HSS School Forum

HSS School Forum

14th February 2017

Chair:Sherry Iqbal and Jenny Kelly

Secretary:Tomas Fish

Course Representatives present: 14Staff members present:5

• There was no discussion.

• Student Volunteering Week
• SU Elections
• Course Rep Conference
• Golden Robes

• Psychology L5 – most semester two assignments are due on the same day.
• Dietetics – not much time to do the reading as it’s uploaded the night before the classes. Same with Nutrition. Slides changing five minutes before lecture. Occasional apologies but still a major problem.
• Nutrition – lecture theatres in northern terrace are very uncomfortable – tables are very far away. Also either really hot or really cold.
• Lecturers give citations but don’t give titles of papers and books – students then can’t find the paper.
• Nutrition – netwisp – really bad software, not easy to use and crashes a lot. More up to date software is available. Also unavailable outside of university premises. Nutritics is better and available at Headingley.
• Psychology – registers being passed around in lectures and not getting to everybody. Attendance suffering because of the break – being used as an excuse to not turn up. Lack of assessment feedback – some people get lots, particularly those who get less, and those who have done well don’t get much feedback.
• Nutrition – people only in for an hour or two, not worth people commuting in – too expensive.
• Interdisciplinary Psychology MSC – more information on careers needed – PHD deadline is February and some students have missed it.
• More promotion of social learning spaces and where they are.
• Counselling service waiting list is too long – and they only offer advice until 5PM which is when students are on placement – Dietetics. Only get four sessions a year per person – people not getting the help that they need because of this.
• Really long gaps in timetables – sometimes as much as up to 60% - negatively affects attendance. University working on changing timetables to course specific control.
• People being told their lectures are cancelled within half an hour of it starting – frustrating because people are commuting in and are already on their way to uni.
• Timetables being changed quite frequently before uni – things switching around. People cannot plan their work and general life around because of changes – also released very late in terms of when the semester starts.
• More options for students who cannot eat and drink certain things – milk a particular issue.
• Café seating quite sparse for the amount of students. Prices also quite high.

• Volunteering team really helpful. Lots of different things to offer. Advice service – felt like it was tailored more towards undergraduates. Confusing for postgraduates.
• Receptionists need more knowledge of the different sections of the SU – more action is being taken on staff training.
• Students who aren’t involved with the SU don’t really know what’s going on – only thing is used for is the bar. More promotion needed of everything the SU does. SU need to be in the introductory lectures more. Posters and computer advertising tends to be ignored because of how many there are. Have stalls and events in different places around campus rather than just around the SU.
• More prompt responses from the SU.
• Bulletin once a month via email from the SU about general events.
• Seats in the SU fill up quite quickly.
• Card charge in the SU bar isn’t really necessary. Seats and tables need upgrading.

• Library representative reminds students about one-to-one appointments with academic librarians.
• Video camera loans – people who live far away struggle to get in and out of university to bring cameras back – more flexible with returns possibly? – SLT
• Skills for Learning workshops – possibly need more promotion, not everyone has heard of them. Workshops usually on the same day of the week – disadvantageous for people who work on that day.
• Those who have attended found them useful.
• More books and materials have been purchased for Criminology and Psychology books – AL asked for more feedback when there isn’t enough copies.
• Thank you to Laurence Morris for his work ordering that many books acting upon feedback from the last forum.
• WiFi is still quite bad – doesn’t work in seminars so students having to use their data. Now bad mainly in teaching spaces rather than the library itself.

• Free printing currently broken – being fixed this week. Location not currently very good – not allowed in the library however. In the Gateway possibly?
• App doesn’t give notifications when assignments are uploaded, means students are logging on to find numerous assignments that they didn’t know about.
• Not all phone types can get the app – most courses not using the registration system and instead just using paper. Students not fans of their location being tracked. App giving out incorrect grades for assignments.
• Some computers very slow to load up. Often when they move to a different computer it works.

• Dietetics – quite good support on careers and options in and outside of the NHS.
• Sam Davis – really good lecturer and takes feedback on board. Public Health and Health and Promotion.
• Neil Dugdale – lots of positive feedback.
• Lydia Windisch – ‘one of the best people in the world, not just the uni’
• Helen Fawkner – really positive feedback
• Ian Crookston – really positive feedback
• Helen Nichols and Bill Davies – organised a module that has been really effective. Criminology – took Beckett students into a prison and taught students alongside prisoners.
• Jess Gifkins – really inclusive in her classes and includes pronouns in her introductions
• Donna Johnson – employability stuff has been really good – posting job ideas and applications – organised CV workshop – Biomedical Sciences
• Conrad Russell – applies really promptly and calmly.
• Neda Mahmoodi – lots of information on her modules and teaching.
• Glen Jankowski – really helpful with placements
• Don Crewe – Criminology students really like him.
• WaqasTufail – really helpful with assessments
• Therese Shepherd – ‘all round legend’ – brings subject to life
• Library chairs very comfy – library in general is mostly good. Increased charging ports in the library have worked very well. Silent study works very well.
• Vegan sausages are really good in the SU bar.
• Julie and the Grumpy Mule team really good.

• There was no other business.

• There was no discussion.