University of South Wales students petition against decision to cancel reading weeks

Students' union passes motion which will be taken to university staff

(Adam Berry/Getty Images)

An online petition has gathered over 1,000 signatures after staff at the University of South Wales announced there would be no more reading weeks for students.

According to the Change.org petition, reading weeks are breaks from teaching in which students can do more individual study, prepare for exams, and finish courseworks in time for deadlines.

It goes on to argue: “Without these weeks, the students of USW will certainly find it more difficult to meet deadlines and learn more about their subjects due to such busy timetables during the rest of the year.”

Sarah Callaway, the student who created the petition, described how the university claimed it wouldn’t consider it because it wasn’t handwritten. She added: “However, going down the online route reaches more people. Other people’s handwritten petitions only got around 100 signatures, whereas mine got to over 1000.

“There never used to be a formal rule for the reading week - it wasn't officially in the university calendar.”

Arguments for reading weeks say how they are useful for catching up on work and visiting family. Tom Alldridge, a spokesperson for the campaign, said: “We need them as they usually coincide with half terms in schools, which allows students who are parents to spend time with and look after their children.”

Not all students at university receive a reading week. It is normally given to those who study a humanity or essay-based subject, such as English literature and law. Subjects that tend to have a higher number of contact hours - such as medicine or dentistry - are not given a week’s break from their teaching.

A spokesperson for USW commented on how the availability of reading weeks varies across different courses and universities, adding: “USW made a decision not to run reading weeks after concerns were raised by students about a lack of consistency - some courses offered them, some didn’t and, those that did, had them on different weeks.”

The spokesperson explained how this lack of consistency resulted in students dropping out of university altogether, and said: “Our analysis indicated students who were away from home for the first time, feeling homesick, and who then went home during the week often weren’t returning.

“Those who stayed on campus had a week without any lectures or contact time, leaving them feeling isolated when that was combined with a large number of students choosing to go away from campus that week, leading to them also considering whether to stay.”

The petition has been gaining considerable support and the students’ union recently held a meeting to discuss the matter. The motion was passed and will now be taken to the university to decide whether reading weeks will be formally reinstated.

Twitter: @KatieWeston1