Our Action The Audio Technology programme team had set up a series of work experience opportunities for the students over the years. Feedback from the students was very positive. They found that these opportunities were helpful to them in allowing them to gain employability skills, establish what areas of possible employment that they might want to pursue and allow them to apply their knowledge and skills in practical scenarios. The opportunities were extremely popular and valued and there was a high demand for these places. As a result the staff put significant extra effort into developing more links which resulted in opportunities being created at BBC Scotland, Commonwealth Games 2014, STV Glasgow, Celtic Music Radio, etc. The team are continuing to expand the range of opportunities for as many audio students into as many areas as possible.
Our Action In the 4th year Industrial project module for Graphic Design for digital media there were a series of guest lectures and the feedback from students was that these were appreciated but but they really wanted a professional like Emlyn Firth, who gave a guest lecture on costing, to come in and support a studio session and offer critiques. So that’s what was done. Emlyn came in and supported a studio session and is coming back this trimester to support a further 4 studio sessions.
Our Action There were requests from Engineering students to make careers information more widely available. The programme teams began announcing career opportunities on programme’s slot on GCU Learn
Our Action In the BSc Health and Safety Management programme, the students suggested greater alignment and integration with Professional body. As a result of this, the team arranged for the introduction to the professional body to take place earlier within the programme. This was tied in with the inclusion of Initial Personal Development Portfolio (IPD) mirroring the requirements of the professional body’s stipulations to allow students to develop their portfolio of experience and apply for full chartered membership once they have successfully completed the program.
Our Action Part time students in particular had requested improved access to specialist lab spaces for the Engineering programmes. In response to this the school organised extended lab hours and Saturday opening for the labs which has benefitted Full Time as well as Part Time students on these programmes. In addition the department has establishing unsupervised extra lab sessions.
Our Action When the issue of the accessibility of a tutorial room for a student was raised as a staff student consultative meeting the class was immediately relocated to a more accessible room for the remainder of the trimester.
Our Action The Charles Oakley building was going to be closed one weekend due to construction work at the end of last trimester. This was just before some programmes had courseworks due which required access to specialist labs. The programme team were alerted to this and arranged with the Estates office for special access to be arranged for these labs over the weekend.
Our Action The feedback from both students and staff was that there was a real need to update both the computers and the practical spaces for the Digital and Graphic Design programmes. This led to an investment of approximately £250k to create an expanded suite of practical spaces including a new suite of Digital Design Studios centred C116, C117 and C119 with approximately 75 additional new computers.
Our Action While the final output of the Heart of the Campus project will be a much better and more integrated set of resources for students, the building work is obviously disruptive. Staff and students have both raised the issues about noise in particular and these have been fed back to the university. This resulted in a change to the working practices on site and as far as possible, the major noisy work has been moved to evenings and weekends to try and minimise the disruption.
Our Action The full time students taking Control Engineering 4 requested that the lectures be spread over the week rather than being concentrated in one block. This has now been put in place. In addition, in response to feedback that it sometimes took too long to get to speak to a lecturer/demonstrator in labs because of the size of the classes) the number of labs has been doubled this year, and the number of demonstrators trebled, increasing the opportunities for contact, questions and feedback.
Our Action The computer networking laboratories have recently undergone an Investment of approximately £100k to upgrade equipment in computer networking laboratories. In response to student requests for better online access to the lab, this investment has also significantly expanded both the capacity and scope of modules available online through Netlab.
Our Action The engineering programmes were seeing high demand for the specialist software in the labs. This was raised by student reps and staff teaching in these areas. As a result there was a major spend to increase the numbers of the software licences to improve the availability of the software.
Our Action Students were requesting more access to online learning resources to support their studies, particularly in the use of sophisticated software tools. This led the Department of Computing, Communications and Interactive Systems to make a significant investment in supplementary Web based digital learning resources including site licenses for Lynda.com, in addition to Digital Tutors and e-books.