Study spaces on campus - recording transcript

Johnny

Hi, it's Johnny Jenkins here! I hope you're well and doing okay at the moment, during this deadline and assessment season. Welcome to this Study Happy video where we're talking all about study space on campus. Did you queue outside the Library this morning? It's pretty busy first thing and I think it's pretty busy throughout the day as well, but there are some other study spaces available. We're going to talk about some of them now and the other places which perhaps might be a bit easier for you to study at at the moment.

Let's bring in Luke Mepham, the SU President... Hi Luke, very good to see you! This is quite a big issue isn't it at the moment?

Luke

Absolutely, so it's something that obviously affects all students, all students are looking for study space And the queues outside the Library have very have been quite large over the last few weeks, mainly owing to the reduced capacity within the Library and, as you mentioned, there's so many other study spaces all around campus, so it would be good to talk a little bit more about some of those and make sure that you actually know where they are, what they're like and how you can use them!

Johnny

So obviously the key other Library-managed study space is the Rootes Learning Grid just off the Piazza, between Pret and Curiositea, around that sort of area. And that's quite - it's got the study space but also a bit of a more social space, doesn't it?

Luke

Absolutely, so the layout's changed quite a lot since social distancing but the Rootes Learning Grid in the Rootes building is still open and still kind of the second busiest study space after the Library at the moment. However other areas of the Rootes building have been opened up, such as the Flexigrid in the Rootes building, previously used for circling as some of you might know it if you've been circling at Fusion and also the Panorama

rooms and the Chancellor's suite, which is traditionally used for conferences and exams, in that building are also being used for study space. That whole building is filling up quite early on in the day so it's still a good place to go if you're kind of on campus early, but there are still emptier places around campus.

Johnny

Okay, well let's touch on some of those now. One of them, which I think people are put off a bit because it's five minutes down the road, is University House, which of course is where a lot of the University staff are normally based, most of them working from home at the moment. There's quite a lot of study space there?

Luke

Absolutely, so I was actually in University house a couple of hours ago and it is dead in there at the moment, it's not very busy at all. So you have got the two Learning Grids in there and also the atrium space which is obviously normally for the users of the cafe. That's all open and within the Learning Grid, you've got access to power, you've got access to some resources and also some kind of comfier places to sit in there as well. And contrary to popular belief, as you say, it is only five minutes away from the Library. It feels like it's miles away! If you live in Westwood it's even closer, but for most students on campus it really isn't much of a walk, and it's going to be a much quicker - it's probably going to be much quicker doing that walk than staying in that Library queue!

Johnny

So, it's somewhere - if you haven't been before, because I know a lot of people haven't been to the physical buildings this year - it's between Westwood Campus and the Main Campus and like you say it's just a few minutes there. Am I right in thinking - I'm not on campus as you can see - am I right in thinking that the Oculus opened up some days ago for studying as well?

Luke

Absolutely yeah, so the Oculus and all the teaching rooms within the Oculus are open for quiet and individual study space. Alongside that, the University have opened loads of

other normally essentially timetabled rooms, so rooms such as in Ramphal, I believe some of the Social Sciences are open, alongside all of the traditional Grids and the Junction space as well. So there is loads and loads of space, and actually in that that link below that you can see, you can see all of the available spaces there and kind of current availability as well.

Johnny

So, there's all the different spots and actually I think what we're seeing is, obviously you think of the Library, you think of the Grid in Rootes, but actually if you look a bit further afield you're going to have a more comfortable experience aren't you?

Luke

Yeah absolutely, I mean I completely understand why students might want to be in the Library, it's the central study space, it's probably the one that students in later years associate with having done exams in the past and such, but there are still so many other spaces to be used. They still have the same amount of facilities as the Library, they're still as accessible and you're just not gonna have as much of a queue, so I really would urge students, unless you need Library-specific resources, unless you need to go and look at books and such, all of these study spaces are open, and you're probably going to have a much better time.

Johnny

Okay so that link, which you can see along the bottom, studyspaces.warwick.ac.uk, you can find about the Library and non-Library spaces on campus, the locations, number of seats, opening hours, even, I'm told, 360-degree photos if that's what you'd quite like to look at! Thanks, so much Luke! Just out of interest, when you were a student, obviously now you're an officer, where was your go-to study space?

Luke

I actually used to study, being a Maths student, initially used to be in the maths undergrad work room and then when the Mathematical Sciences building opened, those balconies in there are lovely. But I actually don't think, unfortunately, any of those spaces

are open at the moment as they're all managed by departments rather than central university. Other than that, in third year I did also dip into the University House Grid, so I am a bit of an advocate for it being a nice and very quiet space.

Johnny

Well there's plenty of places you can go! Thanks Luke, speak very soon! That's Luke Mepham, the SU President at Warwick. And if you'd like to find study space availability, that address once more is studyspaces.warwick.ac.uk.