Student experience in the School of Arts, Culture and Language boosted by the 69��ý Fund

During the last meeting of the 69��ý Fund allocations committee, funding of £12,000 was granted to the School of Arts, Culture and Language for their project aimed at fostering a greater sense of community across the School and at broadening students’ understanding of their subject areas. The project was aimed primarily at second and final year students as these cohorts suffered the most in terms of lost opportunities as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Money from the 69��ý Fund, which is administered by the Development and Alumni Relations Office, was used over five strands of activity:

Music on the Move:

Two professional, practice-led events including an Improvisation Day (in collaboration with the 69��ý Music Festival), a mini-conference to discuss improvisation within music with three guest artists and an overnight trip to BBC NOW’s Composition: Wales Project in Cardiff Bay.

English Expeditions:

An ongoing series of day excursions to key libraries and archives for Arthurian, medieval, modern, material texts, Victorian and creative writing students.

Film Foray:

Attendance at the Gogs International Short Film Festival in Colwyn Bay, aimed at students of media and film.

Languages of Liverpool:

Aimed at all language students, this strand saw an excursion to Liverpool to visit the Walker Art Gallery and the International Museum of Slavery. Students also benefitted from a series of professional, practice-led events consisting of intensive half-day professional masterclasses for media production students with external speakers from the media industries and employability-based lunchtime talks with experts from the world of publishing.

Penrhyn Castle Day Trip:

Media students were given the opportunity to visit Penrhyn Castle where they were encouraged to reflect on how the past is represented to the public in a venue with a complex history.

Over 100 students took part across the disciplines and many staff gave of their time to support the events.

Professor Carol Tully, Professor of German in the School of Arts, Culture and Language said, “We are very pleased with the outcomes of the project. We saw students from across cohorts interacting and developing new links and friendship groups and many students commented that the events they attended had really broadened their horizons and had given them new experiences. As employability is such a key issue, it was great to see students engaging with established professionals in their respective fields too. Most importantly, students really enjoyed themselves! We’re very grateful to the 69��ý Fund for enabling us to give our students these fantastic experiences.”

Emma Marshall, Head of Development and Alumni Relations, said “We’re all aware of how difficult the pandemic was for students and how opportunities were missed over that period, so we’re very pleased to be able to boost the student experience for students within the School of Arts, Cultures and Language with donations from our generous alumni.”

The 69��ý Fund enables the University to deliver a margin of excellence or an element of “additionality” to the student experience. The 69��ý Fund Allocations Committee meets annually in the autumn and a call out for applications will be emailed to all Heads of Schools and Departments early in the new semester.

Donors to the 69��ý Fund can choose to designate their donations within three broad categories:

Vice-Chancellor’s Fund – These funds support the University's most important priorities as identified by the University’s strategic plan.
Student Support – This fund provides scholarships, bursaries, field trips, internships, travel grants and other direct student support. It also supports initiatives that enhance the student experience and contribute significantly to campus life.
Welsh Language and Culture – This fund reflects the mission to provide support for all Welsh language and cultural activities throughout the institution.

For further information click here: /giving/annual-fund or email Persida Chung, Development Officer, on p.v.chung@bangor.ac.uk