Reconsider the implementation of safety nets
Category: Academic Support
Voting closed
We acknowledge and understand the difficulties faced by students in the last academic year and for years to come as a result of the Pandemic, and we will continue to lobby for the support students want even where the university does not aggree. As a result of our feedback, Schools have now implemented as many face-to-face contact hours as possible, and where students tell us their course is not receiving enough we support them to raise it with their course leader. We are also lobbying for more transparency from courses over why particular decisions are made, in particular through engaging with our course reps and school officers as well as directly with students in their school.
We worked closely with the university to introduce the fair assessment policy which was in place during the 2020/21 academic year. Whilst NTU did not agree with us on every point we continued - and continue- to make the argument for students and represent the strength of student feeling on the matter. Of the data we have available, the policy as it was introduced did help the majority of students to whom it applied, although it was used by very few students. We encourage all students who may be struggling to reach out to the various types of support available whether this be course teams, personal tutors, employability, library etc, or our own Information and Advice Service.
Following the email today that said safety nets werent going to be used as none of this years assessments were affected by covid; I urge the student union to put pressure on the university to reconsider this decision for the following reasons.
1) Our work HAS been affected. During term 1 many of the universities undergraduate degrees had group assessments. Term 1 had a national lockdown between november 4th and december 4th and outside if this lockdown Nottingham was assigned Tier 3. Households could NOT mix. Therefore, all group assignments were completely remotely carried out. Members with poor internet connection struggled, editing group documents was difficult due to different operating systems between members which had different features and capabilities.
2) Many Students have had distuption in terms of stable internet connections and covid cases at home meaning they cant go on campus.
3) Some courses have had extremely limited contact time. The Business school allowed students 2 hours in-person contact time per module every 4 WEEKS. The ability to book 1-1 meetings was restricted to 5 or 10 minute slots. This is inadequate time to ask a question, get a response and then ask follow up questions to gain clarity.
4)With the Government announcing a January national lockdown and telling students to stay wherever they are, some students are now stuck at their permanent addresses. Some students may not have taken materials and books home for Christmas break, and students at home are legally not allowed to travel to campus to attend the library.
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