Our approach to teaching and learning

It’s all about you and Surrey becoming partners in learning.

Successful people know how to work with others in order to achieve their goals. That strong instinct for positive collaboration runs throughout this University, and your personal tutor will help you to take control over your own teaching and learning.

This approach works for you throughout your time as a Surrey student, helping you to build the foundations for your future success.

Putting this partnership in a context of cutting edge facilities is why Surrey graduates have a vital head start.

The Library and Learning Centre

Facilties and Services

Our refurbished and extended Library & Learning Centre is the striking new building right at the heart of our campus. As well as being the academic centre of the University, it also includes the AppleSeed bookshop and a popular ground floor meeting area.

The building is wifi-enabled throughout, with quiet and silent areas for concentrated individual study, communal meeting spaces for groupwork, and bookable rooms for discussions and practice based study.

There are 1,240 study spaces, open-access PC areas and labs, sound and image collections with viewing and listening facilities, specialist language learning facilities and resources for language self study, self-service issues and returns, printing and photocopying facilities, and an informal learning zone with quick access to email and internet.

The Library is open daily, staying open 24 hours a day from Sunday to Friday during semester with long opening hours during vacations.

We also provide an academic librarian for your subject area who will introduce you to the Library and help you to find and use the information resources for your academic needs.  

SPLASH

Located within the Library, the Student Personal Learning and Study Hub – SPLASH – is a flexible, student-centred area that we have specifically developed to help you enhance your study.

Student Learning Advisors in SPLASH will help you to develop your study strategies and your transferable skills, plan your personal and academic development and provide opportunities for one to one guidance. Workshops and drop-in sessions will sharpen your skills in all-important areas including academic writing, managing time, presentation skills and revision strategies.

Your degree programme’s academic librarian will also work from SPLASH, providing face-to-face help and information-skills workshops.

Learning technologies

University IT

The digital world will play a big part in your time with us. Whether you are using one of the 700 PCs in our open access PC rooms for research, connecting to our wireless network or working from home using our off campus secure web access, IT Services will always provide you with efficient and innovative IT solutions.

All of our Courts of Residence feature a wired broadband network service known as ResNet. This service – which is included as part of your accommodation package – can also be found in some open access areas. We give you a personal storage area on our central filestore and an email address with a 25GB inbox, as well as providing useful software packages under a site licence. We offer a number of online courses to improve your IT skills, and you will also have access to printing, copying and scanning facilities.

Learning technologies

We have recently introduced a revolutionary new online learning environment called SurreyLearn.

Using computers and mobile devices to create a personalised online setting, this new learning environment will allow you to work with fellow students through groupwork, discussions and blogs, as well as giving lecturers the means and flexibility to set coursework and communicate with you virtually, putting all interactions in one easily accessible place.

Other online technologies at Surrey include an e-portfolio, where you can plan and record your learning and development, and media streaming so your lecturer can make videos and TV programmes available to you.

Learning environments

Learning technology is also used in face-to-face teaching sessions. For example, you may find yourself using an electronic voting handset in lectures. These allow all students in the class to respond anonymously to questions asked by the lecturer, making learning more interactive and tailored to your needs.

Where relevant, our programmes use the very latest equipment. Whether it’s our new inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer and nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer, or the state-of-the-art stage, sound and lighting arrays at our Ivy Arts Centre, you’ll be learning on the same technology that the professionals use in their labs and studios.

A great example is the School of Health and Social Care’s high-tech Simulation Centre, which is one of the largest in the UK. This flexible training facility has two multi-bedded wards, a multi-bedded ICU/A&E resuscitation bay and a fully equipped operating theatre. The Centre also allows students to gain confidence in a wide variety of important clinical skills using high-fidelity, computerised, human patient simulators.  

View some of our learning environments through our 360˚ virtual tour feature.

Support for students with disabilities or learning difficulties

Additional Learning Support

If you have a disability or a specific learning difficulty, such as dyslexia, Additional Learning Support (ALS) is here to help you.

ALS works to make the transition to studying at university as stress-free as possible by providing a number of support services for people with additional needs.

We encourage you to disclose any disability on your application form. This means that ALS can make sure your support needs are properly assessed and managed. However, if you prefer, we are happy to discuss your support needs in complete confidence.

ALS is based in the Library and can help you with special examination arrangements, dyslexia screening and referral for dyslexia assessments, one-to-one learning support and help with applying for the Disabled Students’ Allowance (international or European students are not eligible for DSA). We also provide a support service which includes note-takers in lectures and scribes for exams or library support.

ALS works closely on your behalf with departments and support services within the University. We also liaise closely with external providers of support including Social Services and the Surrey Physical and Sensory Support Service.

Assistive technology

The University holds a site licence for MindGenius. This software can be accessed from all the open access PCs in the University. In addition, the Library Assistive Technology Centre provides a study area with a document-reading scanner, JAWS (a text to speech program), Texthelp – Read and Write, and Inspiration.

Studying overseas

Putting an extra dimension into your learning and teaching isn’t just about facilities and technology. It’s about a desire for that extra edge. An international experience provides just that.

We have strong partnerships with academic institutions in countries including Brazil, China and the USA. These partnerships provide specific course-related opportunities to spend part of your degree abroad, adding international experience to your studies and building up your network of global contacts. Professional Training placements can also be spent abroad in many instances. The Global Graduate Award is fun in its own right but also provides great preparation for going abroad to study or work.