Room for Improvement: Building the University of Southampton, 1862-Present

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• History of Higher Education in the UK
• History of British architecture from the Victorian period to today.

Subject Specific Practical Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Gather, assimilate and interpret a wide range of primary and second material, including architecture, the built environment, ephemera and other archival materials.
• Comment upon complex debates, citing relevant evidence in support.
• Draw upon your acquired knowledge in written assignments.

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Display effective time management.
• Address sensitive material in a mature and thoughtful fashion.
• Work independently and unsupervised for period of time on a complex task.

Cognitive Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Consider how student life serves to prepare young people for employment, self realisation and service to the greater good.
• Reflect on contemporary attitudes towards university and students, and assess how they have evolved since the late nineteenth century.

The module begins with an overview of the university's history, including a visit to the site of the Hartley Institute, the central site where the university's roots lie, as well as a tour of Highfield Campus in which different architectural styles will be distinguished. Half the module will consider the development of student housing, from converted country houses to Mayflower Halls, as well as from boarding houses to today's commercially-operated residences. Changes in the financing, layout and use of such living accommodation will be considered for what they can teach us about changing student identities and demographics. The other half will consider social, recreational and teaching spaces. The Student Union and the 1970 "sit in" will be a particular focus of study. Throughout the module we will be using ephemera produced by Southampton students - scrapbooks, society newsletters, student newspapers, photographs - as sources alongside buildings, seeking to encourage students to relate both to each other, as well as to broader developments in the social history of Britain across 150 years.

Walking tours

Site Visits

Seminars

Independent reading and research for seminars and essays

Handling sessions in Hartley Library Special Collections

Group work, including creation of a scrapbook of student life today

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.