University College Plymouth St Mark & St John

Who will get a free laptop?
The free laptop scheme is part of the University College's current access agreement with the Office for Fair Access, the public body safeguarding fair access to Higher Education.  The current access agreement covers students enrolling in 2011.  However, from 2012 entry, the government will be implementing a new Higher Education funding system requiring institutions to submit a new Offa agreement.  The free laptop scheme is not permissible under the new guidelines and therefore will not be available for students enrolling from 2012.

The current agreements provides a free laptop computer to all full time undergraduate students (including foundation and top-up degrees) and PGCE students meeting the UK/EU residency requirements and paying the fully allowable (currently £3,375 for 2011 entry) tuition fee.

What will I get?
A Toshiba laptop.

• 15.6" Toshiba TruBrite@ HD TFT High Brightness display with 16 : 9 aspect ratio and LED backlighting internal resolution : 1,366 x 768
• DVD Super Multi drive (Double Layer)
• 2GB RAM
• 250 GB Hard drive
• Cel-M 900 Processor
• 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and lntegrated 10/100 RJ 45 Ethernet network interface
• lntel GMA 4500M Dynamic Video Memory Technology 5.0
• Multi-Card Reader
• Software: Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64-bit, Microsoft Office 2010: (Word, Excel, Powerpoint)
• 4 year (hardware only) warranty from XMA.

Why offer a free laptop?
At UCP Marjon, learning goes well beyond the traditional classroom lectures and
seminars.  Our virtual learning environment (LearningSpace) allows you to study,
have access to learning aids and material, and stay in contact with your lecturers
from just about anywhere or at anytime.  To ensure that all students benefit from
this enriched learning experience, we initiated this groundbreaking laptop scheme.

What’s the catch?
The laptop is yours to do with as you wish. You can sell it or give it away, although
we feel that it will be a real help in your learning experience and as such you’ll
make great use of it.

The only ‘catch’ is if you discontinue your studies prior to Christmas of your first
year, in which case you will be required to return the laptop in good condition or
refund the cost. 

Great so what isn’t included?

We’ve tried to give you a package which gives you hassle free computing during
your time with us. Including hardware warranty and the Microsoft Office 2010 suite of applications.

To avoid the confusion which would be caused by having hundreds of identical
laptop carry cases left around we’ve decided to leave it to you to choose a carry case.
So unless you want to use a supermarket carrier bag (not recommended) you’ll
need to either buy a laptop carry case in advance or wait untill you get here. You
can then buy one from either the College shop, or one of the many local suppliers
who have bags on offer, from £5 for a simple knapsack style to over £100 for the super
deluxe hand-tooled Argentinean leather version.

As for other add-ons and accessories that you could buy – the skies your limit. An
RJ45 patch cable to connect your laptop to a wired network socket would be useful
(on sale in the College shop) and for around £40 you could buy a freeview digital
TV receiver, which will connect to the USB socket on your laptop and enable you
to watch TV on your laptop, saving you the bother of bringing a TV (remember, you’ll
still need a TV license). 

Insurance
Students recommended to provide their own insurance cover.

When do I get my laptop?
On the day you register!

On the main registration day and after completing all those boring but necessary
admin bits you’ll get to collect your laptop. Those whose courses require them to
arrive and register earlier will be also be able to collect their laptop on the main
registration day and those who register later will be able to collect their laptop from
the Computing Services department. Remember if you don’t have a car you’ll be
carrying your laptop home, probably still in its box, so be prepared.

Are you going to provide any help and guidance on using my laptop?
Yes!

There will be a number of open sessions during the induction week to answer all the
common questions you’re likely to need answers to – such as procedures for getting
help, how to backup your data and what the restore CD is for. There is also a web
page which will give help and advice as well as many colourful and informative
posters around the campus.

Further Questions
If you have any further questions please contact David Riggs from computing
services. 

computingservices@marjon.ac.uk
Tel: 01752 636700 (ext 4333)