as you would studying on campus, par the fact they need to change certain things for being a distance student. There is always someone on hand to help too, and when I was going through a particularly difficult time, they reached out to support me. ASDAC is also an incredible team, helping offer support for learning and disability needs. The location is also pretty cool, but why wouldn't it be when it's near the sea, shops and brilliant transport links!

It is great that the university offers distance learning degrees in the security profession as it provides a chance for foreign students to bring back some modern academic/professional knowledge to the local fields of practice. In general, the university possesses up-to-date academic material and provides access to the digital library which so far has been a tremendous help. It would otherwise be impossible for distance learning students to keep up with all the relevant academic material without the university’s digital library. In terms of the course material, the courses are usually structured in chapters, and always contain information rated to basic introductions which is aimed at introducing the students to their upcoming assessment questions. In that regard, the assessment guidance is really not needed, as the course material itself outlines the assessment topics in question. As a result, we as students are faced with a simple, organized research procedure which, if guided by the course material and effective time management on our behalf, allows us to keep up with the modules’ pace easily enough. As for the student support, so far, module coordinators have always been responsive and have done their best to provide assessment and topic clarifications via email and personal video meetings. It must also be noted that the university’s “course leader” program has been very effective so far in terms of obtaining student feedback, and in terms of student counseling. For me personally, the course leader program assisted me in discussing potential dissertation topics and finally choosing a topic which stands in line with my academic and professional ambitions. In terms of potential improvements, not many things come to mind personally, as this so far has been my first distance learning experience. The only thing that I believe could be improved is related to the distance learning student community. Specifically, I would love to see the university organize more “meet and greets” between distance learning students, and allow us to invest more into the student community because I believe that these professional connections could benefit us all in the future. Additionally, I believe that all distance learners would also appreciate an organized tour of the university campus, just for the experience. I know it would definitely make me feel more embedded into the university of Portsmouth’s student life.

The support I have personally been given has been fantastic. Down side to distant learning is that we get the bare minimum course input with regards to seminars we get one every two weeks which in my opinion isn’t enough. Yess it’s a distant learning degree but we could have more seminars. We don’t get the student life as we are distant learners