To gain a better understanding of the
pressures and challenges of day to day student life, the University of Bristol
Students’ Union (UBU) is looking for four postgraduates to research student life
and engagement with the UBU.
Each postgraduate will receive a payment of
£400 for their research and they can choose from the following five topics:
Postgraduate funding (deadline for
application 15 May)
Postgraduate representation (deadline for
application 1 June)
Welfare and tutoring (deadline for
application 1 June)
Student campaigning (deadline for
application 1 June)
International students (deadline for
application 1 June)
The research should utilise qualitative
methods, such as interviews and focus groups, to enhance the quality of the
data and be under 5,000 words. The dissertation on postgraduate student life
should follow the standard format and include the following: literature review,
methodology, findings and discussion.
The findings of the research will feed into
a larger-scale NUS study called Pound in Your Pocket, described in the
following way on the NUS website:
“We want to
investigate the costs faced by students today, and the impact of the complex
range of support measures available to them, finding out if the right people
are getting the right help, in the right way.
“We want to
involve students and students’ unions in carrying out research into
under-examined corners of the financial landscape for students so we can get a
real sense of how financial pressures impact on students in all their
diversity.”
The research will
also help to develop a UBU Postgraduate Hub which will
offer advice to postgraduates on several aspects of student life.
A recent survey of student experiences by
the Times Higher Education magazine placed
the University of Dundee in the top place in terms of 21 criteria including
accommodation, lectures and social life.
Professor
Pete Downes, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Dundee University, said: "There
is nothing more important to a university than the quality of the experience
enjoyed by the students who attend it.”
Did you receive the correct support throughout your course
of study? How did this help you to secure a graduate job?