A College
in transition Gordon Campbell highlights recent and coming changes at Union College.
I
n our schools, colleges and universities, the ongoing pandemic has transformed the educational experience for learners and teachers alike – and the same goes for Union College. Yet well before social distancing or lockdown had an impact on our students, Union was already experiencing major change. In the UK generally, theology has been under pressure for some time, with providers closing and options for study reducing. Union, too, has been shrinking since 2018, as our collaboration with Queen’s University (QUB) winds down. Yet simultaneously, under the College’s 1881 Royal Charter, Union’s reach has been extending in exciting new ways. Faculty have been designing, developing and delivering a suite of postgraduate courses, which have been recruiting well; and by next year, Union should also be welcoming new undergraduate students once again.
College life in a pandemic Right now, though, College is a largely empty building with a skeleton staff. On each floor of the Gibson Chambers
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Herald Spring 2021
(our upstairs accommodation), resident students form a bubble; however, in the downstairs student common room, no day students are chilling, chatting or playing pool. Gone is the daily hubbub from the dining room, replaced by a weekly virtual morning coffee and catchup, via MS Teams. Instead of singing, praying or reading Scripture together in the chapel, we have brief online worship. By March last year, most teaching was already online as theology students experienced the same digital learning and take-home assessments as other QUB students. For a while, ministry students had some in-person classes – for instance, biblical languages best acquired and practised in hands-on, face-toface conditions. However, by January
… postgraduate courses… have already attracted students from all four UK nations as well as Germany, Kenya, Namibia and the USA.
2021, even two-week intensive sessions in Hebrew or Greek involved remote learning, and students were positive about the experience. While faculty and students alike are used to working from home, there are obvious disadvantages. Nothing beats live in-person interaction between real people in physical classrooms, especially for group work. The high-quality engagement of on-campus tutorials, seminars or one-to-one supervision is hard to match remotely. Most library resources are for exploiting physically, book or journal in hand. Key formative experiences also happen in collective elements of College life or through impromptu chats and banter between classes, in corridors or on the stairs. And the social aspect is irreplaceable.
Online learning Yet for our postgraduate courses, remote learning is the norm, with almost half our current students enrolled on them. Flexibility and adaptability are the big strengths of online courses. Many students choose part-time study, combining this fruitfully with active
