Updates
March 22, 2015
Seeing this level of support confirms that I am not the only one worried about losing the quiet space necessary for our students to open up about their personal struggles. The momentum we have built together proves that our academic community refuses to let pastoral care be sacrificed for a desk chart.
30 Comments
I will have 6 dissertation students next year and would find it very difficult to provide effective supervision if i need to book the meeting rooms each time I meet with them. I would also find it difficult to prepare for my teaching sessions without adequate space to store my textbooks and journals.
I am concerned that as both myself and my students must adhere to professional codes of conduct relating to clinical practice and we are required to mantain confidentiality. Confidentiality has the potential to be breached within an open plan office, where not everyone is bound by the same codes. Issues discussed with students, mentors and managers (often on the phone) may relate to safeguarding issues, fitness to practice or similar matters.
I have read reports from other academic institutions and LARGE open plan office space do not help to achieve good NSS scores. Our students need to have a safe haven to come to for support both pastoral and academic. We need a quiet space to create good teaching material and for a practical subject places to store real life teaching material.
I currently share an office with three other academics and all of us have to have one-on-one meetings with students; the environment is already noisy and not conducive to reasonable levels of concentration. In addition, there has been no consultation over this matter.
Academic work requires periods of sustained concentration and focus. How this might be possible in a noisy, busy environment, with a lot of people and movement is beyond my comprehension. I can only conclude that this initiative is part of a managerialist agenda to increase control over academic staff. The lack of consultation tends to support this interpretation.
I foresee major issues with confidentiality, our ability to deliver appropriate and sensitive pastoral care. In the last 10 years I have supported students who have experienced rape, unwanted pregnancies and abortions, parental bereavement, serious mental health issues, cancer and a brain tumour. I cannot imagine being able to deliver that support in an openplan office, nor manage the additional phone calls etc that these cases require, without seriously compromising confidentiality and duty of care.
Given that this hasn't worked in other places I can't see any logic in implementing it here. The more people in an office the more distractions, higher chance us annoying each other and no privacy who so ever. There may be other spaces to talk to students but what about handling private telephone calls? And when the flu season comes it will be a very efficient way of spreading it.
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Updates
March 22, 2015
Seeing this level of support confirms that I am not the only one worried about losing the quiet space necessary for our students to open up about their personal struggles. The momentum we have built together proves that our academic community refuses to let pastoral care be sacrificed for a desk chart.
30 Comments
Having worked in an 'Open Plan' enviroment in the past I am only too aware of the limitations with regard to confidentiality and pastoral care, which are essential for a effective and efficient relationship with students.
I will have 6 dissertation students next year and would find it very difficult to provide effective supervision if i need to book the meeting rooms each time I meet with them. I would also find it difficult to prepare for my teaching sessions without adequate space to store my textbooks and journals.
I am concerned that as both myself and my students must adhere to professional codes of conduct relating to clinical practice and we are required to mantain confidentiality. Confidentiality has the potential to be breached within an open plan office, where not everyone is bound by the same codes. Issues discussed with students, mentors and managers (often on the phone) may relate to safeguarding issues, fitness to practice or similar matters.
I have read reports from other academic institutions and LARGE open plan office space do not help to achieve good NSS scores. Our students need to have a safe haven to come to for support both pastoral and academic. We need a quiet space to create good teaching material and for a practical subject places to store real life teaching material.
I currently share an office with three other academics and all of us have to have one-on-one meetings with students; the environment is already noisy and not conducive to reasonable levels of concentration. In addition, there has been no consultation over this matter.
Academic work requires periods of sustained concentration and focus. How this might be possible in a noisy, busy environment, with a lot of people and movement is beyond my comprehension. I can only conclude that this initiative is part of a managerialist agenda to increase control over academic staff. The lack of consultation tends to support this interpretation.
I foresee major issues with confidentiality, our ability to deliver appropriate and sensitive pastoral care. In the last 10 years I have supported students who have experienced rape, unwanted pregnancies and abortions, parental bereavement, serious mental health issues, cancer and a brain tumour. I cannot imagine being able to deliver that support in an openplan office, nor manage the additional phone calls etc that these cases require, without seriously compromising confidentiality and duty of care.
Given that this hasn't worked in other places I can't see any logic in implementing it here. The more people in an office the more distractions, higher chance us annoying each other and no privacy who so ever. There may be other spaces to talk to students but what about handling private telephone calls? And when the flu season comes it will be a very efficient way of spreading it.
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Having worked in an 'Open Plan' enviroment in the past I am only too aware of the limitations with regard to confidentiality and pastoral care, which are essential for a effective and efficient relationship with students.