Student Access to Services (SAS) Project

Access/focus groups in March/April said:

• Needs to be where the students are, prominent
• Students find out most things by word of mouth
• Put all the information on the web, on the main page
• More dedicated 'help staff' are needed

Services

• Over 130 and still counting.

A taste of the complexity this project deals in.

Focus groups reckoned most of what they needed was there but they didn't always know about it. As a newcomer to the university, I've spent a lot of time finding out about what's on offer, looking at overlaps/duplication, grey areas and a few gaps. The main gap identified by focus groups centres on the social: opportunities to meet other students, something for mature students, buddying for international students.

I've also looked at best practice in other institutions and customer service areas, customer relationship management and the new Learning Centre student services mall.

Action

Money was a big issue in focus groups so a team is now working on a money section for the web. This will pull together information from Student Funding, Academic Admin, Students Association and Finance and link to pages from Accommodation, International Students, Disability Advice and the Library (fines!). It's a thematic rather than university department approach and we will seek student views throughout. We aim to go live in September and include online transactions by autumn 2004. It will be a prototype for other similar developments e.g. an essays and assignments section.

Money site