On Monday 25 February we welcomed our Chancellor, His Royal Highness The Earl of Wessex, to tour the Virgil Building. The tour focused on student-facing activity and the Institute of Coding (IoC). He met with IoC staff, staff and students from the Students' Union, and staff from the Careers Service and Finance.

The Chancellor was first introduced to Dr Rachid Hourizi, Director of the Institute of Coding, and Caron Staley, Institute Manager. Rachid and Caron gave an overview of progress made since the launch of the Institute last year and showed a short film which talked about the work of the IoC consortium, a £40 million initiative supported by the UK government. It also explained how each of the five themes of work will address two key problems; the high demand for highly skilled IT and digital specialists and making sure that graduates meet industry requirements.

This was followed by a presentation by Dr Michael Wright, Senior Teaching Fellow, Department of Computer Science, on the University’s Digital Master’s Degree Apprenticeship initiative:

The University of Bath and the Institute of Coding (IoC) are working with J.P. Morgan on a new Digital Degree Apprenticeship programme, designed to enable the bank’s experienced employees to gain a master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Bath while they work.

The Chancellor was then shown the Student Leaders’ Hub, a facility for those who are elected to positions of responsibility, such as presidents of student societies and student representatives, and met with Jack Kitchen, Education Officer, and Mandy Wilson-Garner, Students’ Union Deputy Chief Executive. Jack and Mandy gave an overview of Students’ Union activities and introduced some student trainers and students from two enterprise groups, Bath Entrepreneurs and Enactus.

The Earl of Wessex was then given a tour of the lower floors of the Virgil Building, including the Learning Commons and new Students’ Union café. He also met student representatives from across the Students’ Union including:

  • Academic Representatives
  • SU Executive Committee members from Academic, Societies and Sport Executives and Elections Committee
  • African and Carribean Society
  • Bath Time magazine, CampusTV
  • Bath University Student Theatre (BUST) and Bath University Student Musicals (BUSMs)
  • Dance Society
  • Raise and Give