The Timetabling Campaign has sought to position students as central to the creation of timetables, taking their needs into account as the student experience has gone through a dramatic shift during the cost-of-living crisis.

Through our listening work with academic representatives from across the university on taught programmes, we found that a high proportion of Leeds Beckett University’s students are having to work part-time alongside their study, (9.23% higher than the national figure when comparing The Big Student Survey and Higher Education Policy Institute) and an increasing number of students have additional caring responsibilities for children and/or family members.

Traditional timetabling seemingly no longer works for many students at LBU, and the Timetabling Campaign has found that more flexibility is needed to allow students to organise regular childcare and shiftwork around their studies. However, creating timetables for 24,000 students and the university’s teaching staff is a mammoth task, and so the Timetabling Campaign has begun working with the Registry and Secretary’s Office (RSO) who oversee timetabling to find quick wins to begin with in a move towards larger institutional change. This includes beginning to condense teaching days to minimise travel to and from campus and creating flexible sign-ups for seminars in some areas.