SCAN carried out a survey between 13 December 2010 and 10 January 2011 asking students whether or not they felt they received good value for money from Lancaster University. 34% of the students surveyed felt that their courses represented good value for money, while 53% believed that the other student services provided by the University represented good value for money. However, an overwhelming 90% of Lancaster students felt that if they were paying between £6,000 and £9,000 for their course it would not represent value for money.
60% of the students believe that there is not enough investment in student services and that the University needs to focus more on “the internal rather than the external.” The recent closure of the Nurse Unit has caused an outcry from students who do not understand the reasoning behind its closure. “Why are we closing the Nurse Unit but then getting in iPads in the Learning Zone? It just does not make any sense,” said a FASS undergraduate.
Building work is seen as the University’s main priority for investment by 50% of respondents, with the Management School and public image following with 14% and 9% respectively. Academia was felt to be a priority by just 3.4%.
Other services such as the porters and cross campus events are seen to be positive investments. 15% of students felt that LUSU and the Learning Zone are the best services that the University provides, followed by CEEC (14%) and the library (12%).
“The Learning Zone’s been a big success with students, so that’s one building project that was worth it,” said an English and Creative writing undergraduate.
However, there is a feeling that more should be done to invest in library resources, particularly for specialist subjects, LUSU buildings for sports clubs and societies as well as more contact hours and investment into teaching.
“I am quite satisfied with the infrastructure of the University, but the hours contributed to the lectures are [few], lectures should be more descriptive. I think the university should invest more into teaching,” said an Economics postgraduate.
