In response to our report handed to the Vice Chancellor on the ‘Carnival Against the Cuts’ which contained feedback from students and a set of recommendations, a meeting was set up to discuss a number of resolutions. The points below outline the discussion and we would like your comments on this so we can once again report back to the University.

Please forward any comments or feedback to: president-ussu@salford.ac.uk

The responses have been grouped under each of the recommendations

Institution-wide findings
An area we had focused on within the report suggested that the changes were being made too quickly. This resulted in insufficient time to ensure that the necessary support was put in place.

Response: The VC’s response was that the changes were fast but unavoidable as changes to Student Number Control meant that there would be a reduction of students which meant fewer staff would be required to deliver programmes. It can also be noted that there is currently a 14% reduction in applications on last year at this University (9% nationally).

Monitoring change will largely be led by student feedback meaning there will be a greater than ever need for students to get their feedback to their reps and subsequently through Staff Student Committee meetings.

Health and Social Care

Social Work

It was mentioned that issues with the selection of new staff will be looked into. It was also highlighted that the government have now stated students have to have a Postgraduate qualification before they can register as a social worker. This also means that current teaching staff will all need to undertake Postgraduate study in order to be allowed to continue to teach, which wasn’t previously the case, as many of the tutors have come from the workplace.

Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences

Recommendations

• Consult students on changes across the School on a programme by programme basis.

Response: Musicians will have their equipment replaced to reflect the new brand as requested. Students are advised to let the Students’ Union know if they haven’t had them replaced.

Italian – School of Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences

Recommendations

• Ensure full support for current students until the end of their course, including retaining teaching staff.
• Consider offering Italian language options for University wide languages programme style teaching with options of post A-Level and beginner courses.

Response: Assurances were made that teaching on Italian courses would be to the best standard possible with reps encouraged to point out where standards are slipping. It was also recognized that for those staff whose job will be ending in the next couple of years will most likely be looking elsewhere, so cover may be required to ensure that the teaching on these courses continues. Additionally, it was pointed out that language recruitment is down again nationally which led to a discussion about whether a campaign could be led to ensure the continuation of the teaching of languages across the country.

There was a lengthy conversation around the relevance of modern languages and the provision of Italian on University Wide Languages Programme but no concrete commitment to ensure it is a definite option for students.

School of Art & Design

Recommendations

• Conduct a thorough consultation of current students on a programmme by programme basis.
• Extend the proposed deadline for implementation, to allow time for full consultation to take place.
• Issue assurances to students that their experience will not suffer as a result of changes.

Response: Art and Design students have had consultation as we requested. This has led to a programme being designed for the future to suit students’ needs (likely to be Media Arts and Photography focused). In the meantime Visual Arts students who are currently on their courses should remain unaffected.

The course in Media Art was already being developed but students were involved in that process. The consultation with Visual Arts students was to ensure students were happy that much of the visual arts content would remain in the new course.

Consultation is still ongoing with students in MA Contemporary Fine Art though resolutions are currently inconclusive.

Demonstrators and Technicians across various schools

Recommendations

• Permit affected staff sufficient time to produce alternative plans or solutions to avoid cuts in resource. A good example of this happening already is in MMP where the Wardrobe Staff are creating a business plan
• Ensure reductions in technicians do not affect the frequency and quality of practical work and laboratory based classes.

Response: Technicians across the University have been affected by changes. Prosthetics and Orthotics (P+O) students will keep the same number of technicians though the personnel will change as some staff members have already decided to leave. Additionally, fundraising is taking place by the School of Health Sciences and the Blatchford family to improve facilities for students on P+O.

Art and Design technicians are now staying on reduced hours. During consultation with the Trade Unions the staff came up with a plan for themselves and it was accepted so the individual skills and expertise of each specialized technician will be retained.

Housing – Environment and Life Sciences

Recommendations

• Ensure full support for current students until the end of their course, including retaining teaching staff.
• Create the option for foundation students to complete their BSc at Salford.

Response: Housing students will have the option of completing their course with an additional staff member included on the original plan. They will also be able to complete a top-up in a different guise at either a different university or a year later at Salford (in what is likely to be Human Geography), whilst keeping the same fee level. The University has agreed that if students decide to take their top up at another institution which would charge a higher fee then the institution would cover the difference in cost for those students.

Postgraduate Research students

Recommendation
• Ensure support for postgraduate research students is continually improved and not negatively impacted by the cuts.

Response: It was discussed that where there was a lack of support it should be seen on a case by case basis. It was also highlighted that representation of Pgr’s wasn’t as good as it could be.

Further Changes

• To accept that lessons need to be learnt from the lack of communication up to this point and further announcements to students must be prompt and clear.

Response: Communication was recognized as a weak area for the University particularly on larger issues, which has led to the Vice Chancellor setting up a conference at the start of the new academic year where Heads of Schools and Directors from various University departments will meet to discuss their plans for the year. The VC suggested School reps are invited to the one day conference to meet Head of Schools and key people in management. We also suggested that the College PGR Reps come along so there needs to be a specific PG focus too, not all focused on the UG or PGT experience. This provides a good opportunity for us to work proactively to make sure students are prepared should they be affected in any way by the change.