James Sanderson

I have just returned from an interesting discussion between myself and other ‘involved’ students about the shortcomings of the University system. Chairing the debate was Lord Tony Young, Secretary of State for Skills and Apprenticeships who was surprisingly receptive to all issues which were raised.

The key objective of the meeting was for Tony to gauge what was wrong with Nottingham University and how the Government could aid in rectifying problems which are outside of the Jurisdiction of the University. Being on a specialised degree course, it was interesting to hear about the additional pastoral care which those on more popular courses were getting. By far the most vocal of us all was an International student studying Law who clearly had benefitted from a well established and effective pastoral and tutee care system. Hearing his musings on his satisfaction suddenly struck something with me, how on earth can this person be representative of the student body?

Personally, the tutorial and contact time that i receive as a student here is nothing short of a joke, one wonders in these half yearly personal tutor meetings whether the tutor knows your name. It became clear that many within the meeting were on degrees such as Medicine, Mathematics and Engineering and that appropriate representation of hybrid degrees and smaller courses was largely amiss. Despite this though, Lord Young recognised that there is something to tackle in terms of the consistency of personal tutorials and contact time, perhaps something which once rectified, could significantly change Nottingham’s place in the League tables.

Finally I raised a point about grants for students with wealthy parents but with problems benefitting from their wealth. Currently, means tested grants require statements of parent/guardian income to properly assess eligibility. However, there have been some cases recently of students being disowned by wealthy parents due to various reasons and being denied funding due to assumptions that they are still associated with their parents. Furthermore, I have heard from many students who have wealthy parents but just don’t get enough support- we are then presented with this bizarre situation where those on grants are better off than those allegedly being supported by wealthy parents. Lord Young was particularly concerned by this and promised that he would look into it, he did however acknowledge that it can be demanding on the grant process to determine parental support levels.

The overall feeling of the meeting was a political cliche, almost a version of the BBC’s have your say campaign. The reality is that changing University policy is demanding, expensive and can be disastrous in the short term. Regardless of whether Lord Young takes some action on these Issues, it is down to the University to Listen to the little people and introduce standards of pastoral care for all to adhere to.