Coronavirus Information
During the governments update on the evening of 18 March, there was a clear instruction that educational organisations should remain open to support our most vulnerable students and the children of key workers.
Our students success and welfare are at the heart of everything we do, therefore we continue to provide support and education for all other students remotely.
For current students
University Centre Somerset is now moving online. Staff will be working remotely and will continue to deliver your course online so that your studies can continue wherever possible. We are working with our External Examiners and university partners / Pearson to agree any necessary changes to assessment as a result of this change in the way we normally deliver teaching and learning. We will work to ensure that you have the best opportunity to meet the learning outcomes of your course using a variety of methods, including distance and online learning. We will confirm these details with you in due course. Please be assured that we will continue to support your learning.
You are now able to apply for Extenuating Circumstances (EC), by completing a Microsoft Office 365 Form online on the link below. Please log in using your college email address replacing ‘btc’ with ‘bridgwater’ (e.g. bloggsj@bridgwater.ac.uk). This form will work best when accessed via a Google Chrome Browser, as it doesn't function well in Internet Explorer.
If you cannot access this form for any reason, you can continue to use the usual EC forms on the HE Info Hub on Blackboard, and submit via email to he@btc.ac.uk. If you are a UWE student, you should submit requests directly to the university in line with their normal process.
You do not need to provide evidence for circumstances related to the Coronavirus. Instead please include a statement explaining your circumstances and how it is affecting you.
For any further queries please email the HE Team he@btc.ac.uk.
Support
For Safeguarding matters, the staysafe@btc.ac.uk email will be monitored at all times in office hours, including during the Easter period.
Contact the HE Team at HE@btc.ac.uk if you have any other questions or concerns.
Learning Resources Co-ordinators are working from home and will be happy to offer students individual support on any aspects of study skills including referencing. Request support by email.
Bridgwater
Cannington
Taunton
I am an existing student in 2019-20 and I think that I will be disadvantaged because of the coronavirus pandemic. What can I do about this?
Each Awarding Organisation/University is responsible for how it manages its academic regulations and University Centre Somerset works with them to implement these. Different universities have developed different approaches for mitigating the impact of the pandemic, whilst maintaining the quality and standard of their awards. We are working closely with them to apply the newly developed policies for each group of students.
When you receive your results, the relevant policy will have been considered and applied, where appropriate. If you still feel that you have been disadvantaged, you will be given an opportunity (within time limits) to appeal your final outcome. When your results are sent out, you will be given details of the grounds on which it is possible to appeal and how to do so. Please check this appeals guidance relevant to your awarding university.
For those who have been offered conditional offers and are hoping to start their course with us in 2020/21
We look forward to welcoming you to your new year of study in 2020/21 at University Centre Somerset. Enrolment fro new students will be online this year and instructions will be emailed once entry criteria are met and offers confirmed.
Induction for new students for the majority of UCS courses will be during week commencing 14 September 2020. Delivery of teaching for the majority of UCS courses will start week commencing 21 September 2020. However, Engineering courses are starting slightly earlier. A link to course specific information has been sent out to prospective new and returning students. Specific dates and days of delivery can be found in these documents.
Key principles underpinning the planning are:
- Student and staff safety and wellbeing
- Supporting students to continue to learn and make progress
University Centre Somerset (UCS), together with the rest of Bridgwater & Taunton College, will be following the guidance published by Public Health England as well as education sector national bodies. Our aim is to think flexibly, monitor the situation continually and work towards an element of on-campus delivery as soon as we can safely achieve this during the academic year. As our groups tend to be relatively small, this will be more easily achieved than for those universities with very large groups of students. It will be a carefully staged approach, in compliance with Health and Safety risk assessments. We will be running a blended learning approach with teaching learning and assessment planned for online delivery in the first instance. Priority for on-campus delivery will go to those programmes whose learning outcomes require the use of specific on-campus resources.
Further information
University Centre Somerset is part of Bridgwater & Taunton College. For more and updated information on the College's situation please visit:
What do I do if I wish to complain?
In order to resolve any issues as quickly as possible, please raise your concerns at the earliest opportunity, to the member of staff it concerns, by talking or writing to them or if you prefer, with their line manager. It is hoped that this will enable the issue to be addressed quickly and without the need for a formal process. If you do wish to complain formally then it will depend on which University partner you are enrolled with as to the process you then follow. Please see the table below for further information.
Normally, to make a formal complaint you will complain to the College in the first instance by emailing complaints@btc.ac.uk. If you remain dissatisfied and all steps of the College’s process have been exhausted, you would then complain to the University/awarding body. Ultimately if you are still dissatisfied you may be able to complain to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education.
| University Partner/ Awarding Body |
Overview of the complaints process
|
| Plymouth University |
The College may resolve the complaint informally. If this is not possible and the complaint becomes formal you must complete the university’s ‘Formal Complaint Form’ (contained in their policy) and email it to the University at complaints@plymouth.ac.uk. The University will work with the College for Stage 2 of their policy to enable the investigation of and response to the complaint.
The university’s complaints policy and guidance is available from their website: https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/student-life/your-studies/essential-information/complaints-appeals
|
| Oxford Brookes University |
The College’s HE Complaints process is used in the first instance. Once the College’s policy is exhausted you can then complain to the University via their ‘Collaborative Provision’ process. You will normally need to do this within 10 days of the date of the College’s final response. Please ensure you make yourself familiar with what the University will consider and what they will not consider before taking a complaint to them.
http://www.brookes.ac.uk/regulations/ (see Section C for full policy)
https://www.brookes.ac.uk/students/your-studies/student-disputes/student-complaints/ (Guidance for students)
|
| The Open University (OU) |
The College’s HE Complaints process is used in the first instance. If this has been exhausted, and the complaint is directly related to the academic standards of the OU validated programme on which you are studying, then you can complain to the Open University by submitting a formal complaint as soon as possible and within three months of the outcome of the College’s processes. If the complaint is not related to academic standards the OU may pass your complaint back to the College or you may go straight to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIAHE). |
| University of the West of England (UWE) |
The College’s own process is used in the first instance. Once the College’s policy is exhausted you can then move to Stage Three of UWE’s Complaints Procedure.
http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/about/contactus/complaints.aspx (General overview)
http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/about/contactus/complaints/submittingacomplaint/stagethreecomplaints.aspx (Stage 3 of their Complaints Policy)
|
| Pearson (Edexcel) |
The College’s own process is used in the first instance. Once the College’s policy is exhausted then you can refer your complaint to Pearson. The College must send any documents, regarding unresolved complaints, to Pearson within 28 days of Stage 2 concluding.
http://qualifications.pearson.com/en/support/contact-us/feedback-and-complaints.html
|
