Hi, I’m Helen Wells, your Higher Education Co-ordinator. I hope that you’re settling in well preparing yourselves for the challenges your course will give you in the coming months.

I’ve been meeting some of you who have been brilliant in putting yourselves forward and volunteering to be Course Reps. We will shortly be looking for a Lead Student Rep for the year to help shape and give a focus for the student voice and hopefully to kick start some more social activities for you all.

We’ve also just published our action plan in response to the Higher Education Review we underwent earlier in the year, you can find this on our website and the HE Information site on Blackboard. One of the actions related to ensuring all students had access to view External Examiner reports, so we’ve also now added all of these for the previous year to our Blackboard site for you to view.

We strive to deliver and add value to the experiences of all our HE students. We obtain feedback by gathering information at HE student forums, course programme meetings, student surveys and from

our Lead and Course Student Representatives.

We value the input of our students to help shape the HE environment we provide. Your suggestions and ideas are always taken into consideration and every effort is made to ensure they are followed

through. Below are comments we’ve received from HE students and responses to how we have addressed them.

Minutes are taken at meetings and an action plan is written to ensure opinions are heard and acted upon. We will make sure

we feed actions back at the next forum meeting. All information

is displayed on Blackboard under HE Information.

Information is also included in editions of The Voice.

Students are encouraged to provide feedback directly to the restaurant team concerning the

particular dishes they would prefer to have or not have on

offer by emailing restaurant@bridgwater.ac.uk

or complete a comment card located outside the

restaurant door.

We have now invested in more powerful computers to ensure computers do not lag when installed with students’ software.

Class of 2014

Remember the HE Study Rooms at the Bridgwater and Cannington Centre are open for students to use, see Blackboard for opening times

Students win iPad and vouchers

Motorsport team win championship!

UK quality mark for HE at Bridgwater College

Julie Merrett wins Volunteer Wild Hero award

Do you want to boost your CV to get an advantage over other job applicants? Time Bank carried out a survey across 200 of the UK’s leading businesses which showed, 73% would employ candidates with volunteering experience over ones without and 94% of employees who had volunteering experience benefited by improving their salary, or being promoted.

Finding work experience, either paid or voluntary, is a great way to hone your workplace skills and more importantly, get an idea of the industry and career you are interested in!

Did you know… The College offers a student membership to the College’s gym for only £60 for the entire year! There is no joining fee,

just a £16 induction fee, and each student will have a free personal fitness consultation. Your membership entitles you to book on to fitness classes, including Studio Cycling and Circuits, for no additional cost. Visit www.bridgwatersport.co.uk/gym for opening times.

HE@bridgwater.ac.uk informationWe are looking to make your Higher Education experience at Bridgwater College as good as we can. If you have any suggestions to make, or feedback to offer, please get in touch with us by using the email address above.

The Higher Education Quality Team is now holding drop-in sessions on the first Tuesday of every month (with the exception of April, when it will be on the second Tuesday) between 2pm – 4pm. If you have any questions, queries or anything you would like to discuss, drop in and see them! Sessions will be held in D29, located on the first floor in the Bridgwater Centre and Cannington sessions can be arranged, on request.

Have you been put off buying your books on your reading list? Why don’t

you save money by looking in second-hand bookshops, ebay, Amazon, charity shops,

e-books or in the LRC? Not buying books new is a great way to save money.

If you aren’t sure what books you are required to use, please check with your Programme Manager or look in

your Student Handbook.