With a lot of fuss recently over the National Student Survey of graduating students, The Linc decided to conduct a survey of our own, asking five questions to 100 students.
Q1. Do you know who your subject rep is?
Q2. Are you proud to be a University of Lincoln student?
Q3. Do you feel you get value for money on your course?
Q4. Have you ever witnessed an intolerant act (racism, homophobia or sexism) while at Lincoln?
Q5. Have you, or anyone you know, been bullied while at University?
Value for money
Overwhelmingly, the students polled were not happy with what they get for their tuition fees. Over two thirds feel they do not get value for money from their degree.
Some students feel their degree isn’t as valuable as those at other “top ranking” universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, or Warwick and shouldn’t be paying as much. Others suggested that the content of degrees was a severe problem, that they just don’t get enough out of it to justify the cost.
University of Lincoln students paid £3,225 in tuition fees for 2009/10, with extras that one may expect to be included on their course often costing extra.
Proud students
The majority of students are proud to be University of Lincoln students, with over three quarters saying so in our survey.
Whether it’s because the university leaping 29 university league places within two years, the university receiving the highest commendation possible in its recent QAA audit, or for many other reasons, students just seem to be happy to be Lincoln students.
Course reps
According to our survey, over a third of students polled have no idea who their course reps are.
According to the SU’s “Representation Charter” course reps are supposed to “effectively represent constituents to the university and and the Students’ Union.
Perhaps the subtantial number who aren’t familiar with their course rep reveals that the top-down nature of the system is out of touch with students.
Intolerance
One in six students have witnessed an intolerant act while at the university. The question defined intolerance as racism, homophobia, sexism, and ageism.
Recently there has been a fairly high-profile campaign by the LGBT society about homophobia, and the SU now has a “liberation officer”. Also, the new vice-president for welfare, Kayleigh Taylor, says she wants to work with “diverse groups”.
Bullying
Thankfully the vast majority of students reported that they had not, and don’t anyone who has, been bullied while at university.
There are already options for students being bullied to get some support, such as from Student Services. Also, the university charter takes a hard line on bullying.
But with over 15% of students saying that they had been bullied, there’s still progress to be made.