You might remember that this term we launched our research into commuting. Well we've wrapped up the first round, and we want to tell you all about it!
We know that life as a commuting student isn’t always plain sailing.
That’s why we launched our commuting students research project a few weeks ago - a project that seeks to better understand the issues faced by our commuting students and find some solutions to those issues. To do this, we ran a handful of focus groups with students who commute in a variety of different ways, quizzing them on their experiences of getting to and from campus, as well as gathering more information on what campus life is like when you don’t live nearby.
What did we find?
Well, that’s a big question to answer in such a small space. We learnt a lot about how people are travelling, how stressful their commute is and what their campus life looks like. Some solutions were floated and we were really happy to see a range of creative approaches being taken. If you want to find out more, make sure to look out for the report that we’ll be publishing in the new year.
What's next?
Firstly, we’ve got more research to do, which means more focus groups! At the start of next term, we’ll be conducting our second round of talks with commuting students to gather more information. This should be our final batch, and once these are done, it’ll be time to start thinking more critically about our findings. This will start at Academic Rep Conference, where a member of our staff team will be holding a workshop on possible solutions to the issue. If you’re interested in the session, make sure you sign up! Once this is all finished, we’ll be writing up a full report of what we’ve found and what we’ll be doing. Hopefully, we’ll have some big recommendations for improvement!
How can I get involved?
You can get involved by emailing us at voice@su.rhul.ac.uk, where you can submit any comments you may have, or get involved with any of our focus groups! Otherwise, keep an eye out for sign ups and watch out for any more updates.
We've also launched a whole new set of focus groups, and you can sign up here!