Bristol University says students can use reading room at site of attraction to revise

Overcrowding in libraries and a severe shortage of desks have led to students at the University of Bristol being offered places to study at the SS Great Britain.

The university’s history department has told students looking for somewhere quiet to revise during the January exam period that they can reserve desks at the site in Bristol harbour where Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s steamship is housed in a dry dock, more than a mile from their campus across the Avon.

The students were told in an email that they would have exclusive use of a reading room at the site, along with discounted rates on food and drink at the attraction’s cafe.

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Overcrowding at Bristol’s main campus libraries has resulted in students queueing from 7am in order to get desks. Before last summer’s exams, students complained that library study spaces were often all taken shortly after the doors opened at 8am, and that overcrowding had got worse as a result of the university’s rapid expansion.

Cameron Scheijde, who graduated from Bristol last summer, said the problem had got much worse during his three years as an undergraduate starting in autumn 2016.

“In my first year you could get to the library at 8am in exam season, basically January and May, and find a desk by 8am with no problem, and it would be full by 11am. But this [past] year, by 8.30am every library place was taken,” Scheijde said.

A current economics student, who did not wish to be named, said: “The arts and social sciences library is far too small. There are rarely any seats free during normal working hours and they only become free overnight. That encourages people to work late into the night or do all-nighters, which is clearly unhealthy.”

It has grown aggressively since the introduction of £9,000 annual tuition fees in 2012 and the removal of the government’s cap on undergraduate numbers. In the 2012-13 academic year Bristol had the equivalent of 18,000 full-time students on undergraduate and postgraduate courses. By 2018-19 it had almost 24,000 – an increase of nearly a third.

While the university’s marketing says: “Bristol is small enough to feel warm and friendly”, Scheijde said the effect of the increased student numbers could be felt across the campus. “It wasn’t just libraries; it was in classes as well. In my first year seminars had eight to 10 students; by my third year it was up to 30. When seminars are that big you can’t contribute much. I liked my lecturers, they were good and they knew what they were talking about. But there was definitely less one-to-one [contact] as time went on,” he said.

A spokesperson for the university said: “We appreciate that study spaces are always in high demand in the run-up to exams and we encourage our students to make use of all the study spaces available including our libraries which run extended opening hours.

“For history students the school has been able to offer additional study space in the Brunel Institute on Bristol Harbourside which is in close proximity to the main campus.”

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The university is proposing a new library for its central campus, costing £80m and including 2,000 study spaces. But it has not yet applied for planning permission and the building will not open until the end of 2023 at the earliest.

Last year the Guardian reported that the university was funding special police patrols in parts of Bristol with large student populations in response to complaints from residents about noisy parties, student drunkenness and antisocial behaviour.

At the start of the current academic year Bristol was criticised for offering some first-year undergraduates bedrooms in accommodation as far away as Newport in Wales, 30 miles from its main campus.

Despite its growing pains the university intends to keep expanding: it is advancing with plans to build a huge complex near Temple Meads railway station in the city, renovating a derelict industrial site while adding a further 3,000 students.