Just a quickie - how about creating a team of mystery shoppers for Uni? Instead of relying on questionnaires we could send in students with a pre-defined task. Go and ask in the Library for advice about plagarism, ask in the Student Centre about counselling etc. The information we get back would then serve to ensure that the information that is being given out is correct.
Another version of this would be to have a team of Greenwich students go to a UEL open day and some to Southbank Uni. And vice versa. The students would pose as potential new students and ask questions, pick up literature and have a look around. They could then fill in a report on what happened, how impressed they were, answers to questions etc. This would then help to improve Open Days and other University marketing.
Any ideas?
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Communication - E-mail
The University has always seemed to struggle to communicate with it's students. So this post is hopefully the first in many looking at this issue. Let me know if you have any ideas about this general area.
The University is the only organisation that I have ever dealt with that requires me to use their own e-mail account rather than my personal one. Every time I buy something online, register on a website, set up a bank account or anything else online I can use whatever e-mail address I want. No questions asked.
But with UofG I am constantly told to check the Uni email regularly because they send lots of important stuff to it. Now that claim may be a slight exaggeration as many of the Uni e-mails sent to me are either not meant for me, irrelevant or pointless. But that's for another post.
Back to the point. If the Uni is sending importnat information out then its first aim should be to ensure that that info gets to it's intended recipient. A lot of students check their e-mail religiously but it's usually their personal e-mail that they've had for years. Their Uni account goes unchecked for weeks if checked at all. This is borne out by Uni research that was undertaken a few years ago. It showed that less than half of the student body were checking their Uni e-mail. Now that's a serious problem if you need to get an urgent message out or if you need to inform a lot of students about something complex.
The question that was raised after this research was "How can we get more students to use their Uni e-mail?". This was probably the wrong approach. The question should be WHY are students not using their e-mail. My experience has been that it's for a number of reasons:
E-mails need to be controlled, the amount limited and much of it should be opt-in. If I don't want to receive e-mail about the Careers service or the Choir then I should have the choice. By opting in each department would gain access to a group of students INTERESTED in what it has to say. This would be a lot more effective than the current blunt approach.
I think I've run out of steam on this one - Any ideas?
The University is the only organisation that I have ever dealt with that requires me to use their own e-mail account rather than my personal one. Every time I buy something online, register on a website, set up a bank account or anything else online I can use whatever e-mail address I want. No questions asked.
But with UofG I am constantly told to check the Uni email regularly because they send lots of important stuff to it. Now that claim may be a slight exaggeration as many of the Uni e-mails sent to me are either not meant for me, irrelevant or pointless. But that's for another post.
Back to the point. If the Uni is sending importnat information out then its first aim should be to ensure that that info gets to it's intended recipient. A lot of students check their e-mail religiously but it's usually their personal e-mail that they've had for years. Their Uni account goes unchecked for weeks if checked at all. This is borne out by Uni research that was undertaken a few years ago. It showed that less than half of the student body were checking their Uni e-mail. Now that's a serious problem if you need to get an urgent message out or if you need to inform a lot of students about something complex.
The question that was raised after this research was "How can we get more students to use their Uni e-mail?". This was probably the wrong approach. The question should be WHY are students not using their e-mail. My experience has been that it's for a number of reasons:
- Boredom - They used to then gave up as nothing interesting was ever sent to them.
- Practical - The Uni e-mail system just isn't as good as the free commercially provided systems e.g. Hotmail, Yahoo and Google.
- Too lazy - Can't be bothered to check more than one account.
- Annoyed - The Uni e-mail just gets full of rubbish, most of it isn't even relevant to me.
E-mails need to be controlled, the amount limited and much of it should be opt-in. If I don't want to receive e-mail about the Careers service or the Choir then I should have the choice. By opting in each department would gain access to a group of students INTERESTED in what it has to say. This would be a lot more effective than the current blunt approach.
I think I've run out of steam on this one - Any ideas?
ID cards
So, first idea. Well it's an old one really but I was talking to a new student the other day who reminded me of it.
I was talking to a new student about how he was settling in, how he found registration etc. The usual stuff. And he mentioned the Student ID. He said that he felt really deflated when he finished registering and got given a piece of paper and a bit of self-seal plastic. He went on to bemoan the fact that he was forking out £2,500 a year and they (the Uni) couldn't even afford proper ID cards.
This reminded me over the summer of a girl who was telling a group of us how she was embarrassed when comparing cards with her friends back home. They all had plastic credit-card size ID with colour photos and she whipped out a flimsy dog eared thing that's too big to fit in a wallet properly.
Another student recently remarked that it takes so long to do anything at Greenwich. I can't remember what specifically he was talking about but he used the ID card as an example: "you even have to laminate your own ID card here!".
So from all of this it seems that a new ID card might provide a bit of reward for trudging through registration and instill a bit of pride. I would also add that a card that fits in your wallet would increase convenience and maybe reduce the amount of lost cards (which are a steep £5 to replace).
But the strange thing is we used to have plastic cards. I had one when I did my first degree (1998-2001) and I also had one throughout my time as a full-time employee. I'm guessing that they were phased out around 2003 when the restructuring of Student Services and Registry (to create Student Affairs) happened to cut costs.
So cutting costs is one thing while going through a financial crisis but we're now in the "best financial position ever" (David Wills - Deputy V-C) so we should be able to afford a much more impressive ID card. Anyway this is supposed to be an ideas blog so here's some things we could do:
I was talking to a new student about how he was settling in, how he found registration etc. The usual stuff. And he mentioned the Student ID. He said that he felt really deflated when he finished registering and got given a piece of paper and a bit of self-seal plastic. He went on to bemoan the fact that he was forking out £2,500 a year and they (the Uni) couldn't even afford proper ID cards.
This reminded me over the summer of a girl who was telling a group of us how she was embarrassed when comparing cards with her friends back home. They all had plastic credit-card size ID with colour photos and she whipped out a flimsy dog eared thing that's too big to fit in a wallet properly.
Another student recently remarked that it takes so long to do anything at Greenwich. I can't remember what specifically he was talking about but he used the ID card as an example: "you even have to laminate your own ID card here!".
So from all of this it seems that a new ID card might provide a bit of reward for trudging through registration and instill a bit of pride. I would also add that a card that fits in your wallet would increase convenience and maybe reduce the amount of lost cards (which are a steep £5 to replace).
But the strange thing is we used to have plastic cards. I had one when I did my first degree (1998-2001) and I also had one throughout my time as a full-time employee. I'm guessing that they were phased out around 2003 when the restructuring of Student Services and Registry (to create Student Affairs) happened to cut costs.
So cutting costs is one thing while going through a financial crisis but we're now in the "best financial position ever" (David Wills - Deputy V-C) so we should be able to afford a much more impressive ID card. Anyway this is supposed to be an ideas blog so here's some things we could do:
- Credit-card sized - Most banks, shops and other businesses issue cards like this so why not us? Also fits in your wallet so less chance of losing it.
- Colour photo - Gives us a more professional image, better for identification?
- Integrate with Oyster - Now this is a big ask, but imagine the amount of time it would save students, the University (in the long run) and TfL. Plus it would actually impress students which doesn't happen very often.
- Integrate with the Greenwich Card - This is easier than the Oyster and would again save students time. Would also open up access to more local discounts and encourage healthy living (by increasing use of the council leisure facilities).
- Put a RFID chip in it - no more scanning of cards at security desk, no need to fill in attendance sheets in lectures & seminars. Privacy problems though maybe?
- Make it a pre-paid Visa card as well - would be convenient for International Students yet to set up a bank account as cash from back home could be added to it and then used as a normal cash/debit card. Also a way of delivering hardship funds to students who are over their overdraft limit.
What's it all about?
I'm starting this blog as a way of getting ideas out, discussed, pondered on and maybe even put into action. I love the University of Greenwich which is maybe a little sad but I know that feeling is shared by more than a few other people. But the most common phrase I hear about the Uni is that "its got so much potential!". This usually comes after a chat about why we don't do a certain something here or why we do something badly or in a strange way or why we're so low in the league tables. And it's all true, we do do a lot of things badly, we don't do a lot of very obvious things and we are most definitely are at the bottom of most league tables.
The sad thing is that we do have loads of potential at the Uni (great buildings, great teaching and the most interesting and diverse student body around!) but we don't do anything about it. The reasons I usually hear for this are no money, not enough staff and apathetic students. Broadly true maybe but I've been around here long enough to have seen lots of money frittered away, lots of staff time wasted and lots of enthusiastic students getting slowly disenfranchised.
So this blog is essentially going to be a place where I will post ideas for improving the Uni. I'll post my own and those of others but it doesn't really matter. Ideas can never be owned, the important thing is to try and get a few put into action. However the aim of this blog isn't to plan and instigate projects and proposals it's to discuss and hone ideas, get a bit of support behind them and then spin them off into the University. That's why I hope staff and students will equally comment on the posts. It's amazing what a group of students backed by just a few staff can do so if we can generate some good ideas and a bit of buzz on here then I'm sure it'll happen.
So, onto the ideas...........
The sad thing is that we do have loads of potential at the Uni (great buildings, great teaching and the most interesting and diverse student body around!) but we don't do anything about it. The reasons I usually hear for this are no money, not enough staff and apathetic students. Broadly true maybe but I've been around here long enough to have seen lots of money frittered away, lots of staff time wasted and lots of enthusiastic students getting slowly disenfranchised.
So this blog is essentially going to be a place where I will post ideas for improving the Uni. I'll post my own and those of others but it doesn't really matter. Ideas can never be owned, the important thing is to try and get a few put into action. However the aim of this blog isn't to plan and instigate projects and proposals it's to discuss and hone ideas, get a bit of support behind them and then spin them off into the University. That's why I hope staff and students will equally comment on the posts. It's amazing what a group of students backed by just a few staff can do so if we can generate some good ideas and a bit of buzz on here then I'm sure it'll happen.
So, onto the ideas...........
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