January 2023 Student Town Hall
Thank you to everyone that attended the town hall on Wednesday, January 18th! As always it is lovely to hear from our students and the SU. Below are key topics that were covered:
Reflections on the last trimester:
With the pandemic behind us, we have made the transition back to campus and all teaching taking place on-site. Turn out as well as feedback for the move back to campus teaching has been overall extremely positive with a 69.8% undergraduate turnout and a postgraduate turnout returning to pre-covid levels. Data suggests that the return has been extremely positive for student engagement and your learning experience, so thanks for coming back every week.
Students and academics faced challenging conditions to come to campus between transport strikes and poor weather conditions leading to lots of disruptions. Many thanks to those who persevered with travelling to our campus despite the obstacles. We will continue with strategies to adapt to extensive, challenging conditions in the future, such as national rail strikes, as to minimise disruption to student learning. This will include moving classes temporarily online where appropriate, so please check your emails, texts and our e-communications to make sure you are aware of the latest arrangements.
Feedback from our student surveys was generally very positive, indicating students are satisfied with their experience. The module evaluation and student experience surveys received good scores all around, so many thanks to students who had their say. As always, we really appreciate those who give us feedback and are always looking for more participants, so please try to fill these out on a trimesterly basis!
Other milestones that took place over the last trimester include the successful revalidation of our undergraduate courses, with input from both academics and industry leads. We also saw 762 students graduate last trimester and 19 additional employers have joined the ARUL community, who we are ecstatic to say are offering graduate job roles for our students!
We have been testing a hybrid learning delivery model across all cohorts, with the format of one day on campus and one day online, to get an indication of how this impacts the student learning experience. Early results are as yet uncertain at most levels, but suggest it is detrimental to engagement and achievement at level 3, indicating to the move back to campus has been a highly positive one. Hence we will end the pilot at level 3, allowing the remainder to continue until the end of the year when we will be able to fully assess the impact.
Plans for 2023:
As with our undergraduate courses, we are looking to revalidate our postgraduate courses this trimester. We are pleased to announce the addition of three courses; MSc Accounting and Financial Management, MSc International Hospitality and Tourism Management, and LLM Law from September 2023 (subject to validation), which have been expertly designed by employers and academics.
We are also proud to announce that are launching a creative council, in which marketing students can get involved with continual content creation, working with academics and our internal marketing team. Stay tuned as to how to sign up and earn money whilst building experience and key employability skills!
Other activities for the new year include the improvement of our facilities including the addition of charging plugs and points at both of our campuses.
Lastly, for those who have recently passed their final assessments, get ready for the Leavers Event, hosted at the Park Plaza hotel on the 14th of April! We can’t wait to celebrate all your achievements here, so look out for your invitation soon!