Longer days? We need your thoughts on potential timetabling changes
Tuesday 16-06-2020 - 15:51
An update from Kate McIntosh, Sam Johnson-Audini and David Evans
How you are taught in Michaelmas 2020 will almost certainly be different. It doesn’t take much imagination to realise that, if social distancing measures are still in place, far fewer students will fit in a teaching room than usual. Given the increased space needed to allow students to be taught in person, the current timetable won’t work.
Solutions to these timetabling issues might include longer working days and teaching less content. These are ideas that the University Executive are actively considering now, and which we can influence to get an outcome for students that causes the least disruption.
With these implications, it’ll be no surprise that as your students’ union, we've been thinking a lot about timetabling lately. We’re working to propose a solution that puts students’ needs at the centre. To do this effectively, we need to make sure we listen to you, and learn about your priorities and how you’d be affected by changes to timetabling.
We’re very clear that what you care about matters. We have said before, when considering the Unbound Education proposals, that when your education, your future, is being discussed, you need to have your say. And we have created a core policy on Covid-19 that is clear about the need for student voice in a time when big changes are happening quickly.
So, with the issue of timetabling on the table, we’d like your help co-creating a proposal that we can suggest to Durham University, which has genuinely considered the needs of students. We’ve already spoken to your academic reps and come up with some initial suggestions, but we know our proposal won’t be complete until we’ve asked you what you think of our suggestions.
Please read through our suggestions here and then take a few minutes to provide your thoughts here.
