In the Department of Sociology, consultation and partnership between students, academic colleagues and professional services staff is essential. Sharing views, exchanging ideas and engaging in dialogue with one another helps us to understand the role we all play in supporting one another as a scholarly community, and creating experiences that are enriching and fulfilling.
As students, we want you to use your voices as active participants inside and outside the classroom. We welcome your input and suggestions about your programme so that we can discuss these and work together to benefit the student body. Taking action can take time, and your feedback can help us to shape future students’ experiences too.
Some recent examples of how we have collaborated with students include:
You: requested that at MSc level, you would like more guidance and support in advance of the course selection period.
We: increased our communications from the point of receiving an offer to study with us, including introducing Zoom calls per programme. We also held two new course selection drop-in sessions during Welcome with your programme managers, and worked with other departments to share information about course availability via one source with all students and staff.
You: told us that you'd like more space within the Department and facilities to have your own lunch.
We: have provided access to a kettle and microwave in our building, and have opened up our department meeting room to all students to use when it's not in use. As part of a building move in the summer of 2024, we now have new and improved student spaces, including a seperate student kitchen for all our students.
You: asked for more opportunities to meet students across the Department, on other programmes and at other levels.
We: have started hosting more social events during the day, including department lunches and we will start hosting our games event with lunch every term. We're also developing a student social fund where each programme can plan their own social events and access funding each term to support these events.
You: requested more time with members of the Department and the opportunity to provide feedback and have discussions outside of the formal SSLC meetings.
We: hosted town hall events with our new Head of Department in Autumn term 2023, and invited students to community lunches with staff members over the summer 2024 period.