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After almost a year of watching lectures and participating in tutorials online, students at the Australian National University are gearing up to return to learning in person. But as for what would make them more likely to return to the campus itself, according to the students themselves, are monkeys. Specifically, 15 of them housed on the university grounds. While it may sound far-fetched, the idea is the leading suggestion in a university-wide survey asking students on ways to make the return to campus more enjoyable. The survey has received more than 12,000 submissions, and will continue until the end of the month. Read more: Students have put forward more than 50 separate ideas and, while it’s likely monkeys won’t be featured on campus, university staff are considering the more serious suggestions to be enacted from next year. The university’s deputy vice-chancellor Ian Anderson said the survey was an opportunity to re-engage with students who had been learning from home since the start of the pandemic. “All the ideas we collect will be worked through in a systematic way to make sure they meet students’ needs and will be tested in terms of how students respond to those ideas,” Professor Anderson said. “We’re looking through ideas in which students can connect to each other while on campus.” Among the more serious suggestions being considered are more native plantings around campus and regenerating bushland, a recipe-share website for students living on campus along with the reopening of common rooms and areas such as as Griffin Hall for students to interact in. The university is looking to implement either four or five of the student-suggested ideas in time for the first semester next year. “What we’re trying to do is put the students at the front of the process of idea generation,” Professor Anderson said. “It’s was either going to be folks like myself coming up with the ideas, or going to them and saying ‘give us your best shot’.” As well as domestic students, the survey has also been promoted by the university’s China liaison office to promote the survey to international students. International students were set to return to the campus midway through the year, but the second coronavirus wave in Victoria scuppered those plans. Professor Anderson said the university was hoping to welcome international students back onto campus in the near future. “A strategy we are looking at is we want to connect with those international students who can’t get onto the campus at the moment,” he said. The deputy vice-chancellor said he hoped all students would be able to return to campus to in-person learning next year after a disrupted 2020. “We’re a campus-based teaching institution and a strategy to bring students back is critical for us,” he said. “We still will provide blended options so students can continue to learn online, because not all students have been able to join us over the last year, but we want to achieve that through 2021.”
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After almost a year of watching lectures and participating in tutorials online, students at the Australian National University are gearing up to return to learning in person.
But as for what would make them more likely to return to the campus itself, according to the students themselves, are monkeys.
Specifically, 15 of them housed on the university grounds.
While it may sound far-fetched, the idea is the leading suggestion in a university-wide survey asking students on ways to make the return to campus more enjoyable.
The survey has received more than 12,000 submissions, and will continue until the end of the month.
Students have put forward more than 50 separate ideas and, while it’s likely monkeys won’t be featured on campus, university staff are considering the more serious suggestions to be enacted from next year.
The university’s deputy vice-chancellor Ian Anderson said the survey was an opportunity to re-engage with students who had been learning from home since the start of the pandemic.
“All the ideas we collect will be worked through in a systematic way to make sure they meet students’ needs and will be tested in terms of how students respond to those ideas,” Professor Anderson said.
“We’re looking through ideas in which students can connect to each other while on campus.”
Among the more serious suggestions being considered are more native plantings around campus and regenerating bushland, a recipe-share website for students living on campus along with the reopening of common rooms and areas such as as Griffin Hall for students to interact in.
The university is looking to implement either four or five of the student-suggested ideas in time for the first semester next year.
“What we’re trying to do is put the students at the front of the process of idea generation,” Professor Anderson said.
“It’s was either going to be folks like myself coming up with the ideas, or going to them and saying ‘give us your best shot’.”
As well as domestic students, the survey has also been promoted by the university’s China liaison office to promote the survey to international students.
International students were set to return to the campus midway through the year, but the second coronavirus wave in Victoria scuppered those plans.
Professor Anderson said the university was hoping to welcome international students back onto campus in the near future.
“A strategy we are looking at is we want to connect with those international students who can’t get onto the campus at the moment,” he said.
The deputy vice-chancellor said he hoped all students would be able to return to campus to in-person learning next year after a disrupted 2020.
“We’re a campus-based teaching institution and a strategy to bring students back is critical for us,” he said.
“We still will provide blended options so students can continue to learn online, because not all students have been able to join us over the last year, but we want to achieve that through 2021.”
