UNIVERISTY OF LEICESTER STUDENTS’ UNION IMPACT REPORT 2010/2011
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INTRODUCTION Hello, and welcome to the University of Leicester Students’ Union’s first Impact Report. This report outlines the Unions’ activities and achievements over the past academic year. Whilst it will include detailed analysis of the financial aspects of the Students’ Union, it will also include plans made regarding strategy and the approach to the future of the organisation. After overcoming a difficult financial year, the strategic plans as well as the financial forecasts seem to suggest a great 2011-2012 academic year for the Students’ Union. We have also come to embrace a new vision in which the staff are committed to going forward and ensuring that we strive towards excellence and that we provide an exceptional Students’ Experience. Throughout the year we are committed to improving students’ lives at the University by providing crucial services such as Education and welfare support. We are committed to providing exceptional support in these areas and our vision for the next year ensures that it remains our top priority.
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THE UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER STUDENTS’ UNION - AT A GLANCE
5,400 8,230
Registered users on leicesterunion.com
Facebook LIkes and
3,3273,427 on the Freshers Facebook alone
1,420 Following @PercyGee 1,782 tweets
4,000
over survey responses in the Academic year
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WHO WE ARE , AND WHAT WE DO The Students’ Union is led by a Board of Trustees comprising, 5 current or graduating students elected annually by the student body to serve a sabbatical period on the Board. They are supported by four external Trustees who prominent figures from the fields of Business and Education. The Union serves the Student body of the University of Leicester currently
22,803 students, 48% Undergraduate 52% Postgraduate (taught and research). Approximately 9,000 are Full-time home based with 8,500 Distance Learning students. The University attracts students from 67 countries outside of the EU with the largest cohorts being from China and India.
Our staff numbers are in the region of
3,700 with at mix of full and part time working patterns.
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OUR MISSION We work to achieve the advancement of education of students at the University of Leicester by: • Promoting the interests and welfare of students at the University of Leicester during their course of study; • Representing, supporting and advising students; • Being the recognised representative channel between students and the University of Leicester and any other external bodies; • Providing social, cultural, sporting and recreational activities; • Providing forums for discussions and debate for the personal development of its students.’
OUR VISION The Union will inspire all its members to achieve an Exceptional Student Experience
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2010/11 Highlights ‘I love my Academic’ campaign NUS SUEI Bronze award Get Fit for Exams Freshers Week 2010 Executive Officer Elections NUS National Demonstration representation Launch of Team Leicester 19 place rise in BUCS league tables Increase in student Clubs/Societies to 212 over the year Academic Support and Campaigns
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completed nearly 400 individual student pieces of casework over the last academic year.
Whilst we provide support here at the Union, the Education Unit is also a campaigning body aiming to improve the students’ academic experience. Understandably the national tuition fees debate took up a great deal of time and effort and we were committed to fighting the now implemented £9000 fees here at Leicester.
We also had many localised campaigns that came out of the Education Unit over the past year. Using evidence from the National Student Survey regarding the general lack of comprehensive feedback for students regarding assignments and exams, we ran a successful feedback campaign with the aim of improving the time limit that students received feedback and so student could receive feedback through different measures.
One other crucial campaign which occurred before both examination periods was the ‘Get Fit for Exams’ campaign. A joint Union and collaborative campaign with the University with the aim of providing support and space for students to study as well as resources and also knowledge about how to maintain healthy and therefore productive during the examinations. The healthy well-being of students here was the priority and provided significant study advice.
The past Academic year also saw the Education Unit receive national marketing recognition for our ‘I love my Academic’ campaign, which received the bronze award for best internal communications campaign. Acknowledging good teaching and support by tutors in this campaign is also gaining momentum and achieving significant internal exposure and coverage which goes someway to ensuring Academics provide the best support possible to Leicester students.
The Education Unit also runs the course representative system which sees over 380 students representing their peers on their courses to the University. These provide excellent opportunities to obtain feedback and also to develop student leaders. Course representatives receive hours of training from our Union staff so that they can be effective course representatives and have received a lot of praise for their abilities by senior Academics of the University.
2010/11 Highlights
Much of the Students’ Union’s main focus is centred on Academic support and campaigns to improve the education experience at the University of Leicester. The Education Unit is crucial to providing students with support and advice and has
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www.leicesterunion.com Developing student employability skills remains a priority for the Education Unit and the Students’ Union as a whole. We provide extensive training as mentioned above which allows students to take on leadership roles and make presentations etc. However, we also administrate the Students’ Union Leicester Award in which students take part in a year long process whereby they have to take part in various activities and they directly develop employability skills. We have three run by the Students’ Union, one designed for the course reps, and one each for the sports club presidents and society heads. This then ends up on the students’ degree transcript and in turn the HEAR which students receive when they graduate from the University. This gives those students who take part significant advantages and opportunities.
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The meetings are also chaired by the representatives, thus having a positive impact on developing student skills.
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OBJECTIVES FOR THE YEAR AHEAD • Improving the resources for Distance Learner Students. Distance Learners comprise a larger contribution of the total student population and increased provisions and an improvement in accessibility to support mechanisms needs to be improved. • Work to ensure that all students are represented on departmental meetings. Specifically with Postgraduate students, where they are not represented to the same extent as Undergraduates at present. • Continue in the same vain as the Personal Tutor Research project and conduct a research project in conjunction with the University to embed employability skills into the curriculum. • Increase the interaction and data caption activities through an increase in surveys to research into the students at the University and what they require from the Union and how we can best help. This will also feed into critical appraisals of the Education Unit and contribute to the overall continuing improvement of the department. • It is necessary to be more proactive in dealing with the results of the NSS. Increased consultation with the departments in important to work to resolve issues that have arisen from student views. • We need to embrace the vision and work towards ensuring we provide ‘Exceptional Academic support’
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REPRESENTATION
This past academic year has seen vast improvements and developments in the democratic governance and overall engagement of different student demographics. One of the most significant changes that the Students’ Union saw was the establishment of the new Union Constitution which was voted for in the latter stages of the 2009/2010 academic year. There was also the transformation of our Union council into now a Union Parliament and a restructuring of the representation aspect of it. There had been a nature of ineffective councils in the past and so decided to restructure it to increase relevance by introducing proportional representation. This would increase legitimacy of the Union parliament and would take proportional account of all courses at the University of Leicester. In turn we have seen an increased effectiveness of Union parliament with a drastic increase in the number of strategic proposals and contributions by members of Parliament. In order to achieve proportional representation each college receives an allocation of seats for parliament. We also elected Academic members of parliament that were elected from the course representative system. One of the significant changes has been the removal of voting powers of the Executive as it was thought they had too much influence on the voting process. Increased attendances and an improvement in discussions and debates suggests that the overall restructuring has been successful so far. Evidence of increased representation includes the election of a Distance Learner to Union parliament and student on their Erasmus year, and their contributions were received through e-mail and social media avenues.
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www.leicesterunion.com We had a number of priority campaigns planned for the past academic year and the NUS National Demonstration surrounding the tuition fees debate understandably dominated the first semester. We held a referendum at the start of the semester and students voted to fight to keep the cap on tuition fees. Significant effort was made and coordinated by the Campaigns and Involvement Officer to increase engagement with students and we managed to get nearly 1000 students to sign up to the mail base and a total of 350 students attended the National Demonstration in to London which was a brilliant effort. We ran the buses at no cost to students which were a great benefit to those students who were concerned with the future of higher education and also managed to receive sponsorship to help fund some of the buses. Although the student movement did not succeed in its fight to combat the rise in fees, the amount of commitment and the number of students that marched in London demonstrated the power of the student movement.
One of the key priorities of last year was to achieve an increase in voter turnout in the Executive Officer elections. A large review took place as well as research into other Students’ Unions in order to establish the best way to approach the Executive elections in order to increase turnout. Significant changes emerged including a complete transfer to online voting, an increase in voting time and a Union wide priority for promotion of the elections. A large increase in candidates also helped to contribute to an increase in voting and as a result we saw a 42% increase in voting turnout from 2010 and a 96% increase from the 2009 figure. An increase in voting turnout from Distance Learners was also achieved and this was through measures such as streaming online the debates amongst sabbatical officers and by using the University to e-mail the entire student database, publicising the elections. This was seen as a significant achievement as it was the largest turnout we had ever had, and tells us that we were being successful in our approach to the Executive elections.
Our last priority campaign of the year was entitled ‘Blood Brothers’, which aimed to work to campaign for the right for homosexual men to be able to give blood. Looking after various groups as a Students’ Union is extremely important and this saw a large number sign the petition and we will be working with the NUS to ensure it achieves national coverage and will continue to contribute to further findings and research.
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“ Some Objectives for the year ahead • Strive towards securing a higher diversity within Union Parliament by seeking those traditionally harder to reach groups, Postgraduates and Distance Learners being the priority to ensure that their views and issues are represented. • Achieve an election turnout in the Executive Officer elections of 5000, which would be an increase of just under 1000 on the previous year and trying to increase voter turnout amongst Distance Learners. • Strive to achieve the ‘Zero Tolerance Accreditation’ from the NUS on Sexual Harassment for the Students’ Union. • Set up an effective campaigning resource network to achieve greater activism within the Students’ Union. • Make a visit to a Distance Learning hub to establish what they require from the Students;’ Union, i.e. a trip to Hong Kong to improve our engagement so we can cater for their needs.
Perhaps one of the most important changes in the engagement is that we have made significant gains and • Be an exceptional Campaigning Union, campaigning for issues to drastically improve the progress through engaging Distance Learners, student life and experience. post-graduate and Part-time students. A considerable effort was made to increase engagement with these types of student demographics and these were certainly our priority. We managed to get on to the welcome talks for some Distance Learner courses on campus, and have a flyer sent in their mail out when departments which informs the students about the relevant support and services that we offer. The problem with distance learner students is that much of our front-facing Union activity is very much centred around campus based students so therefore an increased awareness of support measures such as the Education Unit is extremely necessary for us to be an effective Union. By coordinating ourselves and working with departments we are able to make significant movements to increase engagements for those student demographics. We also make regular visits to the Part-time college of the University which is about 3miles from the centre of campus to increase publicity and so that we can take full account of the students views. This information gathered often contributes to academic campaigns to ensure that they achieve an exceptional education at the University.
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STUDENT WELFARE & COMMUNITY One of the key aspects of the Students’ Union is to be able to provide welfare support to students, and throughout the last year we have continued to provide and facilitate support as and when students require it. To contribute to this we continue to provide free condoms to students to ensure students remain safe, and these are easily accessible to students. The entire Welfare department in the Students’ Union consists of members of University staff, with added support from our Welfare and International sabbatical officer and campaigns are run in coordination with the department and to meet issues proactively and importantly reactively as well, as issues may arise that need urgent attention. Rather than large campaigns last year, it was more important to specialise on certain activities and issues that have been a concern. For example, weekly times for students to visit
Significant effort has been made to engage and involve the local community in the Union activity. For example, we helped to organise local events such as the Christmas fair in which we worked in collaboration with the city Council in closing off roads etc. We were at the centre of the planning stages of the first ever Christmas fair in Leicester. Regarding the wellbeing of our students living in accommodation in the local community, we went round visiting students in the local community to investigate problems that existed whilst they were living in the area to establish potential campaign ideas and to ensure that our students were living comfortably, safely and securely.
Objectives for the year ahead • To create a peer support Mental Health group to support those students at the University who are seeking support for such issues where there is currently no support network provided by the Students’ Union. • There is currently a gap in student employability. Even though we employ over 400 casual student staff, there is still not enough provision for part-time work. Like other unions we would like to bring back a ‘Job Shop’ to improve student employability whilst they study at University. • Provide students with more information regarding seeking private accommodation to remove the stigma of the need of students to rush and seek houses after they leave Halls and give students talks and information on what to look for upon renting private accommodation. • Links need to be improved between the Students’ Union, the English Language Teaching Unit and the International Student Association to improve relationships with the Students’ Union to ensure that we provide the support necessary to cater for all students.
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ACTIVITIES: SPORTS, SOCIETIES & MEDIA Last year saw the development of new sports branding, encompassing all sport under one unified heading: Team Leicester. There were several aims for this, including increased unification of the sports clubs to bring them together and develop a sense of team spirit around support with a uniformed approach to team kit. Team spirit has been something which is Leicester has lacked and opened us up to sponsorship opportunities and those companies that will be able to sponsor the whole of Leicester support. This opened up initially with a sponsorship deal from KPMG which has gone into developing sports further and improve our BUCS ranking. On this subject the University in conjunction with the Students’ Union rose 19 places in the BUCS league tables last year which demonstrates that we are moving in the right direction with sport. The Students’ Union also played a significant role in securing planning permission for the new sports facilities which will drastically improve the student experience in this area from 2012.
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development of new branding which has opened us up to increased sponsorship opportunities amongst other things.
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Societies have also improved
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drastically increasing in their number to Which also contributes to increased engagement and increased membership of various societies. We have also continued to implement our funding accreditation system whereby we reward active societies with increased funding if they have taken part in various actions or achieved various things over the year, to encourage societies to be even more active.
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www.leicesterunion.com We have three media groups, LUSH radio, LUST television and the Ripple, the Students Newspaper. Our efforts last year were to try and get them to work together close and to coordinate publications to improve quality. Part of this approach was to place them together within a Media suite so they could all work together, this is still in its early stages and but we are confident it will be a large success in the future. All media groups published more content than ever before last year, covering lots of events and reaching out to a large number of students. Objectives for the year ahead •Reform the financial system regarding society and activities financing to make the access to funds and to society money a lot easier to access for societies to remove a degree of bureaucracy that exists surrounding financial control and access. •To run at least one Olympic 2012 related involvement campaign to excite students about the Olympics and to increase their activities and get Leicester more involved. •To celebrate our achievements and submit one item from each media group to the NUS Student Media Awards.
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OUR GOVERNANCE, STRUCTURE AND MANAGENT Our Union is served by a board of Trustees headed by the Academic Affairs Officer Academic Affairs Officer ALEX NUTT
Keith Julian
Neville Reed
Alison Shakespeare
James Hunt
Lily Davis
Suzi Burtenshaw
Thom French
Fenian O'Dughaen
Chief Executive
Sales & Marketing
Finance
Central Services
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Alison Shakespeare M.A. F.C.A Alison Shakespeare is employed as Business Director and Company Secretary of Leicester Grammar School Trust, the registered charity which operates two independent schools: Leicester Grammar School and Leicester Grammar Junior School. This role carries responsibility for all the non teaching functions within the schools including finance, IT, HR and facilities. The schools have on role in excess of 1200 pupils aged 3-18 and employ 150 staff.
Alison read geography at Fitzwilliam College Cambridge before training as a chartered accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Manchester. After a brief period working in forensic accountancy she moved into the not for profit sector and worked as Head of Finance for the Arts Council in the East of England region and then as Head of Finance at Connexions Leicester Shire.
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James Hunt Director of Finance James Hunt has been Director of Finance at the University of Leicester since February 2005. His role is to look after the financial affairs of the University as a whole, which has a turnover of some £260m. He also is the line manager for the University’s commercial activities and knowledge exchange services office. The role also includes being a Director of the University’s subsidiary companies, and a Trustee of the University Pension Scheme. He was for 3 years, Deputy Chairman of the British Universities Finance Directors Group. Prior to his appointment as Director of Finance, James was the Deputy Finance Officer (Development) and then Director of Finance at the University of Warwick for some 16 years. Before joining Warwick, James worked as a financial planner for Coventry City Council and as an Economic Development Officer in Botswana. He holds a Degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford, and an MBA from Warwick.
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Keith Julian Retired as Registrar and Secretary of the University in July 2006 after over thirty four years of service. He was educated at Wyggeston Boys’ Grammar School, Leicester (now Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College) and St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, graduating in 1968 with a degree in Modern and Medieval Languages. After a period as a trainee Librarian at the University of Leicester Library and as an Administrative Assistant at Loughborough University, he re-joined the University of Leicester in 1972 as a Senior Administrative Assistant in the Academic Office. Over the next twenty years he progressed through the administrative ranks, focusing increasingly on planning, resource allocation and financial strategy. In 1986 he was appointed Financial Secretary, responsible for the formulation of financial policies and the development of institutional strategic plans. In 1993, he was appointed Registrar and Secretary and head of the University’s administration, which by the time of his retirement numbered around 1200 staff.
During the period of Mr Julian’s Registrarship, the University’s student population rose from 9,500 to over 18,000. Much of this expansion was due to the development of programmes offered both overseas and in the UK by distance learning, an initiative which he developed and managed during the 1990s.
He also oversaw and made fit for purpose the expansion of the administration to meet all the major developments which have come to characterise the current higher education system: the external quality assurance of teaching, the research assessment exercise, the sustained expansion of home and international student numbers and the development of the physical estate. Alongside this, he ensured that sound governance structures were in place to meet increasing requirements for public accountability, efficiency and value for money.
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OUR SERVICES & FACILITIES
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FINANCIAL HEALTH
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£4,788,684
ULSU’s gross income from all sources this year
Total expenditure was
£4,599,539 resulting in a surplus for the year of
increasing ULSU's total reserves from £441,979 to
£189,145
£631,124
ULSU has continued to benefit from the recognition and support of the University, and during this year the annual block grant went up to
£714,158.
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The Union's trading subsidiary operates a number of trading operation including: a live music venue; two shops; a bar; a restaurant; Starbucks franchise and a conference trade. This was the first year of operation for most of these activities and a number of problems arose from the late opening of the building and sales forecasts not being achieved.
This resulted in the trading surplus being much reduced to just.
ÂŁ20,461
which is covenanted to the Union
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Income
Expenditure
Bars & Live Music.......................... £1,463,644 Restaurant & Shops..................... £1,182,648 External Sales................................. £230,562 University Grants.......................... £1,315,655 Sports Grants & Societies.......... £81,892 Student Activities......................... £214,284
2% 5%
Stock & live music costs......................... £1,268,655 Student Wages.......................................... £481,007 Trading Staff Costs................................... £326,979 Building Maintenance............................ £375,042 Campaigns & Communications.......... £57,434 Student Services....................................... £616,940 Education & Representation................ £94,774 Trading Expenses..................................... £489,338 Governance................................................ £332,568 Finance & Administration...................... £255,531
33%
29%
8%
6% 30%
11% 5%
26%
2%
14%
11% 9%
8%
1%
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