alphagamma
Well-Known Forumite
What a depressing sight to see the Beaconside campus and its flagship building closed off. Another monument to failure in Stafford.
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Ex-University
- Thread starter alphagamma
- Start date
Wormella
Well-Known Forumite
Handover to the new owners is scheduled for November I think, we're still getting our last bits and pieces out.
Happy to report that staff and students generally seem happier with the move to Stoke, feeling less isolated and more part of a community - which was the big push for moving.
Happy to report that staff and students generally seem happier with the move to Stoke, feeling less isolated and more part of a community - which was the big push for moving.
kyoto49
Well-Known Forumite
I studied at both campus's and my Stoke experience was far superior so I think it's a positive step. Won't improve the reputation of Staffs Uni amongst potential students, but will at least make those who go there have a better experience.
Am I right in thinking that Wolverhampton Uni is taking over the Octagon? If so, I'm wondering why they think it's a viable Uni campus but Staffs couldn't make it work??
John Marwood
I ♥ cryptic crosswords
Ignoring the fact that the Stafford courses were the best subscribed of all and that the courses were actually for students not the social life of staff
Of course
John Marwood
I ♥ cryptic crosswords
Chinese Academy of Espionage
alphagamma
Well-Known Forumite
(Conspiracy theory alert) Does anyone really know if the company behind the Chinese takeaway is genuine?
John Marwood
I ♥ cryptic crosswords
Genuine like David Cameron - yep
tek-monkey
wanna see my snake?
Pretty sure a condition of sale was that it didn't go to a rival, because they knew a lot of students (myself included) actually preferred Stafford.
photography_bloke
Well-Known Forumite
Much preferred Stafford to Stoke - very much felt part of a community when I was there in 2001-2005
Wormella
Well-Known Forumite
Yeah - I was there at the same time and it was fab - the intervening 10 year had not been kind to the feel of the community for a variety of factors - for both staffs and students the atmosphere was increasingly isolating.
Things don't stay the same and the move has indeed been a positive one for everyone I've talked to.
kyoto49
Well-Known Forumite
@Wormella Just out of interest, do you know if Staffs Uni struggles for student numbers? I ask because not a single y13 at my daughters school is considering Staffs Uni, which I think is rather strange given it's closeness and the savings associated with staying home to study. In fairness none of them are applying to Wolves either, although a few are aplying to Medicine at Keele. Was just wondering really where Staffs gets it's students from if local kids/students appear to avoid it?
I also wonder, with students now being more particular over Uni choice whether they can all survive, the Uni's!!! that is? Some of these institutions really are offering poor quality degrees with incredibly low admission criteria. Given that students pay the same fees and get the same debt no matter pretty much which Uni they attend, I'm quite interested in how the lower performing ones will survive or whether some will close?
I also wonder, with students now being more particular over Uni choice whether they can all survive, the Uni's!!! that is? Some of these institutions really are offering poor quality degrees with incredibly low admission criteria. Given that students pay the same fees and get the same debt no matter pretty much which Uni they attend, I'm quite interested in how the lower performing ones will survive or whether some will close?
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alphagamma
Well-Known Forumite
Why do you have to be so negative all the time? Stafford's really great, you know, and doesn't deserve slagging off.
Wormella
Well-Known Forumite
In games we get a mix, but we get a lot more local Stoke students then we did Stafford students, but you'd expect that with a higher population and a lower socio-economic profile.
Genreally students want to go further afield, and rightly so, so we don't get that many locally - last time I ran the data for Games we had a very national profile but it will change from course to course depending on the national offering.
Basically no clear picture, and it changes from course to course.
kyoto49
Well-Known Forumite
Staffs Uni or Stafford? If you are talking about Staffs Uni, then surely the indicator of a decent Uni is academic achievement and consequent employment success rather than student satisfaction, which is after all, is students with no other university experience saying their Uni is the best!!! Every student thinks their Uni is the best!!
kyoto49
Well-Known Forumite
You're in the games department?? Uni really is easy nowadays
. My question is more how does a Uni like Staffs, that comes pretty low down the rankings as a Uni overall in most league tables, 101st in the good universities guide, 83rd in the guardian table, get enough students to attend? Do you see any struggling universities closing? Plenty of students will surely give the lower ranking Uni's a miss now that they are paying so much to attend? £50K debt for a poor degree from a low ranking Uni is surely not a very attractive proposition to very many?? And given that no uni has closed, how does that even work?
Wormella
Well-Known Forumite
You're in the games department?? Uni really is easy nowadays
My question is more how does a Uni like Staffs, that comes pretty low down the rankings as a Uni overall in most league tables, 101st in the good universities guide, 83rd in the guardian table, get enough students to attend? Do you see any struggling universities closing? Plenty of students will surely give the lower ranking Uni's a miss now that they are paying so much to attend? £50K debt for a poor degree from a low ranking Uni is surely not a very attractive proposition to very many?? And given that no uni has closed, how does that even work?
Actually, we're 69th in the Guardian League Table - all of the work we've done over the last few years is paying off. (and yes, we've already done every joke imaginable about that being 'our favourite position'.)
I suspect what will happen is choice will lesson too - Courses with low student satisfaction ratings from the NSS will go and low recruiting courses will go, it's harder to stand out in a crowded marketplace like Accounting, Engineering or Social Care, easier in a specialised field like Games, Journalism or Cermaics - and making the case for any new ones will be really hard. Most of the students I get at open days don't look at League Tables but do look at uni stats that compare course by course info.
A lot of this is above my pay grade to worry about - I'm concerned about my area (Games and VFX) and our applications are up and our attendance at open days has skyrocketed since moving to the Stoke Campus. We've got new labs, we've got excellent track records of alumni getting jobs in roles they want to go into, we've got great industry links and we've been recognised in a number of ways to be one of the best set of courses of it's kind in the country - Providing I can keep my teaching up to date, inform it with research and keep my students happy I'm pretty sure we'll be ok, whatever is thrown at us.
Uni's do more then undergraduate teaching too (we do lots of MOD contracts, Distance Learning and the new Higher Apprenticeships) - so the picture is not one as black and white as you suggest.
proactive
Enjoying a drop of red.
69th in the League!
And people are prepared to pay £9000 a year plus living expenses + boozing expenses to go to Stoke for that!!!!!!!!!!!
Fùcking madness.
@John Marwood must be right. People are stupid, or in this case certifiable.
And people are prepared to pay £9000 a year plus living expenses + boozing expenses to go to Stoke for that!!!!!!!!!!!
Fùcking madness.
@John Marwood must be right. People are stupid, or in this case certifiable.