By Anna Johnson, Fourth Year, English and French
This year, the university decided to shift its term dates so exams fall before Christmas. In theory, this is a considerate move designed to reduce burnout, allowing students to have a sufficient break over the holidays and a fresh start in January. However, this decision has meant that rather than being at home during the revision period, students are still at university, resulting in study spaces becoming overcrowded.
University of Bristol student, Abi, took to TikTok to express her frustration at the lack of seats in the ASSL, captioning her video: ‘When you pay £9k a year and there are no spaces in the library for you.’ Third-year student, Issy, voiced a similar complaint, remarking ‘It’s so frustrating that I’m paying so much to work on the floor in a corridor.’
Comments left on Abi’s video are telling of the general dissatisfaction among students on this issue. One user writes: ‘People bag asslib seats like they’re deckchairs on holiday,’ with another suggesting going at 7 a.m. to secure a place to sit.
@abiistokess definitely not procrasting doing my work #uni #bristol #uob ♬ 16 Carriages - Beyoncé Base 𐚁
Finding a seat became increasingly competitive. Kate, a fourth-year student, notes there was a ‘tense and aggressive atmosphere’ in the library that made her want to avoid it entirely. ‘Often, people reserve a seat for themselves or others for hours by leaving their items on the desk,’ she explains. With seats being in such limited supply, students are reluctant to give them up when they leave to eat lunch. Much like a game of musical chairs, the moment someone gets up, another person quickly claims the seat.
Third-year student, Emily, shared her struggle to find a seat at 1 am in the ASS, the only 24-hour study space on the Clifton campus, in a TikTok post. ‘The problem is there physically aren’t enough seats per student,’ she explains. ‘I think it is funny that universities have increased tuition fees,’ says master’s student, Katie, ‘but they still can’t afford enough chairs.’
@emi_.taylor long #uni #bristoluni ♬ 16 Carriages - Beyoncé Base 𐚁
On this issue, a spokesperson from the University of Bristol told Epigram, ‘We are experiencing a high volume of demand for our library study seats in this revision week. We have eight libraries and four study centres with over 3,600 study seats. There are a further 2,500 study seats within faculties and around 1,400 in the residencies.’
However, this total is not entirely representative. Only students living in the residences have access to the libraries there, effectively reducing the total to 6,100 seats for a student population of 30,000. This means there are enough study spaces for only about 20 per cent of students.
While students have the option to study from home, difficulties in adequately heating student houses make this less feasible for many. ‘It’s too cold to study from home,’ Emily says. Kate agrees, explaining that she is usually motivated to go to the library simply to keep warm. ‘Hawthorns has seats sometimes,’ Kate offers, ‘but there’s no heating. I went the other day and managed to last an hour before getting too cold.’ She explains that her fingers became too numb to type – managing to laugh at this rather Dickensian snapshot of university life.
‘They should really give us two weeks of consolidation,’ Emily suggests. ‘That way, more people would go home to revise before exams.’
In the second half of the university’s statement, the spokesperson explains: ‘To support students finding a space in our libraries, we have introduced a study seat finder which gives an indication of availability and is updated hourly where possible.’ While offering an attentive remedy to the seat availability issue, students have noticed that oftentimes it simply reads there is six or even zero per cent availability.
Katie Poyner, the SU Union Affairs Officer, explains that they are opening seminar rooms for people to work in. ‘This initiative aims to tackle how busy campus gets,’ she notes, ‘and to ensure that no one has to struggle for study space on our campus.’ The rooms are accessible from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. during the building’s opening hours, which will continue to operate as such throughout the rest of the academic year. She adds that these spaces are available on a walk-in basis whenever they’re not booked for teaching.
However, despite these efforts, not all students find the seminar rooms a viable solution. Emily, for instance, feels she cannot study as effectively in shared seminar rooms. ‘It’s not the same focused atmosphere and I need to study through the night when I have deadlines,’ she explains. She also highlights a critical issue: ‘I can’t study if a table doesn’t have a plug!’
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We asked the university if there are any plans to expand study spaces given that the student population is projected to increase by another third in the next ten years. This query, however, was left unanswered.
Featured Image: Epigram / Daisy Yates
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