Multiple Fine Art students (and students across the whole of the SDCA) have complained that they cannot access Adobe software at home to work on their coursework remotely. At the moment, the only option is to use the University computers remotely. This is incredibly impractical as there is a significant lag which makes doing precise work on Photoshop or PremierPro near impossible. Loading big files remotely also causes some devices to crash- students have lost progress on their work this way. 

If students want to buy Adobe software subscriptions themselves, there is a small student discount, however the monthly subscription is still £16.24/month (but their subscription policy means that you are committed to paying this monthly fee for at least a year, you cannot cancel without paying a huge cancellation fee). This adds up to £194.88 for 1 year of access which is not affordable to students living on their maintenance loans- especially when you consider the fees of materials that art and design students have to buy throughout the year. 

It is important that we have access to this software easily because if we are working on a large project, like a film, it is not always possible to use the On-campus computers. It is also inconvenient if students are isolating due to COVID-19. 

Furthermore Loughborough University is ranked as a World Top 30 University for Art and Design and is 2nd in the UK for Art and Design. Other Universities across the country (e.g.: Manchester Met) offer access to Adobe software on students’ own devices- and we feel strongly, as students of Loughborough University, that our tuition fees should go towards providing this kind of service. If it is not possible financially to provide this to all Fine Art students, it would still be an improvement if students that choose to specialise in Photography/ Moving Image can have this kind of access on their own devices, as they use the software all the time throughout the year.

This issue has been brought up before by previous students (informed by our tutors), so we hope you will seriously consider this request.