The Institute Visits

In the last week, visits were paid to both the Shakespeare and Ironbridge Institutes on my behalf by the VPDR. Much as I wanted to go myself, lecture timetables did not facilitate it. My thanks go out to Hannah for her work here.

Nonetheless, important feedback was gathered from both visits, which I (with assistance from the whole Executive committee) shall very shortly be looking into. Even better than that, on Friday the Guild received a reciprocal visit from a number of Shakespeare Institute PhD students. I took this opportunity to speak with a number of them and hear their concerns. Foremost among these was the relative isolation the face through being at the Institute. The limited rail services between Stratford and the main campus do not make it easy for them to access the facilities here - access which is essential for their projects.

In the past, a shuttle bus service existed which helped someway towards alleviating this issue. Now this no longer exists leaving these students with little alternative but to limit their access to the main campus or pay the high prices for overnight hotel rooms in the city. When one considers that the Postgrads at the Shakespeare Institute are paying around £9500 in fees, plus up to £800 a month for accommodation, it seems only fair that they should demand value for money. It is my belief that the university should step in to help solve some of these issues. The University of Birmingham prides itself as a top university, and while there is no denying its academic status, some would argue that more could be done to assist those postgrads who have made the commitment to study at the Shakespeare Institute.

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On a related note, the rest of the Executive committee shall now be subject to a gentle persuasion from myself and the VPDR, with the intention of getting them all to visit these institutes.

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(The visits to the Shakespeare and Ironbridge Institutes were carried out by the VPDR on the 6th and 8th of October respectively)