Educational Studies

Please note: Estates will be reviewing all departments access information via departmental administrators during michealmas 2010. If, in the meantime, you would like to update your information please contact disability@admin.ox.ac.uk. As some of the information is now out of date please use caution when refering to these webpages and contact the department direct for current Access information.

Tel. (01865) 274024

Oxford University Department of Educational Studies Website

This department is located near Lady Margaret Hall, 5-10 minutes from the Science Area and 15-20 minutes walk from the city centre. The Department will give advice on transport options at the beginning of the course; there is some limited parking at the front and rear of 30 Norham Gardens. Students with disabilities have studied successfully in the Department. Indeed, the Department has shown a willingness to accommodate disabled users by modifying teaching and service arrangements and has previously had a student who was a wheelchair user.

Students on PGCE courses and postgraduates are the main users of the Educational Studies Department and they will spend two-thirds of their course in schools within the Oxford area or in Oxfordshire; students should be aware that they would have to find their own transport to the schools they are placed at.

The department has three sites, numbers 15, 28 and 30 Norham Gardens:

15 Norham Gardens

This building contains the majority of the department's facilities. There are no parking facilities for students but there is one designated disabled parking space; more can be designated as required. Access to No 15 is via sloped access but there are changes in levels to a variety of facilities.

The accessible entrance is to the left hand side of the building, down a sloping path. There are two flat entrances, the first with access bell or swipe card. The second entrance is via the back door of the canteen, from which the common room can be accessed -1 stair. Access to elsewhere once inside is +3 stairs. The main entrance into the building, which gives access to the library, is +14 stairs, with handrails right and left.

The ground floor houses a lecture room, staff room, which has previously been used as a computer room for a student who was a wheelchair user and the entrance to the common room. A second lecture room is +2 steps, the other floors containing tutor rooms, teaching rooms, Seminar Room and the General Office and other staff offices can only be accessed via flights of stairs. There is no lift in the building. There is no access to the library, which is extensively used by students. The library is on OLIS and is a lending library. There is a change in level of +3 stairs to the second half of the library. The lighting in the library is good. The Geography resources room is situated at present in the ground floor lecture room 2.

There is an accessible toilet accessed from the first accessible entrance, and situated next to the common room (which is -3 stairs). The department are trying to work out how to ramp the -3 stairs to assist with access (one option is to make a longer ramp to meet specifications).

28 Norham Gardens

This site houses the IT, and computer facilities for students on the ground floor. It is an old Victorian house and is +8 stairs; there is no independent wheelchair access. One teaching room is housed on the basement level, accessible by a side entrance, by key, down a slippery, steep gradient at the right hand side of number 28.

30 Norham Gardens

This building consists mostly of offices but there is one teaching room. Access is via +9 steps from the car park. The basement of this building is now leased to the Culham Foundation. This part of the building is accessed via a side entrance Fire Exit door, down a steep slippery path. The door is narrow at 750mm. Inside the building most of the doors are 690mm. It may be possible to negotiate these widths, but help may be required. An adapted toilet is located in the basement area, but access is via tight spaces and narrow doors; this is also true of access to the rest of the building. There is a teaching room on the ground floor, which is only accessed through the front door (+9 steps).

The 1994 renovations to No 30 have varied in their quality, a slippery slope down to the entrance is difficult, and the door widths inside are very narrow.