Thursday 07-01-2021 - 15:06

Your Student Union Sabbatical Officers have made the below recommendations to the University’s Senior Management, in order to properly support students during this third lockdown. They have based these asks on contact that they have had from students over the last few days, and worries and concerns from Semester 1. In the recommendations study support, accommodation, financial & no detriment approaches are outlined that we, as your Student Union, believe would be best for our students.

Senior Management were really pleased to receive this list of recommendations, and your Officers will be working collaboratively with the University to try and implement as many of these as possible.

Winchester Student Union recommended measures for implementation:

Study Support Measures

• Provide a two-week extension to submission deadlines for assessments due to be submitted during semester 2.
• A No Detriment Policy should be implemented as soon as possible which includes the assurance that no student should be disadvantaged by marks obtained since the beginning of the 2020-21 Academic Year (September 2020).
• Move teaching online where required and ensure consistent, timely and clear communications on changes to delivery. This includes providing no less than 2 weeks’ notice to when in-person teaching will begin.
• Allow any student who wishes to complete the academic year online to do so, without the requirement of evidence.
• Where possible, replace traditional time constrained examinations and assessments with a range of carefully designed & approved alternative assessments.
• Continue to enable students to self-certify for Covid 19 related issues and to remove the need for evidence in Covid related cases. Students should also be able to apply for extenuating circumstances without evidence if they have any IT related issues.
• Ensure the live chat feature remains available and actively watched over the weekend and for at least 16hrs per day.
• Allow students to submit back-dated work during the Summer break and still progress or graduate, by introducing additional award & progression boards.
• Allow students at least one uncapped resit for all failed assignments.
• Allow students with children and additional caring responsibilities during Covid to extend assignments to a time when children can return to school.
• Any students that are required to re-sit the year or semester because of Covid should not be charged for the additional year of study required.
• Remain committed to involving the Student Union Officers - President, Vice President (Education & Welfare), and Vice President (Activities) - in all key discussions.

Accommodation Rent Rebates

• All students that live in University accommodation, regardless of whether they are returning to campus or not, should receive a 2-month rent rebate.
• Any student who wishes to end their housing contract early should be able to do so without the requirement to pay for time they will not be using their accommodation.

Financial Hardship

• All students should be provided with a one-off £250 cash bursary to cover costs incurred as a result of studying online; this would help to bridge the digital divide and support students unable to access on campus facilities.
• Hardship Funding should be significantly increased, and advertised much more widely, to support students who are finding themselves in additional financial hardship.

Wellbeing Measures

• Commit to continuing Mental Health Drop-In services, both online and in-person, during this third lockdown and ensure that information on the availability of these is widely spread.
• Implement temporary measures to increase the availability of wellbeing provision through Student Services, such as counselling, support networks, mental health advisors & student life advisors.
• Co-run a joint University and Winchester Student Union communications campaign, informing students of the services available to them to support their mental health on, or off, campus.

 

Megan Ball – Winchester Student Union President

Victoria Hurley - Winchester Student Union Vice President, Education & Welfare

Ellen O’Dwyer - Winchester Student Union Vice President, Activities

 

You can view updates and progress on our recommendations on our tracker below.

Key

Green - Achieved 

Amber - Work in Progress

Red - No Progress/Not Achieved