What Unis/Colleges are you studying at???

[rasgal]

Hi, just wanted to know what unis mums are studying at and wether they are supportive or not?

hi! im at liverpool JMU, very supportive, even helped me out when i had to move out after having Ds on my year out. where are you studying/ thinking of studying?

Blackpool and the fylde college here. Will be there for the next four years. B&TF are brilliant and very supportive.

I'm at Newcastle University doing a PhD and my department is very supportive.

I am starting at the University of Northampton, and as far as I can see they are very supportive....they have a centre for academic practice, that will help with things like, how to write and essay, how to do a prsentation, does tuturing of all sorts and all that...done a course with CfAP and they were brill.

I've started at Staffordshire University, not a parent but am visually impaired and I've decided my course leader is amazing, totally supportive and has a "you're gonna be fine" attitude. I feel so at ease now

I am at birmingham city uni. I'd say their quite supportive but arent very flexible in the suppport they offer.

I was just curious about other unis!

Oxford Brookes, course starts 29th September so don't know how supportive they'll be. I studied at University of Northampton a few years ago, they were very good.

I am Plymouth reading for a PhD and as an institution they are totally unsupportive but my supervisor is very good!

Hopefully finishing PhD at Cambridge and I don't even understand the question - what do you get if they ARE supportive? What am I missing??

Maybe it's better if I don't know...

I'll be at warwick from sept 09!

I'm at Warwick and the support is there if you need it. They run lots of courses on stuff like essay writing, exam stress and time management. Maybe if I'd taken the courses, I'd get better grades...

Will be studying at Sheffield Hallam on 22/09 - Monday - Yikes!!!

I am at the University of Bath, I am not impressed.

surrey - seem fine. tutors v nice - not sure if exam board will be so supportive... only time will tell lol!

I was at Heriot Watt before I had ds and then went back afterwards. They were not at all supportive and I really struggled. I didn't graduate in the end. Also, ds was only 4m when I went back, I was breast feeding and when I asked if there was anywhere I could express milk for him I was told I could use the toilets. They were a bit crap really.

I'm starting at the University of Canterbury in NZ in Feb. Hopefully they will be a bit more supportive but doing a course I actually like will probably help.

Im at University of Birmingham.

They are fairly supportive, very academic though and care more whether you can harvard reference than whether you are good pricatically.

What are you studying?

I'm at University of Southampton. They are bloody lovely there. Bend over backwards to help you, ime.

Stroud College

I am studying business management.

and wat i meant by being supportive was the uni supporting you academically as well as with being a student parent or mum-to-be...

southampton sounds nice!

I'm still wondering what that means exactly. What kind of support are you thinking of? What does 'support' in this context actually mean? I am genuinely curious.

The university does run some courses, especially IT related. Difficult/impossible to attend though without full-time childcare (which I don't have). Library facilities are very good (although rather complicated as spread out in a gazillion locations). Otherwise it's definitely, see you in three years - sink or swim.

Wrt being a student parent - I'd say it's nuetral: they're not against you but they don't support you either. I used to bf in the dept coffee room but was apalled to hear that my college had asked someone to bf in the toilets (and this is a postgrad college too).

Acinonyx, my experience of Cambridge as a UG external examiner is that they are, as you'd expect, really really good on academic facilities (libraries, 1-1 attention, all that sort of thing) but less good (than non-Oxbridge Russell Group universities, which is where my experience is mostly) on what I'd call generic support, which might be support for people with special needs (I could write an essay on the uselessness of Cambridge's arrangements for exams for people who are ill or have special needs - but I've done that already and have just been told that 'that's the way we do things'), flexibility for people with families and so on. My sense is that newer universities, because they have always targetting the non-traditional student market (I mean mature students, part-time students, that kind of thing), are better again than the Russell Group universities. A lot depends, though, not only on the institution but also on the individual School or Department.

have always targetted

(I am literate, really; honest! )

I am at University of Hertfordshire but studying at West Herts College. So I'm a Uni student studying at college which is a bit strange lol.

Interesting Ellbell. That is definitley my impression too. I think it does also vary a lot across depts. At postgrad level, the 1-1 attention goes out the window too! Can't see what use (expensive) college membership is unless you are single and child free. How exactly am I to use the dining facilities with a baby/toddler when the only access is up a long, narrow, steep staircase and then a self-service area out of sight of the seating?

I wonder if another advantage of the newer universities is that they haven't got the long history of bad habbits to shake off. 'That's the way we do things' basically sums it up.

Can't wait until I try negotiating a 3-day/week postdoc. I went to a meeting recently about negotiating child-friendly hours - but it seems that only the support staff ever actually do this - not the academic staff.

Nothing like a good grumble on a Sunday morning.

Well... we have a post-doc in our department who works part-time, so it is possible.

The 'that's the way we do things' really bugged me. Why have an external examiner then?

Still... let's not grumble too much. It's a wonderful university. Good luck with the PhD. Sounds like you're nearly finished if you're thinking about post-docs.