Huddersfield is a nice place to live, at least I think so and have lived here for 31 years, but living so far from your chosen university can't help but diminish the university experience.
It also ties into an untold story about useless incompetent railway companies. There's been a lot of media interest in Avanti's recent cuts to the Manchester to London service. It involves London, so the mainstream media take an interest. When it's Transpennine Express failing to run a meaningful train service from Manchester to places like Mossley, Slaithwaite & Huddersfield, it's not newsworthy.
So, to compare Avanti and TPE:
Avanti - made big timetable cuts in August and have fallen a bit short of being able to run their reduced timetable.
TPE - made big timetable cuts in February and even against their reduced timetable they have a large number of short-notice cancellations every day. They can't or won't say when or if the service will improve, and don't seem to think it matters anyway.
That's the train service that links - or fails to link - Manchester university students to their accommodation in Huddersfield. It might be 40 minutes in theory, in practice its often a lot more than that.
That's a good point David - I wonder if these students who have been asked to live miles and miles away will be given the option to attend some lectures online - though perhaps if they've already experienced schooling during the pandemic they'll be keen to have in-person interactions again.
Universities are now run as though they are privatised monopolies like the utilities,hence the zeal with which they encourage applicants isn't matched by any service levels.A priority for a new non Tory government ought to be to set a cap on vice chancellors' salaries along with a graduated system of fees which are aligned to the quality of university experience (housing,labs,libraries,teaching hours and career prospects).If we have to have markets in everything in life then we should expect students to be afforded consumer rights also.
Huddersfield is a nice place to live, at least I think so and have lived here for 31 years, but living so far from your chosen university can't help but diminish the university experience.
It also ties into an untold story about useless incompetent railway companies. There's been a lot of media interest in Avanti's recent cuts to the Manchester to London service. It involves London, so the mainstream media take an interest. When it's Transpennine Express failing to run a meaningful train service from Manchester to places like Mossley, Slaithwaite & Huddersfield, it's not newsworthy.
So, to compare Avanti and TPE:
Avanti - made big timetable cuts in August and have fallen a bit short of being able to run their reduced timetable.
TPE - made big timetable cuts in February and even against their reduced timetable they have a large number of short-notice cancellations every day. They can't or won't say when or if the service will improve, and don't seem to think it matters anyway.
That's the train service that links - or fails to link - Manchester university students to their accommodation in Huddersfield. It might be 40 minutes in theory, in practice its often a lot more than that.
That's a good point David - I wonder if these students who have been asked to live miles and miles away will be given the option to attend some lectures online - though perhaps if they've already experienced schooling during the pandemic they'll be keen to have in-person interactions again.
Universities are now run as though they are privatised monopolies like the utilities,hence the zeal with which they encourage applicants isn't matched by any service levels.A priority for a new non Tory government ought to be to set a cap on vice chancellors' salaries along with a graduated system of fees which are aligned to the quality of university experience (housing,labs,libraries,teaching hours and career prospects).If we have to have markets in everything in life then we should expect students to be afforded consumer rights also.