Annual Report 2009 - St Mary's University College
Annual Report 2009 - St Mary's University College
Annual Report 2009 - St Mary's University College
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<strong>St</strong> Mary’s <strong>University</strong> <strong>College</strong><br />
Twickenham London<br />
<strong>Annual</strong> <strong>Report</strong> <strong>2009</strong><br />
www.smuc.ac.uk<br />
<strong>St</strong> Mary’s <strong>University</strong> <strong>College</strong><br />
Twickenham London<br />
<strong>Annual</strong> <strong>Report</strong> <strong>2009</strong><br />
www.smuc.ac.uk<br />
Information<br />
Services and<br />
Systems<br />
Sport<br />
<strong>St</strong> Mary’s<br />
This has been a year of change<br />
within ISS. Máire Lanigan, who<br />
had been Director for about<br />
nine years, left in December<br />
2008 to take up a role at City<br />
<strong>University</strong>. Interim arrangements<br />
were put in place pending a<br />
review process and Martin<br />
Scarrott became the Acting<br />
Director of ISS. The department<br />
has continued moving forward<br />
and making improvements to<br />
services during the past year,<br />
which has been a challenging<br />
one, with tougher challenges<br />
to come.<br />
We have been concentrating<br />
upon listening to our users,<br />
especially students. We<br />
conducted a student survey<br />
and held focus groups, making<br />
sure that we reported back to<br />
students what they had told us<br />
and what actions we were<br />
taking. There were many<br />
positive comments about the<br />
service and about staff. One of<br />
the major concerns was about<br />
study space. Fifty percent of<br />
students wanted more silent<br />
space and fifty percent wanted<br />
more group study space. As a<br />
result we have redesigned our<br />
zones to try and make them<br />
clearer and we have<br />
successfully bid for funding to<br />
begin to create additional study<br />
space by replacing some of the<br />
old wooden library shelving<br />
with compact shelving.<br />
Further feedback was received<br />
through the National <strong>St</strong>udent<br />
Survey. This revealed some<br />
concerns about the library<br />
stock. In response we<br />
successfully bid for a one-off<br />
amount of money to spend<br />
on text books.<br />
We have made considerable<br />
improvements to the way in<br />
which students and staff access<br />
our online resources. Self-service<br />
online password management<br />
was implemented and the<br />
same username and password<br />
are used to access most of our<br />
online resources and systems.<br />
This was an essential part of<br />
adapting our services to meet<br />
the needs of the distance<br />
learning students who joined<br />
us in September <strong>2009</strong>.<br />
A major challenge for us has<br />
been the rising cost of library<br />
resources. Many university<br />
libraries are having to cut the<br />
number of printed and online<br />
journals to which they subscribe<br />
and reduce the number of<br />
books they buy. <strong>St</strong> Mary’s,<br />
however, has committed itself to<br />
maintain all library subscriptions<br />
for the academic year <strong>2009</strong>/10<br />
and the expenditure on books<br />
will be increased slightly.<br />
Information Services<br />
and Systems<br />
The academic year started<br />
with a highly successful torch<br />
relay to mark the handover of<br />
the flag for the Paralympic<br />
Games to London by Beijing.<br />
The relay was organised jointly<br />
with Richmond Borough and<br />
Richmond upon Thames<br />
<strong>College</strong> (RuTC) and involved<br />
teams of staff and students<br />
visiting eleven primary and<br />
secondary schools in the<br />
Borough. They were set off<br />
from <strong>St</strong> Mary’s by the Principal,<br />
Dr Naylor, the Mayor and the<br />
Principal of RuTC, Kevin<br />
Watson, and schools organised<br />
their own receptions for the<br />
arrival of the torch, ranging<br />
from a whole school assembly<br />
on an Olympic theme, to drama<br />
and music productions.<br />
Probably the highlight of the<br />
year, though, was the decision<br />
by the South African Sport<br />
Commission and Olympic<br />
Committee to base their<br />
Pre-Games training camps<br />
for the London 2012 Olympic<br />
Games at <strong>St</strong> Mary’s and the<br />
Lensbury hotel complex. The<br />
team will stay at Lensbury and<br />
train at <strong>St</strong> Mary’s and other<br />
South London venues and visits<br />
may start as early as 2010,<br />
building to a full training camp<br />
in 2011 and then a holding camp<br />
immediately prior to the Games<br />
itself. In partnership with our<br />
South London colleagues in<br />
Go South Go, discussions are<br />
also underway with other teams<br />
that might be interested in<br />
coming to <strong>St</strong> Mary’s.<br />
In a very different, but<br />
complementary way, <strong>St</strong> Mary’s<br />
has played a role in the<br />
development and launch of the<br />
John Paul Foundation for Sport,<br />
which will promote the idea of<br />
value and virtue in sport and will<br />
encourage volunteering and<br />
leadership. <strong>St</strong> Mary’s is playing<br />
an important role in helping<br />
schools to engage with the<br />
programme, which may well<br />
feature in the Pope’s visit in 2010.<br />
In sport in general, <strong>St</strong> Mary’s<br />
enjoyed a high profile year<br />
as the main shirt sponsor for<br />
Harlequins Rugby League,<br />
which has led on to discussions<br />
around several exciting<br />
community initiatives in<br />
collaboration with the Rugby<br />
Football League. <strong>St</strong> Mary’s was<br />
designated as the lead for all<br />
London universities in the<br />
government’s Talented Athlete<br />
Sport Scholarship Scheme<br />
and now co-ordinates support<br />
for over sixty athletes in these<br />
institutions, many of whom are<br />
students here. Community<br />
sport, especially for young<br />
people, remains a priority,<br />
and the Youth Sports Trust<br />
designated the Regional<br />
Multi Skills Academy held at<br />
<strong>St</strong> Mary’s as a model of good<br />
practice, whilst the Simms<br />
Sport programme expanded<br />
and had another successful<br />
year offering opportunities to<br />
many local families and schools.<br />
Sport <strong>St</strong> Mary’s<br />
–<br />
Simmsport<br />
–<br />
2012<br />
20<br />
21