The Gown Student Newspaper at Queen's University Belfast

When you are looking at the service provided by the University look no further then the Student Union. As a management task for my tutorial i examined the set up in the SU. This is what i found

Director- Left replaced with acting director
Deputy director finance- Left p/t person in place
Marketing manager: Left Work being covered by temp
Ents manager: Left work being covered by temp
Democracy manager: Left work being covered by temp
Advice centre: 3 staff members compared to 5+ in other SUs

Now my question to the President and other officers, are you happy wth this? If you are then don't complain when academic members of staff are let go replaced with short term contracts/temps etc.

All this happened before the new cuts are expected, what the hell is going to happen when the University decide that we need to make real cuts.

Exceptional my ass!!!

Last year 2nd and 3rd year law students got a decent bollocking from the department for returning too many negative student surveys. According to a certain member of the department that reflects badly on the university, the value of teaching in Queen's (lolz 'teaching'), resources, and ultimately our degrees and future employability... If you thought that sounds a little like blackmail you’re not the only one. That logic tells you about the mentality some Queens departments have adopted! You get the feeling they love the label of excellence, the supposed prestige, but there is not much else behind it. Smoke and mirrors.

I am a music undergrad. I have to pay extra fees for my instrument lessons, which is the reason I came to Queen's in the first place. They're always going on about how they're in the Russel group...That doesn't mean anything to undergraduates!

There are seveal problems:

1) Not enough money spent/per student. Much money is spent on infrastructure (50 millions for a library when all journals are online! and new research centres which are almost empty).

2) The University does not keep the researchers it has recruited from abroad. Most of them leave...(working conditions need to be questionned).

3) The goal of the university is to make money: it is no longer an academic institution but largely business/industry oriented.

Queens will never get into the top 100 given the overall quality of science research.

It's partly a funding/equipment problem, partly an organizational/bureaucratic problem, but perhaps its mostly down to the patchy undergraduate teaching. QUB can neither produce nor attract enough top quality students.

It will take several years to affect a positive change, but the sooner Queens places focus on high quality teaching, the sooner it will be able to produce and keep high quality graduates in large numbers.

Queens and the VC especially need to learn that you don't become a top 100 university by "trying to become a top 100 university".

You become a top 100 university be being the best and working for your students not for profits.

More money spent on improving the lot of students and less on attempting to from social connections by joining gentleman's clubs and wining and dining toffs.

THAT will get you far

lol i feel like i joined a sinking ship this year

Unsurprising. The amount they spend on students is appalling. Ask any humanities student about access to resources. Lecturers shouldn't have to instruct their students to write letters to the head librarian to beg for books. Maybe this will change things around the place.

Queen's will hate this. Them and their awards and league table loving.

Good. I am graduating this year and am glad to be leaving Queens.

They turned into a busisness over recent years and put buildings and ranking above the students. Todays news is a massive kick in the bollocks for them.

Maybe they should have spent all that frickin money they wasted on a useless library on us instead.

I am actually leaving the University hating it, which is something I would have never dreamt of in 1st year.

£10000 fees and not even in the top 50? Queen's really are having a laugh