Rusticated students will soon have the right to use facilities and services provided by the university.
Charlotte Hendy, OUSU Vice-President for Welfare and Equal Opportunities, made the announcement last week. Exact details have yet to be confirmed, but it is believed that the new freedoms will become available in the near future.
Students taking a year out of their studies will now continue to enjoy the use of university facilities, except when their suspension is a result of a failure to pay the relevant university fees, or when the safety of members of the university is threatened. Previously, students who had taken a year out of their studies have had to make do with restricted access to Oxford-wide libraries, online resources, the Nexus email system, and all other services requiring a Bodleian reader’s card. The university was also often unclear as to which get retracted.
The new guidelines, which were a product of co-operation between the university and the student union, should also ensure that the rights of rusticated students are made clearer to them upon taking a break from their studies.
One undergraduate drew attention to the need for the changes by bemoaning the status quo, “How are rusticated students supposed to prepare for the exams they take once they return without the use of libraries? How are they supposed to communicate without Nexus?”
Another added, “Clarity is really important, students taking a year off already have enough to think about without having to decipher which libraries they can use”.
Charlotte Hendy’s statement concurred with this view, “Year after year, OUSU’s Student Advice Service supports students, who have taken a year out on medical grounds and are expected to sit penal collections on return. These students often have no access to libraries and struggle to achieve the often expected 2.1.”
In the future this should no longer be as much of an issue, Hendy added. “We are thrilled with these changes; it is a great result for Oxford students”.
Students who have experience of the convoluted rustication proceedure have greeted the news in a similarly enthusiastic fashion. A student wishing to remain anonymous said, “I’m delighted that Oxford University has decided to reverse its policy regarding access to facilities and services for suspended students. If you’re unwell, the whole point of suspending is to take some time to recover so that you can work and enjoy what Oxford has to offer when you return. It’s bizarre that so many suspended students have been expected to do this without access to counselling or libraries”.
Colleges, however, are not bound by the guidelines and allowing rusticated students to make use of their facilities will remain at the discretion of the individual colleges.
Since, Colleges are normally the first port of call for students with welfare issues, some have been unsettled by the lack of standardised policies.
However, Hendy assured students that “from here, we hope to encourage localised conversations within colleges on this issue” when pressed on the matter.
OUSU has a successful history in terms of improving the rights of struggling students. It has previously won the right for Prelims to be retaken, along with several other policies over the years. “I didn’t know it did all these things really”, said one student of OUSU. “But I’m glad it does, even if they seem to go on behind the scenes”.
Oxford is noted for its intense academic terms, and as such appears keen to make clear its dedication to providing welfare support to its students. According to official figures around 1.4% of the student population leave the university after starting a degree. The figure is much lower than the national average, however, perhaps due to the social acceptability of rustication. The university points to its extensive welfare spending as part of the reason why the numbers of people leaving are so low.
With some students though, there is a sense that the student body should not get complacent. “We shouldn’t delude ourselves though”, warned one Mertonian. “Each person that leaves the university because of illness – or for whatever else – is a massive loss to all of us. It’s great news that more is being done to make sure they all come back on an equal footing”.
