Recent changes in the fees regime for students in Higher Education in England have led to an increased urgency to respect the ‘student voice’ in all areas of student/institutional interaction. With the public perception of ‘Generation Y’ accommodating a ‘digitally native’, ‘information technology savvy’ student body, higher education institutions have increasingly turned towards ‘digital pedagogy’ and technological innovation as a way to encourage and attract students.

The continuing growth of ‘Bring Your Own Device’ (BYOD) initiatives, enabling students to access both academic and support information across a range of personally owned devices, assumes that this is ‘what students want’. Recent research across a number of HEIs in the south of England suggests that, rather than wanting to access information ‘anytime, anyplace, anywhere’ on their own devices, students paying £9k a year for the privilege actually want to have a desktop PC provided on University premises for them to use at any time.

This ‘retro-technological’ approach is problematic for HEIs, who have been closing PC-based classrooms for the last 10 years. This paper is illustrated by current developments at the University of Chichester to increase the number of student PCs available in our Learning Resource Centres.