Students: help us to understand your travel to campus, by taking part in a (paid) focus group

We know that many of you are concerned about travel to Uni, because of how much money it costs, how long it takes and because of the environmental impact that it has. We are asking you to take part in a focus group, to help us learn more about this. All participants will receive a £10 voucher, to thank them for their time. 

The costs of travelling to campus are likely to be particularly high for you, our CCCU students. Many of you – around two thirds – commute to campus from home, rather than moving to live in halls, or other student accommodation. 

We would like to understand if the costs of travel are affecting your student experience, considering your ability to attend campus, for classes, to meet friends, to access student support and other resources, for example the library, or the Students’ Union. 

Thinking about the environment, we estimate that, at CCCU, student travel to campus emits around 6,800 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, each year. This is about 15% of our total carbon footprint. 

We would like to understand if we could support you to have a greener commute, by finding out if there are different ways that you might be able to access your learning and, if so, how acceptable these would be for you. 

These groups are part of a wider project, as part of CCCU’s response to the climate emergency. To take part, if you are a CCCU student at Canterbury or Medway, please email me at Susan.Kenyon@Canterbury.ac.uk by Friday 8 March, and I will send you more information. Everything that you tell me will be anonymous and confidential and the research has full ethical approval.

By Susan Kenyon, Principal Lecturer in Politics