Friday 15-02-2019 - 16:28

Sally Emerson: Education Network Chair, Science Undergraduate Faculty Rep

Hi! I’m Sally, Chair of the Education Network and Undergraduate Faculty Rep for Science. The Education Network is the SU Network for all students who care about our academic experience at Bristol! Every course rep, faculty rep, academic society president and Student Advisor is automatically a member- if you aren’t in one of these positions you can sign up (for free!) here. 

Each teaching block we hold a forum to discuss academic issues: at our forum in December one of the themes was community. We discussed whether reps, and the students that they represent, feel part of a community, how that community is built, and what the barriers are.

At Bristol, there are ‘us and them’ splinters all over: between academics and students, students from different backgrounds, students from different liberation groups, students who live in different accommodation, et cetera. Addressing students’ different experiences in order to build stronger communities is really important, not least because there are obvious links between feeling like you belong to a community and your wellbeing. There is no doubt that strong community also helps students to do better in their degrees: for example, when academic staff know students more personally they are able to give more tailored academic support and advice.

So, with the potential to benefit both academic experience and student wellbeing, how could the Education Network not want to work on building community at Bristol? This blog is to share what we discussed, and what you can do as a rep or active student to build community in your school!   

What you told us builds community in your school:

• Small group teaching or researching: e.g. in seminars, reading groups, workshops, and labs.
• Field trips.
• Social areas (such as loud libraries, but also places just to relax! Top tip: if your department doesn't have a social area, then check out the SU living room)
• Departmental or year-group socials (for example the ‘Think 60!’ program in Economics, Finance and Management, where student reps are allocated 60 students in their year group and given £15/head to organise social activities).
• Active societies that offer a range of social, careers and academic events.
• Organised networking with academics (for example, in the English literature MA, each week a different group of students get invited to the lecturer’s office for lunch and a chat).
• Personalising year groups (for example, the Centre for Innovation & Enterprise displays photos all the students alongside with their interests).

Barriers you’ve observed to community:

• Being taught in huge lecture theatres, with little interaction between students and lecturers.
• Lecturers that don’t reply to emails or give the impression they’re too busy with their own research to help with your problem.
• Unengaging teaching which leads to low turn-out in lectures.
• Academic society events that don’t cater for different interests and cultures.
• Seminar groups that stay the same for the whole year, so students only get to know one small group of people.
• Adapting to a new culture as an international student.
• The lack of diversity in academic staff, and lack of understanding of the issues facing student of different identities and backgrounds.

 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, we found that the experience varies greatly between schools and even within schools between undergraduate (UG), postgraduate taught (PGT) and postgraduate research (PGR) students.

But with many common themes also emerging, here are my top 3 ideas for you to help build up your course community:

1. Encourage your department staff to support the academic society linked to your course. If you are lucky, they may provide £££, or else they can provide room space, promotion for events (in a newsletter, email, or lecture shout-outs) and perhaps provide speakers for events!
2. Ask for more small-group teaching, particularly in first year, and regular rotations of groups where appropriate.
3. Make community a factor to consider when new units or programmes are being designed. This is something that course reps can raise in your meetings with staff- your School Education Director should be asking: How will this positively impact the sense of community for our students?

What have the Education Network committee been doing to help build communities?

Nasra, UG Education Officer    

Worked with Sally Patterson (SU Equality, Liberation and Access Officer) to produce a guideline for personal tutors on engaging with our diverse student body: specifically students falling into liberation groups and widening participation backgrounds. If academics have a better understanding of different students’ experiences they can provide better support and form better relationships.

Shubham, PG Education Officer    

Worked with the Bristol Doctoral College and PGR reps to ensure that the university provides and maintains the PGR Hub in Senate House- a dedicated space for PGRs on campus.  

Dario, UG Engineering Faculty Rep    

Brought Engineering faculty societies together by creating a dedicated Facebook group, organizing meetups, and making a combined society calendar. This has facilitated lots of collaboration and interdisciplinary activities across the faculty!

Sally, UG Science Faculty Rep    

I've been working with School Undergraduate Education Directors in Science, encouraging them to prioritise building community when designing new programmes/units and creating their Education Action Plans.

Morwenna, PGT Science Faculty Rep    

Has been pushing the Geography department to adopt year group socials for more courses, since they have been a success for PGT Geographical Sciences students!

Josh, PGR Engineering Faculty Rep    

Created an Induction/Registration event to bring together the new PGR students: a mixture of talks from current students, informal networking with academics, a poster competition and free food!

Will, PGR Arts Faculty Rep 

Worked with staff and fellow PGR students to voice students’ concerns surrounding temporary Arts postgraduate study spaces during the refurbishment of Woodland Road. These student voices are also making sure that university plans were properly communicated to the student body, and that disruption to dedicated workspace is minimized.

Ed, PGR Life Sciences Faculty Rep  

Has been working with faculty staff to organize postgrad-specific social events, creating a sense of identity for the new Life Sciences faculty. 

Chris, PGR Science Faculty Rep    

Chaired the first ever Science PGR FSSLC (Faculty Staff Student Liaison Committee), bringing staff and students from all schools together to discuss a wide range of issues: including wellbeing, and working relationships with supervisors.

 

Thank you to all the reps that came to the forum, we really value your input and will use it to keep making this better for Bristol students! If you are a course rep and have been taking action to make positive changes in your department, tell us about it here!

All students can be part of a strong community by getting involved in a society or joining one of the SU networks! To get involved with the Education Network and find out who your faculty and course reps are, you can visit this page. Happy community-building!