It’s important that we listen to your feedback so that we understand what is working well and where improvements can be made.

Your feedback is used throughout the year to inform decisions across the university to improve the experience for the BU community. We want to consistently respond to your feedback so that you understand where your voice has made an impact. That is why we’re committed to telling you about the feedback we’ve received, how it has been used and any action that we’ve taken.

Thank you for taking time to feedback. You will have heard about changes directly related to your programme through Brightspace. Below you can also find an overview of some of the other changes we have made during 2024 as a result of your feedback.

Learning and research

Improved programme areas on Brightspace
We launched a new consistent approach to programme areas on Brightspace to make it easier for you to find what you need and know where to go. Programme areas on Brightspace now include:

  • Useful information and contact details for staff in your programme team
  • More information about support for you during your studies including where to find out more and relevant details
  • Student action logs which explain what feedback has been discussed at Student Staff Forums, where your feedback has gone for further action and any responses to feedback from both programme staff and wider BU services
  • A new video which explains the importance of student voice, ways you can feedback and where to can find out about improvements made in response to your feedback.

Standardised assessment briefs
We revised the assessment brief template for all faculties. We worked with students, SUBU Officers, BU faculty and support staff to make sure the change was as inclusive and useful to students as possible. The new standardised template is much shorter and prioritises the assessment task information and what is most relevant to your assessment. We also developed a new section in each unit area on Brightspace which includes information about assessment support – this includes general support for assessments as well as support specific to the unit.

Earlier timetable release
We released your timetable three weeks before the start of the new academic year, a week earlier than usual, and a week earlier than was proposed by the Students' Union. We know that the academic timetable is important to help you plan your life around your studies and we are working towards releasing it even earlier in the future.

New format Student Agreement
Students and SUBU Officers helped us to update the format and style of the Student Agreement to make it easier to read, understand and navigate. These improvements make it clearer to understand what you can expect from us, and what is expected from you when you enrol at BU.

Reduced email traffic
We continue our commitment to reducing the number of emails that you receive in your inboxes. During the 2023/24 academic year we turned off automatic emails that were generated by Brightspace announcements, reducing emails generated by 8-12 per week. We've continued this approach and made improvements to where information lives in Brightspace so that you can easily and consistently find what you need in your unit and programme areas.

Cost of living

Renewal and expansion of cost of living resources
We continue to raise awareness of support and expand resources available to help you with the cost of living, this includes working with the Student Union on joint initiatives. Some examples include:

  • Clearer signposting of hot and cold water taps as well as microwave locations on campus
  • Greater range of food and drink options – including value meal options
  • The launch of free period products in toilets in all buildings.

Facilities

Talbot Campus refurbishment
We have upgraded many of our teaching spaces across Talbot Campus including:

  • Dorset House
    We completed the refurbishment of Dorset House. The space was designed to improve the sense of identity to the Business School (BUBS) as well as upgrade facilities for you to use throughout your studies.
  • Weymouth House
    Weymouth House has been transformed to provide a hub for student activity on its ground floor and additional, bigger and flexible teaching spaces. A student support hub was developed on the third floor and space provided to help postgraduate researchers enhance their learning opportunities and improve their sense of belonging. All this activity created an improved sense of identity for the Faculty of Media and Communication (FMC) on Talbot Campus.
  • Poole House
    Work in Poole House took place on all floors and focused on the provision of additional teaching facilities as well as improvement of the existing ones. Many teams are now co-located to achieve more efficient use of the space which supports greater peer engagement opportunities for postgraduate researchers.

Bournemouth Gateway Building improvements
We have installed more social seating and areas for group work in both the Weston Library and in communal spaces in Bournemouth Gateway Building.

Additional changes

Global Café now at Lansdowne Campus
Following its continued popularity on Talbot Campus and in response to student feedback from Lansdowne based students, Global Café is now running monthly at Bournemouth Gateway Building. This is led by the Faith & Reflection team and supported by SUBU and Student Services.

Placement support
CareersBU and Placement Support teams are now co-located at the Careers Zone at both Talbot and Lansdowne Campus along with the Global Engagement team (for support around overseas work and study). This change was a result of research completed by SUBU at the start of 2024 which highlighted that students felt support from careers and placement teams could sometimes be disjointed. The move closely aligns the teams in one space, so you have easier access to employability support during their degree.