A new campaign entitled ‘Heal the Heath’ is underway to help tackle the various issues surrounding the Heath Campus.
The Heath campus has been under increasing focus recently after gair rhydd published the results of the National Student Satisfaction Survey (NSS) (issue 875), which showed that Medicine students at Cardiff express the least satisfaction with their course in the United Kingdom.
Alongside this, there have been ongoing problems with Medclub and exam administration, which have led to an overall need for change at the Heath Park campus.
The ‘Heal the Heath’ campaign shows a definite attempt to solve some of these issues.
James Wood, the Vice President of the Students’ Union and one of the principal founders of the campaign, has placed a large focus on student involvement in helping to heal the Heath.
Using consultation groups with students, statistics from the NSS, and a new ‘Heath Park Survey’, it is hoped that the main problems that students are facing can be discussed and their issues can be addressed.
These topics will then be discussed at a ‘Heal the Heath Surgery’ and will form the basis of the campaign.
The aim of the ‘surgeries’ is to produce targets which will then be presented to the Sabbatical Officers, as well as key staff at the Union and University in order to effect change.
In this way the campaign is attempting to provide a representative voice for the students at the Heath, and also to mediate between the University and Union on issues ranging from academia to sport and extra-curricular activities.
It is hoped that this will improve communication and ensure that Heath Park students feel involved in the University.
James Wood said: “I feel that, at the moment, healthcare students at the Heath Park campus have an array of problems that have not been listened to by the University, one of the key reasons being that since the 2004 University of Wales College of Medicine and Cardiff University merger they feel they have lost their voice and representation. Heal the Heath is giving this back to them.”
