We’re delighted that our students voted us the ‘Best Independent HE’ provider at this year’s WhatUni Awards, but more important still is that we constantly strive to listen and respond to the wants and needs of our students. With this in mind, we thought we’d take this opportunity to share some of our student feedback and the ways in which we’ve tried to improve the study experience at pointblank based on what we hear directly from them.
Of these most recent updates, perhaps the most important is the introduction of several measures to improve the well-being of our students. It’s great that the subject of mental health in music is now widely talked about (one of our own instructors, Saytek, recently gave a very candid interview on the subject), and we must build on this momentum to put measures in place to help students when they need it. To do this we have employed a Student Counsellor at the school, and have developed a wellbeing module in our Virtual Learning Environment to offer students some additional resources for self-care, how to recognise problems and how to seek help when it’s needed. Not only that, but for World Mental Health Day in October, we are organising an event along with partners like Help Musicians UK and the Musicians Union to raise as much awareness and build as develop as many tools as possible to help our students to live well.
We have adding additional genres within our teaching materials and channels
Another important update has been the introduction of a broader spread of genres (such as grime) within our learning materials, something our students have been keen to see happen. With people like Nat Powers and Bamz coming in for track breakdowns as well, it’s an area we’re really looking to expand. Meanwhile, all of our NI Maschine course content has been updated to use the latest Maschine MK 3, whilst our Ableton and Logic-focused material has also been completely updated to feature the latest versions of these DAWs, all at the request of our students.
Another area of improvement desired by a large body of students has been increased collaboration and interaction, and there are a couple of ways we’ve looked to implement this. Firstly, the now-termly student mixer events have been created to try and encourage students to meet and discuss ideas, while Music Entrepreneur students regularly put on DJ gigs which are a great place to meet some like-minded musicians. Not only that, but we’ve recently formalised a relationship with the Royal College of Music for their students to collaborate with our advanced mixing and engineering students. See an example of this below with the latest class’ re-recording of Amy Winehouse’ Love is a Losing Game.
Students from the Royal Academy of Music now collaborate with our students every year
All of these improvements are down to our student body, and a strong student voice is essential for the school to be the best it can be. Much of the thanks is owed to the student representatives who always work tirelessly to help out their classmates and improve the school.
Our student representatives are a key part of ensuring we keep a close ear on student feedback
As ever, we’re constantly trying to improve the service we offer our students, so if you’re a student reading this and have any suggestions or feedback, please let us know! If you’re not a student but would like to be a part of a responsive and dynamic school, check out our full range of courses here in London. Our BA (Hons) in Music Production and Sound Engineering just saw its first batch of graduates while our brand new BA (Hons) in Music Production and DJ Practice launches in September. Both are quality assured by Middlesex University. Any questions? Give us a call.
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