REF:66-2003-6706212 - Social opportunities for mature students

Your comment: I'm not really sure who to present this to but I wanted to share my experience as a first year mature student (over 40). It's lonely! I am surrounded by groups of youngsters who know each other well and have very different priorities to me. I live off campus and am not interested in joining the groups and societies, or if I am interested I am unable to because of childcare. There is no mature student society anyway and I have considered starting one but again... Time! Were you able to wave a magic wand, what I would love is a 'mature student lounge' - a space where anyone is welcome but would perhaps only appeal to those of us who appreciate the quiet.. People who understand about juggling kids/mortgages with going back to school. Comfy chairs where you are just as likely to nap as read (and can snore without judgement) because you've been up since 5 for a reason other than alcohol. Discussions with people who are passionate and obsessed with their study. Please do not read this as a complaint against the typical student, rather a gap in the market for those of us who don't fit into the mould. I'm sure there are many ways to make my experiences here more sociable and I am working independently towards that, I just thought in the meantime it might be helpful to know how I feel (although I could be the only one!) 

Our response:

Thanks for your feedback, your comments are useful and welcomed. I accept and take on board your comments around a student-led society unfortunately Mature Student and Student Parent type groups as two examples have proved challenging to sustain. We have had individuals willing to lead these however availability and time are often a delicate balance and as result we’ve increasingly tried to find groups of students rather than rely on one person to initiate and drive interest in it but also attract other such students which can be a challenge. We continue to encourage students interested to come forward and will work with those students as much as possible to start and maintain a group – to drive this we do organise meet and greet sessions a couple of times a year to initially bring students who identify as mature or student parent to come forward and self-organise where willing with support. In relation to a specific space in terms of current spaces we have recently added to the Union Building additional seating in the Picturehouse designed to be a more intimate space for students and we’ve notably seen different types of students than would be found in other spaces taking advantage of this, particularly mature and postgraduate students. With regards to a specific space it would be interesting whether this is something that other students in similar circumstances would like, it’s not something that has been suggested as far as I am aware but I will feed it back to the relevant officers to consider and gather more feedback on.