Interview P06 | SYNTHETIC transcript for training | Topic: hybrid working and campus
Participant: part-time MSc student, urban planning, works full time (pseudonym P06)
INT = interviewer

INT: Thanks for joining. How does your study fit around the rest of your week?
P06: I work full time for a housing association, so the course is evenings and
     one Saturday a month. I come to campus for the evening sessions on a
     Wednesday, and everything else is online.
INT: How do you travel on those evenings?
P06: I get the tram straight from work. It's easy on the way in, but coming
     home at nine at night is less fun. The tram gets quieter, the stop near my
     house isn't well lit, and in winter I'd rather not be waiting there.
INT: Is safety something you think about a lot?
P06: In the dark months, yes. I'll text my partner when I'm on the tram. It
     shouldn't be something you have to plan, but it is.
INT: What does campus offer you on those evenings?
P06: The contact with the others on the course, mainly. We're all working
     professionals, so the chat before the session is almost as useful as the
     session itself. Someone's always dealing with a planning problem at work
     that's exactly what we're studying.
INT: And the online parts?
P06: I couldn't do the course without them. Recorded lectures mean I can
     catch up on a Sunday morning. If it were all in person, I'd have had to
     choose between my job and the degree.
INT: Are there downsides to studying from home?
P06: The kitchen table again. Work laptop on one side, study laptop on the
     other. Sometimes I'm doing both at once, which isn't great.
INT: How do you switch off?
P06: The allotment, mostly. I took on a plot last spring, and it's saved my
     sanity. This year it was the tomatoes. I tried six varieties, and the
     yellow cherry ones did best by miles. The big beefsteak ones split after
     all that rain in August. My neighbour on the next plot swears by feeding
     them with comfrey, so I've planted a patch of that for next year. You
     wouldn't believe the politics of allotment committees, either.
INT: That sounds like a good escape. Coming back to campus, how well do the
     spaces work for evening students?
P06: Not brilliantly. The café shuts at four, so you arrive straight from work
     with nothing to eat. And most of the building feels shut up for the night.
     It's a bit like we're guests after hours.
INT: Is there anything you'd change?
P06: Something to eat, and a lit route from the building to the tram stop. And
     it would be good if the online parts and the evening sessions were
     planned together, so the in-person time is used for discussion, not
     slides we could watch at home.
INT: Anything else?
P06: Only that the flexibility is why I'm here. For people like me, hybrid
     isn't a perk. It's the only way we can study at all.
INT: Thank you very much.

[End of interview]
