Many of us have faced the struggle of having a lecture, seminar or really, unfortunately, an exam, on the Kings Meadow Campus (KMC). The campus is situated on the edge of Dunkirk, making it approximately a thirty-minute walk for those living either on University Park Campus, Jubilee Campus or the Lenton student area. The transport system is limited, unlike that connecting students’ houses in Lenton to University Park or Jubilee. I got into contact with our SU Education Officer, Cassie O’Boyle, who has been investigating how to possibly bring about some change…
Why did you start looking into the problems of getting to KMC campus?
I started gathering feedback when a student messaged me on Facebook to say their friend had not been able to get to KMC on the hopper bus because it was too busy and there was no double-decker available.
Have you experienced these problems yourself?
I graduated in 2017 and I was lucky enough not to have any exams over at KMC so no!
Is this investigation surrounding both course contact hours and having exams on KMC?
This is really just me gathering feedback from students so that I can let student services know there have been some issues for some students being able to get over to KMC during the exam season.
How are students getting to KMC if they have to get there?
Some exams/days have had double-decker buses put on by student services to get people over to KMC so that is great. Other times people have got a small hopper bus or they have had to walk. It seems this has mainly been a problem from UP to KMC rather than the other campuses because they are very aware of a need for buses to come from SB, especially for 9 am exams because of the distance.
Is there anything that the University can do to help solve this problem?
I think at the moment just listening to the feedback that we are able to give the University so that in the next exam period they know about where we have had problems before. Of course, there is potential for more double-decker buses to be put on but I think the University needs to assess the scale of the problem before we do that!
Charlotte Hegley
Follow Cassie on Facebook to keep up to date with the work he has planned during the academic year.
