Actions from PGR-GS Liaison Group meeting – 21 February 2024

Feedback from 24 January meeting:

Accommodation at Cranfield campus update

Only 1 student from the February cohort took up the offer of accommodation.  Emily has asked the Faculty admins to circulate an email about the Cranfield accommodation possibility and has posted in the PGR Community Team. 

Action: Reps please advise if you know of anywhere in your area it would be especially good to post.

Items from FASS raised at previous meeting:

How is The OU planning to adapt to the fundamental changes expected to be brought about by Artificial General Intelligence? – Update: Lindsay is connecting the student with Nicoleta Tipi.

Challenges with the thesis submission/viva stage of the student journey - Lindsay has answered the query about the viva

Agenda items

GS items

PGRS Liaison Group Rep role – are reps happy with what the description contains?

Query as to how Reps should reach out to PGRS – there is no particular recommended way, but it’s good for Graduate School to know the best ways of reaching out in faculties so that we can keep that method if a substitute takes over.

Action: Ellie to check with International and part-time students whether they are happy for her to share their details with their reps.  Ellie will also reach out to all new starters.  Graduate School would like feedback on best way to settle people in / ease the transition.

Action: Please can reps reflect on Team Guidelines and be ready to discuss whether they hit the right balance between allowing community discussion and making safe spaces to discuss the doctoral journey.  

PRES Actions – update

There are now draft faculty actions for All-In days etc.  This went to RDC and is the next step towards getting them signed off in faculties.  This was discussed at RDC and will be confirmed and finalised.

Action: PGRS Reps to remind their faculties that our PGR Community Organisers are organising a Crafternoon on 14 March to mark University Mental Health Day, including a Darn Right! Workshop to mend clothing.      

Items relating to Estates

Flood alerts – request that we get an email from Estates when parts of the campus flood.

Estates responded that they can and will put a message on the Staff Emergency Line but had a couple of additional points:-

1. All students should make sure that their car registration numbers are registered on the OU’s vehicle database as in the last flood Security were unable to trace some of the vehicle owners as their vehicles were not registered on this database. To add your vehicle to this database please email security ([email protected] ) and they will add your vehicle to the database.

2. Putting a message on the staff Emergency Line still requires staff to check the message themselves, the Emergency Line number can be found on the back of OU ID card. 

Action: Emily will feed back to Estates that it’s unlikely that PGRS will ring the emergency line and to ask whether something else would be possible.

Bike Sheds - Are there plans to expand e-bike charging facilities to more bike sheds?

Estates say that a roll-out is underway. 

Action: Emily to find out where they will be locating the new ones and see if we can potentially feed into the plan.  The bike shed behind Berrill would be the best-placed.

Gym - Can the university establish a fitness/gym facility in the OU campus for students and staff free of charge? 

Estates advise that a review has been undertaken in the past, resulting in the many regulatory H&S / Security / Equipment considerations.  There is also a question of who would manage the gym.  In addition, given the uncertainty of the outcomes related to Campus 2030 activities, investing in this type of set-up at present is unlikely to be considered, as is likely to be money not best spent at present.

Estates has however secured access to discounted gym membership fees at Kents Hill gym across the road from campus, details are as below:

Nuffield Health, Kents Hill Park, Timbold Drive, Kents Hill, MK7 6BS     

Tel: 01908358383

Contact: Adam Boardman

N.B. A full written response from Estates is available to read separately from these actions.

Progress Reviews

There is much confusion about progress reviews, when they should be done, and in what form.  Some people are not being able to re-register or get funding until Progress Review.

Progress reviews are annual and are due by the anniversary of your registration.  There is also informal progress reporting 5 months after you start.  STEM also requires a report after 6 months in paper form, not on PGRM.

Action: Graduate School - a form which was on the GSN has gone to Sarah Sherlock for modification – this needs to be re-titled ‘Progress Review for STEM students’.

Action: Graduate School to take this away and discuss with Faculty Directors and Research Degrees and report back.

Ellie advised that re-registration is contingent on your progress review being satisfactory.  For funded students they will need to have paid. Tier 4 students need to have done their annual check before re-registration is confirmed.  Not everyone is aware that they need to re-register.  Also, not everyone got notification they had re-registered.  Action: Ellie will take back to Cayuse (the Developer).

Action: Graduate School - Request for this to be communicated clearly with its importance highlighted, particularly for part-timers who need to plan in advance to fit it in.

Action: PGRS need to email PGRM at [email protected] - we need to know if there are issues, so that we have real examples for developers.

Action: Ellie to check the date of Rebecca’s formal Progress Review as 2025 might be correct. is. 

Regulations for recording training sessions

Carmel Collins has advised that all hybrid training workshops are recorded and there is an option to stop the recording if any information should not be shared. Recordings should be available within 24 hours and we aim to add a link to the Teams chat in the relevant workshop. In-person events are not usually recorded as the emphasis is on face-to-face discussion.  PGR students can access presentations and recordings by training title in the GS Training channel. If any student cannot access anything please [email protected]  in the channel.

Action: PGRS to feed-back if they can’t find a recording.

Action: Helen & Jude to feedback to Faculties that PGRS would like to access recordings of their training sessions.

What is the support available for full time students who have childcare responsibilities?

The Carers Fund is for PGRS who are formally caring for a family member, e.g. an adult child or children with disabilities or a parent, partner or sibling – it’s not set up for school-age or pre-school children, which is why the request wasn’t approved.  The Carers Fund was set up by CareTech foundation so payments have to align with their criteria.

For full-time funded students, study breaks are not permitted for childcare.  But they are eligible to apply for the Dependents Fund, which would cover any dependent.  The Student Assistance Fund is for any unexpected financial hardship.  It would be case dependent. 

For day-to-day childcare issues, a student can take annual leave.  If a carer or a dependent is unwell, a  study break would usually be approved.

An FBL student applied for ‘study related’ childcare costs.  This is a fund that the University administers.  The student should have been signposted to dependents fund.

Action: Iyanu – Please report back to the student that if they are prepared to give their name, the Graduate School can look into it.  Please ask the student to email [email protected]

Action: Graduate School check the student’s case and feed back to the group next time. 

Action: Ellie to provide a written response to the student.  If this is impacting students’ health, that is grounds for a study break.

Action:  Ellie to signpost additional support to the student such as the Mulberry Bear nursery which is a local (on-campus) nursery which is reasonably priced.    

Action: Emily to circulate info on PHD parenting advice. 

The Graduate School is happy to support any group that PGRS wish to set-up via a community channel or as a WhatsApp group

Can PGRs keep their laptop after submission of thesis even if a token has to be paid?

This question has arisen previously and the answer was ‘no’.  We are providing OU managed lap-tops which would need wiping.  Action: Emily will try and get some clarification

Agenda item: Issues with awareness of the need to re-register for those on a February->January cycle.  There were several part-timers who were invoiced for fees but were unaware of the need to re-register (as it was the first time of doing this). 

Action:  Graduate School will send written updates for things we didn’t get to during the meeting.

Appendix: Estates responses to PGR queries

Q: Flood alerts – can we get an email when part of the campus begins to flood? A student found that her car was already surrounded by water when she left her building, and surely Estates would have known about that from their CCTV/patrols? Also, to inform us before we travel in to campus, as some people use routes (especially from the west side of campus) that become inaccessible when the river bursts its banks.

Yes, we can and will put a message on the Staff Emergency Line, no problem. Just a couple of additional points -

1. All students should make sure that their car registration numbers are registered on the OU’s vehicle database as in the last flood Security were unable to trace some of the vehicle owners as their vehicles were not registered on this database. To add your vehicle to this database please email security ([email protected]) and they will add your vehicle to the database.
2. Putting a message on the staff Emergency Line still requires staff to check the message themselves, the Emergency Line number can be found on the back of OU ID card.
3. Additional Links to information sources on flooding include:

Met Office - https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/forecast/gcpxb5m7d#?nearestTo=MK7%20(United%20Kingdom)&date=2024-02-19

Caldecotte (Milton Keynes) weather. Caldecotte 7-day weather forecast including weather warnings, temperature, rain, wind, visibility, humidity and UV. www.metoffice.gov.uk      

Flood Alerts - https://check-for-flooding.service.gov.uk/alerts-and-warnings?q=MK7%206AA

Please bear in mind that accessing these links won’t tell student when the Ring Road is flooded.

4. The OU has a SMS messaging systems which is used in the event of an emergency to personal life, the use of this system is managed and controlled by IT with messaging activities come at a significant cost to the OU. Consideration may need to be given to approaching IT should this facility be required as and when a possibility of flooding occurs.

Students are reminded to keep in mind that as and when heavy rain occurs in the Milton Keynes area, University grounds (football pitch area) are very likely to flood given the positioning of the river. Also, it should be noted that flood control mechanisms are outside of the control of the OU so students should check and review their parking decisions / activities whenever heavy rain takes place across the region.

Q: Ebike Charge Point- Are there plans to expand e-bike charging facilities to more bike sheds, given that the only bike shed with charging facilities is a tiny one with space for only about 6 bikes, and is often full, and that’s only going to become more of a problem going into summer. Estates won’t let us charge batteries in campus buildings so have furnished the bike shed that they use with facilities, it would be nice to get this rolled out to at least one bigger bike shed.

Yes, a roll-out of additional charge points is underway with investigations taking place to provide these facilities in the most appropriate cycle shelters based on office closure decisions and staff occupancy levels. Contractor and supplier engagement will commence shortly. The current shelter was a trial to determine utilisation, the re-charge lockers as not being fully utilised (even if cycle spaces are full) at present so students are encouraged to use the re-charge lockers where possible.

Q: Gym Facilities: Can the university establish a fitness/gym facility in the OU campus for students and staff free of charge?  The university has so much space and buildings for such a facility.

This is not the first time that we have been asked by the students to respond to this request. A review has been undertaken in the past resulting in the many regulatory H&S / Security / Equipment Management etc. issues for consideration.

In addition, H&S comments and considerations related to the in-house gym request are:

There is a question of who would manage the gym. Included is the HSE link providing some basic information for the University and its responsibilities should the decision be taken to develop such a facility.

              Health and safety leisure activities: Leisure activities (hse.gov.uk)

Further H&S issues associated with this request are more about OU managing the facility responsibilities when providing this type of facility (gym equipment installations and user considerations), these include:

1. User First Aid provisions,
2. Communications in event of an accident,
3. Personal safety and security. 
4. Specific ventilation, 
5. User fitness assessments before given access – how would the potential risk of individuals over-extending themselves be assessed and managed? 
6. Some kind of medical questionnaire,
7. Some kind of induction process by a competent person,
8. Regular maintenance of equipment by a competent person,
9. Regular facility and equipment reviews,
10. Secure access to ensure only authorised user access,
11. Insurers advice and protection cover

In addition, given the uncertainty of the outcomes related to Campus 2030 activities, investing in this type of set-up at present is unlikely to be considered as is likely to be money not best spent at present.

We have however, secured access to discounted gym membership fees at Kents Hill gym across the road from campus, details are as below:

Nuffield Health, Kents Hill Park

Timbold Drive, Kents Hill, MK7 6BS      

Tel: 01908358383           Contact: Adam Boardman

Fitness centre usage is accessible to all employed OU staff. An in-date employment ID is required to redeem a 30% membership discount. The fee is available for staff only and not partners. Failure to present ID will result in no membership offerings being given.

General Comments from the H&S team are that students are reminded that they will need to complete a risk assessment for the Crafternoon on 14th March.  Events team may already be supporting on this.

Basic H&S attendance issues remain the same i.e. risks associated with lone working which are potentially heightened due to the activity.   

Q: Transport Services / Costs: PG research students are required to attend campus a couple of days a week and are frustrated by the current difficulty getting to campus. Less regular attendees, e.g., part-time PG research students and supervisors are also reporting the expense of trips to/from the train station. Please can you send me some responses by next Tuesday?

Bus Services: MK Council took a decision to discontinue the provision of a large number of bus services due to low occupancy levels and extensive losses being incurred. MKC have implemented a replacement service called MK Connect which operates at a higher cost than bus services but lower than that of a taxi service. The OU has debated this decision at-length, but MKC are adamant that the bus services will not be re-instated as the savings far outweigh the cost of MK Connect to the Council.

The OU has negotiated changes to the current X4/X40 bus service which now runs daily through campus. We also have the F77/F70 which operate through our campus. We have a further meeting scheduled with Arriva shortly with the hope of adding additional OU services to their bus service routes. We will keep you informed on any developments.

If it is possible, could we get an indication from the PGR students on the possible number of students looking for a bus service and the areas from which travel would take place? This would enable us to provide additional justification for changes to their current routes. It should be noted that bus companies will not run services without adequate footfall / passenger movements. We have asked our service provider to track and monitor the current usage of the X4/X40 service, the results are expected to be exceptionally low (<8 per day therefore a non-viable option for the service provider).

Fee structures are out of the control of the OU. Bus Companies offer discounts to students under 18 years of age but not to any other students. There is however a current scheme which means that Milton Keynes is part of the Government £2 price cap scheme which has been extended until December 2024. This scheme is to protect vital bus services people rely on for work, education, medical appointments and shopping.

The Ou has performed an extensive review of bus service travel routes and the possibility of supporting our students through the provision of a bespoke bus service. The costs associated with the proposed services are extortionate and financially unviable for the OU to sustain.

I am happy to attend all future Town Hall events, please send me an invite.