Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
University staff common room

This board is for university-based professionals. Find discussions about A Levels and universities on our Further education forum.

Original poster

University Laptop?

38 replies

TalbotAMan · 13/07/2020 20:02

Hi

I was wondering if people who are trying to work from home could say what kind of university issued laptop they have, and if it doesn't threaten to identify, the type of university and discipline you are in.

I'm in an urban post-92 law department and I have a 2017 Lenovo T470 'academic special' (which means that it looks like a T470 on the outside but actually has the insides of the 2016 T460), which is so locked down that it gets close to being unusable.

OP posts:
GCAcademic · 13/07/2020 20:53

I don’t think anyone in my department (RG humanities Dept) apart from the admin staff has been issued with a university laptop. We’re all using our own laptops and desktops. I bought a webcam at the start of lockdown so that I could teach online and they refused to reimburse me. I’m minded to say I won’t be able to do any online teaching next year as I don’t have the equipment.

MedSchoolRat · 13/07/2020 23:59

2013 manufactured Toshiba, upgraded but I think that's irrelevant bc I brought my entire desktop PC & monitors home or I would have found WFH impossible. I don't expect to be welcome back in office before mid 2021.

I don't have a webcam bc I refuse to buy one from my own pocket :)

I'm an RA at Q1 Uni that is not RG, mostly working in public health, mostly covid.

impostersyndrome · 14/07/2020 05:52

I’m using my own desktop, but university has paid for webcam and headset, with the only caveat that I get approval before ordering, then claiming back.

dwnldft · 14/07/2020 09:08

Senior academic, very high ranked university. IT equipment is either funded by research grants or the individual. University support for IT equipment for academics is very basic - but professional staff are often seen with brand new Surface Pros etc.

Bellesavage · 14/07/2020 09:12

My personal laptop broke and I was told uni wouldn't provide one so have had to buy my own. Stupid really as my work pc sits in my office gathering dust but we've been told we cannot enter the building even to collect things.

HaloeVera · 14/07/2020 10:39

no PC or any equipment provided, despite it being a crucial tool of the job.

StuffThem · 14/07/2020 10:44

I bought a webcam at the start of lockdown so that I could teach online and they refused to reimburse me. I’m minded to say I won’t be able to do any online

My god that's disgusting!

This may not be allowed, but I have a old (to me) plug in webcam that's fairly useless to me now i have a laptop with one. Its not the highest of resolutions but does the job - happy to post it to anybody who needs one.

Original poster
TalbotAMan · 14/07/2020 13:32

And I thought we were bad!

My university replaced desktops with laptops about 8 years ago. The idea was that we would be able to take them to class and to meetings. They also gave us monitors and keyboards and mice to plug into when we were at our desks. Apparently a number of colleagues grabbed their monitors and took them home when lockdown started but as I am in the flu-jab group I decided that a trip in for that wasn't worth the risk. So supplementing with some of my personal stuff that I have acquired over the years and using my home computer I can get by. It's not great. The reason I started this thread was because I was thinking about next year and coming to the conclusion that if we have to do online and remote teaching what I (and my direct colleagues) have isn't good enough.

Little did I know . . .

[Next thread: the horrors of moodle]

OP posts:
GCAcademic · 14/07/2020 13:54

@dwnldft

Senior academic, very high ranked university. IT equipment is either funded by research grants or the individual. University support for IT equipment for academics is very basic - but professional staff are often seen with brand new Surface Pros etc.
Don’t get me started on this. A few years ago all our university committees went paperless. The secretariat decided we could use our laptops and iPads to view the papers. It was pointed out to them that while professional services staff were given laptops and iPads, the rest of us weren’t. Tumbleweed . .
Deianira · 14/07/2020 14:06

My university did not and will not provide laptops to academics, although some have now had permission to take home their office desktops at least, and keyboards or mice. They are also currently refusing to pay for printing costs and things like webcams or headsets.

CatandtheFiddle · 14/07/2020 14:24

IT equipment is either funded by research grants or the individual. University support for IT equipment for academics is very basic - but professional staff are often seen with brand new Surface Pros etc.

Ditto (and alsosenior at top research place, in humanities).

I have always used Apple Macs, and wanted to use my research grant to buy a new Mac Air, but was told I couldn't by university IT - having told me I just had to say what I wanted. They specced out a MacBook Pro at 2.5 times the cost we had written into the grant. Bastards, frankly. They were uncontactable and kept hassling me for a purchase code. No discussion. no conversation.

It was only last week (after teaching online since mid_march) that we were contacted to be asked about a VERY limited range of equipment. No checking in about what we had.

Bastards basically.

dwnldft · 14/07/2020 14:33

Academics working on modelling, simulations, analysis aren't provided with any reasonable computer equipment (but obviously required for their work). Professional services staff often have top of the range iPad Pros, Surfaces etc & are now complaining heavily about personally paying for printing costs at home, so university print centre will deliver documents to them.

Similar issues about IT services specifying what can and can't be bought with external grants.

MarieG10 · 14/07/2020 14:36

@CatandtheFiddle

They specced out a MacBook Pro at 2.5 times the cost we had written into the grant. Bastards, frankly.

Daily normal really. The costs from IT departments usually carry a charge for the ongoing maintenance and support of the laptop being connected to the network and other software they install. Network charges can be included.

When I used to be in similar work, ever computer carried and annual £1000 charge. IT got fed up of the argument that I could buy it for a one off £500 and said yes fine but you can't connect to the work network

AlwaysColdHands · 14/07/2020 20:26

A few years ago Surface Pros were rolled out to nearly all academic staff, and I think most Professional Services too.
We moved towards using Teams quite a lot last year too.
Either a good IT strategy or a crystal ball at my place.
Post 92

Bingobango69 · 14/07/2020 20:33

Hi-spec Dell laptop, bought by my faculty (RG) - very fortunate. It seems to be uni policy to replace desktops with laptops connected to large monitors, no doubt to have encouraged hot desking. Hugely grateful that policy was put in place a year ago - and to be fair the faculty have always been good at providing IT equipment where required.

OchonAgusOchonO · 14/07/2020 20:40

Can I ask those of you who don't have laptops issued, how you manage normal teaching? I'm in an Irish university and it's standard for us all to use laptops in the classroom for teaching. All lecture halls, labs, classrooms etc are equipped with projectors at a minimum. We can either plug in our own laptops or use the built in computer with a memory stick but most use their university issued laptop.

I have a MacBook pro but that's a higher spec than normal. The university provides fairly basic laptops but because we're a vaguely techie discipline, we top it up with departmental funds. we have been told if we need anything to facilitate wfh, to price it and submit for approval through the normal channels.

I'm currently on sabbatical (crap timing) so I don't have to teach remotely until semester 2 (excellent timing). Hopefully we'll be back to physical teaching by then.

GCAcademic · 14/07/2020 21:48

Can I ask those of you who don't have laptops issued, how you manage normal teaching? I'm in an Irish university and it's standard for us all to use laptops in the classroom for teaching. All lecture halls, labs, classrooms etc are equipped with projectors at a minimum. We can either plug in our own laptops or use the built in computer with a memory stick but most use their university issued laptop.

All teaching rooms have a desktop PC. You can either access your files from the network or use a memory stick.

missingmyholidays · 14/07/2020 22:03

We have had nothing. All using our own equipment which varies enormously and I have no idea how some colleagues will manage in the new academic year. We can request a very cheap document camera to 'teach' with, but that assumes we have a laptop to connect it to in the first place. Not allowed to access our offices and wouldn't be allowed to borrow desktops even if we were. Yet expected to work around the clock helping outgoing students whose exams were significantly disrupted and then overhaul all teaching materials in time for the new year. Very unimpressed.

parietal · 14/07/2020 22:11

As above, almost all our computers are bought on grants, not by the university. PhD students can get a refurbished basic desktop at the start of their PhD. Anything better has to come from the supervisors grant. So I bought 2 new laptops for my 2 PhD students just before lockdown. Otherwise they wouldn't be able to do anything

Original poster
TalbotAMan · 14/07/2020 22:25

Bingobango69

We got a presentation on the delights of hot desking last year.

The idea seems to have gone remarkably quiet.

I'm only part-time now, but the day I lose my half share of a proper office with a door that shuts and a desk that is exclusively mine is the day I depart.

OP posts:
Bingobango69 · 14/07/2020 22:48

Yeah, same here - though hot-desking was more for PS colleagues, little chance of academics putting up with it. I had heard a rumour that our Estates team had decided that if they oversaw any new buildings then they would only have shared offices. I suspect that plan has gone the way of the dodo.

dwnldft · 15/07/2020 08:32

Can I ask those of you who don't have laptops issued, how you manage normal teaching?

The same way we manage all the rest of the work - by buying our own IT equipment. There are desktops in the teaching rooms, but they are old and slow.

OchonAgusOchonO · 15/07/2020 09:14

@dwnldft - that's appalling. And the problem is, management rely on the fact we have the good of our students at heart and will do what's best for them.

RandomMess · 15/07/2020 09:16

We have Lenovo Thinkpads I just got a new one so T490 so pretty basic.

SueEllenMishke · 15/07/2020 09:39

Both me and DH work for different universities but but have Lenovo ThinkPads. They've worked fine.