Pros
The staff in the department were fantastic and very supportive. To be honest, I get this impression of most departments- the faculty are good people, but they are all under a lot of pressure with a high teaching load, high research demands, low budgets and very little support. Things get even tougher when someone goes off sick/on research leave as a full time replacement is rarely provided. These staff are providing high quality teaching and research in a very tough environment.
- The university has a positive attitude to widening participation to higher education
-There are good postgraduate scholarships available for anyone undertaking postgraduate study
Cons
I would wait MONTHS to be paid. I would submit my hours on time, they would be submitted by the department secretary on time and then I would wait. I once waited four months to be paid and I was teaching 8 hours a week. That is not ok. One thing that was very clear to me during my time there was the systems that exist in the university are over-complicated and it makes it very difficult to get things done e.g. the procurement system, the temporary contract system etc
-Many of the staff I encountered seemed to be burnt out.
-Many of the student support facilities have been cut or their budget has been slashed. This makes it difficult to provide students with the right support.
- There is too much emphasis placed on the number of students retained, rather than the depth of student learning. Numbers always seem to trump quality.
-There does not seem to be an ethos of staff care at this university