Leeds
Met Equals |
Friday 5 September.
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Internal reflection on how to improve our students’ experience needs to be balanced with external insights, so that we are constantly learning from best practice in other universities, at home and abroad. Visiting the Federal University of Surrey yesterday enabled me to glimpse a special partnership in action. Surrey and Roehampton retain their separate identities while sharing a number of new initiatives, including the Ethics centre which was hosting its first international conference. Such a partnership, if it opens up opportunities for collaborative teaching or research, adding value to students or staff, will soon draw in more institutions.
Please let me know what we can learn, at all levels, from your visits to other universities. It matters whether Roehampton’s directions to campus are accurate (yes), whether the people in their security lodge late at night knew what was happening (yes), whether it was easy to follow campus signage in the dark to room D007b (a challenge) and whether their student accommodation has en-suite facilities (no, if we mean a bathroom; yes, if we mean an internet connection). In this case, the quality of their teaching rooms, modelled on the look and performance standards of London’s Barbican arts centre, was outstanding.
Professor Simon Lee, Vice-Chancellor, vc@leedsmet.ac.uk.
