IMPACT REPORT 2013/2014
CONTENTS Theme 1 Supporting students’ academic success, employability & personal development
theme 2 Giving students an enriching and fun student life
theme 3 Looking after student wellbeing and finances
YEAR IN NUMBERS themes 4 and 5 Improving student engagement, communication & insight
Theme 6 Developing our people
Theme 7 Ensuring sustainable practice
Key Results From Rate Your Union 2014 Key Trends
4 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22
Introduction
A
t the end of each academic year Huddersfield Students’ Union publishes an impact report, so students can see how we’re getting on with our mission - making student life better. The report is made accessible for students in a number of different forms, including video, print material, on our website and via social media. We’re proud of this year and have achieved a lot for students, but we also know there is more to do. We are now six months into our new four-year strategy to 2018, and early progress towards the seven strategic aims and enablers shows we have a firm foundation to continue having a positive impact on students’ lives. We hope you enjoy reading about our year and if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in contact.
Nosheen Dad SU President 2013/14
Coco Toma
VP Comms & Democracy 2013/14
Josh Elderfield VP Education 2013/14
Matt Wheelton VP Student Activities 2013/14
Theme 1 Supporting students’ academic success, employability and personal development
O
ver the course of the year we ran a number of change campaigns, all directly targeted at improving the experience of students at Huddersfield.
The Education Manifesto: This was a significant publication and lobbying campaign for improvements to the academic experience of students. This resulted in a number of University commitments, for example: to change feedback forms to allow students to specify specific feedback they want, to implement module choice fairs in all academic schools in 2014/15, to allow students to ‘feedback on feedback’ and a new communications campaign on referencing for all first year students. Extra Course Costs: This initiative consulted with over 400 individuals in a week and resulted in a publication of 11 recommendations for the University to consider that would significantly reduce the cost of studying for students. After working in partnership with the Institution’s Senior Team, the University has now agreed to scrap fee waivers and instead, provide a thousand £1000 cash bursaries to students. This puts £1m back into the pockets of our members.
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The Immigration Bill: Our Officers joined the national campaign against the latest immigration bill, fighting to exempt international students from a number of harmful clauses. We met with two MPs and successfully lobbied one to vote against the bill’s passage. Cuts to the Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA): Our Officers and Union Councillors joined the high profile campaign against government cuts to the DSA, lobbying local MPs and taking part in the NUS convened day of action. The International Experience Manifesto for Change: Our Officers and Union Councillors ran a consultation with International Students on changes they want to see in the University and the Students’ Union. This resulted in a full report, full of useful recommendations that are now being implemented.
“Being part of a society has not only given me the opportunity to meet likeminded individuals and to gain new skills and experiences, but has also allowed me to grow as a person.”
Katy Lindberg RAG Committee
“During my time as representative, I have seen myself grow professionally and personally by reflecting on my skills in teamwork, leadership and problem solving. To receive recognition for my contribution, really inspired me and solidified my need to continue working with such an enthusiastic dedicated team.”
Nadine Rooney Course Rep
Provided more support for our Course Reps: This year we have seen a 42% increase in the number of Reps appointed/tracked, with a 60% increase in the number we have trained (221 up to 325). We’ve also launched a termly one-to-one meeting system and a monthly electronic newsletter, keeping Reps up to date with training sessions and positive changes that they’ve made. Some examples of changes we’ve supported Course Reps in making are: 1. Extra lockers bought and installed for biological science students who have a high number of contact hours on campus each day. 2. The extension of opening hours for a café on the outskirts of campus, with a reduction in the price of hot water for students bringing their own hot drinks. 3. The introduction of formal mock exams, to give students real exam practice. 4. The purchase of extra screens for all the design PCs in the laboratory to aid working. 5. The reinstallation of a water fountain after it was removed and students complained.
Developed our social policy work for students: We have formalised the link between our Advice Centre and student representation functions. An example of this success can be seen in our work for social work students - who were facing council tax after graduation even though they were still enrolled on their courses. After seeing a number of similar cases, our Officers have helped by arranging for the issue of Council Tax Exemption Certificates so that students can claim reimbursement for previous years.
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We also secured a reversal of a decision made by a local student housing company, Vanilla Lettings, on when rent payments would be deducted from student accounts - getting them to delay until after loans were paid. This directly impacted over 600 students. Made major changes to our volunteering offer: Whilst we continue to promote opportunities with external charities, we have also committed to establishing and supporting our own projects. These are student-led, with a team of trained and supported student leaders creating opportunities for their peers to volunteer. In one year we have already established four new schemes which are thriving: 1. HarvestHud: growing food at our Storthes Hall allotments and collecting dry goods for the Welcome Centre. 2. Knitter Natter: a befriending scheme where students spend the afternoon knitting in a local Age UK day centre. 3. Huddersfield Student Victim Support: a partnership with Victim Support, where a team of 14 student volunteers will provide victim support guidance to students, staff and members of the public. 4. Uni Ask: a peer-to-peer technology support network in collaboration with the Library - training student volunteers to help other students via an online hub.
We also recently held our biggest ever Student Volunteering Week - culminating in a Saturday event (Students at the Heart of Huddersfield) where over 50 students volunteered across five different community projects during the day - this was covered significantly by the local media.
Improved our training and recognition of student leaders: Our STARS programme grew substantially, with more sessions than ever delivered to support our student leaders. We’ve doubled the number of our members looking to submit a portfolio for University accreditation this year - with over 100 students reflecting on their experience in Students’ Union activities from a professional skills perspective.
“Volunteering with Knitter Natter as well as in other projects, has shown me the value of donating my time helping those less fortunate than myself. Volunteering is infectious”
Emily Turney Volunteer project leader (Knitter Natter)
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Theme 2 Giving students an enriching and fun student life
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I
nvestment in the team has allowed us to devote resources to increasing the level of support we provide our clubs and societies, which we know are a vital source of support and fun for students on campus. We have targeted growth in our academic and international societies, reflecting the change in our student population and motivations of our members.
Provided more opportunities for participation: We launched our first ever Give it a Go programme in term two with a range of different taster sessions, trips, activities and volunteering opportunities for students to get involved in. This meant club and society memberships continued to grow throughout the second half of the year.
A particular success this year has seen the Students’ Union rebuild our Raise and Give group, with targeted Officer and Staff support to develop the committee and run our first major RAG week in five years - which raised £2,000 through a series of high profile events run by students.
Gave students a warm welcome to Huddersfield: This year we launched and ran our broadest ever Freshers’ Festival. This included a whole week of events (both day time and evening), which for the first time ever sold out over two weeks early. A snapshot of the really positive satisfaction scores is given below.
Welcomed all students back in January: We ran a full Refreshers’ Week programme of events - the first we’ve ever run. We had over 700 students on HudCrawl Part II, 300 students packed out the Lawrence Batley Theatre for HudComedy (which trended nationally on Twitter), and loads of students enjoyed the free live music in our partner bar Rhubarb on the Friday. We also hosted a sports fair, societies fair, volunteering fair, housing fair, and launched a brand new Give it a Go programme. Ran our biggest away Varsity ever: Over 600 students/supporters made the trip over to Bradford in our biggest annual sporting contest. Although we finished the day off with a win in the last fixture, we gracefully conceded the points competition to Bradford after lots of social media banter, which engaged our students and aided promoting Huddersfield’s University of the Year award. Signed a partnership with a local venue: The venue now offers significant discounts on food and drink for students, alongside providing free space for events and activities for our student groups.
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Theme 3 Looking after student wellbeing and finances
O
ur Student Advice team has continued to see a rise in demand for the service, in keeping with the previous three years. This has been driven by the introduction of a ‘gateway advice’ post, helping to triage student cases and free up casework time for others. In 2013 we also secured the Advice Quality Standard this year, demonstrating the quality of our service. We have also significantly upscaled our outreach and proactive support work, for example:
Dissertation Survival Guides: We secured £5,000 from the University to develop and distribute 1000 survival packs to final year students face-to-face. They were jam-packed full of handy tips, coping mechanisms, other advice and fun items to engage students. Student Money Week: This was a weeklong series of events and workshops to help students budget better and make sure their student loan applications were made on
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time. We launched our Student Money Guide (distributing over 500 hard copies), as well as an innovative online budgeting device. This is now used by the University when administering the Access to Learning Fund. Housing Week: Alongside Refreshers’ Week, we kicked off Housing Week with a rejuvenated housing fair, inviting high quality providers on to campus. Alongside this we held a contract checking service and published/ distributed our first Student Housing Guide. Keep Your Cool: To coincide with our main exam period, we teamed up with various University support departments to provide a series of events and activities. These were conducted over the course of a month to help students through their exams.
“I was struggling financially and my student finance hadn’t come through. I went to see the Advice Centre who called the loans company on my behalf and my student finance appeared in my bank account just a few days later.”
Anonymous Advice Centre User
“The SU helped me build on my passionate ideas and start a society, supporting me every step along the way, always reliable and very encouraging.”
Natali BergeR STARS participant
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Themes 4 and 5 Improving Student Engagement, Communication & Insight Continued to improve our elections: This year we completely redeveloped our March elections, focusing on each of the key stages more clearly (standing, voting and the results). We had 58 total candidates (57 last year), with a turnout of 25% (24% last year). We switched voting off during the hours of 9pm - 7am which had a significantly positive impact on the welfare of candidates, ethos and quality of the campaigns. Evolved our democratic structure: This included making the role of Union Councillor more formal, introducing one-to-one meetings, and implementing an honorarium to recognise and reward the time given up by our students. We also reintroduced portfolio representatives, who have helped us engage with underrepresented groups much more effectively. This has led to real policies being passed by our students such as: 1. A mandate to lobby the University to improve childcare provision on campus for students with dependents. 2. A new zero-tolerance policy to strengthen the Students’ Union’s opposition to sexual harassment on campus. 3. A mandate to lobby the University to implement gender-neutral toilets across campus.
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4. A mandate to lobby the University to lobby for the provision of a full time Muslim chaplain on campus, to reflect the faith requirements of our campus population.
Relaunched our website: We now have a brand new platform provided by the National Union of Students. We have implemented several new online ticketing and event functions to support our student groups. We have since become one of the most active partners in the NUS Digital collaboration and regularly support other Students’ Unions on the platform. Our website now attracts approximately 30% more hits than this time last year, and we have published well over 130 more news stories championing student success - up more than 500% on last year. Prioritised face-to-face engagement: This was achieved by introducing an element into every Union campaign/focus week that involved Exec Officers talking directly to students, which has amounted to over 210 hours this year alone. Introduced a termly communications grid: This has really driven our communications, making sure the organisation strikes the balance between promoting all areas of the Union’s work, and ensuring Officers are at the forefront of how we engage with students.
Introduced monthly impact reporting: As well as our annual report, each month we’ve highlighted three things we’ve done to make student life better at Huddersfield. This has ensured we’re constantly engaging with members on the ‘impact’ agenda, demonstrating relevance and effectiveness throughout the year. More video content: Responding to student feedback, we’ve invested in our multimedia production and have published 59 different videos this year on a range of topics from events promotion, to Officer blogs, to campaigns. Collectively, these have attracted over 25,000 views. Social media planning: In line with changing student habits, we have implemented a more structured approach to our social media, with regular live tweeting and posting on Facebook to promote our events and activities. Rate Your Union Survey: To ensure we’re getting the best evidence possible on how effective we are, we’ve committed to running an annual Rate Your Union survey. This year over 700 students completed it, with 83% agreeing that the Students’ Union has a positive impact on their lives at University.
“Because of [SU backed] activities and the STARS scheme I have become a much more accomplished student and improved my employability.”
Steve Howe Union Councillor
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Theme 6 Developing our people
W
e were successfully awarded the Investors in People (IIP) award in March 2013. We are due to undertake an 18-month re-audit in September 2014 and January 2016, aming to achieve bronze and silver accreditation respectively. The developmental aspects of IIP support our commitment to developing the team. This year we participated in the second year of the NUS-led staff satisfaction survey. The senior leadership team of staff and Officers place a huge amount of value on understanding what we are doing well and what we need to change or develop. The survey also enables us to benchmark our results against other participating students’ unions as well as the wider third sector. Three highlights of this year’s results include:
90%
of respondents agreed that they believe that this organisation delivers a high quality service to its external customers - 16% up on last year. 80% also agreed that the people in this organisation have a shared sense of purpose - 16% up on last year. This is indicative of the positive changes described above.
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96%
of respondents agreed that their work contributes to the organisation’s performance - 6% up on last year.
96%
of respondents agreed that people here are treated equally irrespective of ethnicity, gender, disability, age, sexual orientation or religion - 12% up on the third sector benchmark median, and really proving that the SU employs people who live our values.
84%
of staff would describe themselves as positively engaged with the Students’ Union according to the annual staff survey.
“A key theme of our strategic plan is to ensure we recruit team members that fit with our mission, vision and values. We’re also committed to providing students with employment through our various commercial ventures.”
Matt Mills Chief Executive
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Theme 7 Ensuring sustainable practice
O
ur relocation has contributed to securing our financial sustainability. Whilst this has involved difficult decisions such as closing licensed trade and catering operations, it has led to a reduced rent settlement and improved revenue position by approximately £200k each year. We have ensured no loss of service for students: instead signing formal partnership agreements with organisations such as a local venue - minimising our risk and allowing us to invest in our core activities. We have also completely redeveloped how we view our commercial outlets, shifting to an approach that only sees the Students’ Union take on a project where it can demonstrate two principles: 1. Does the service make student life better at Huddersfield? 2. Does the SU have a competitive advantage in its provision?
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Developed a brand new eShop: Working with NUS Digital we pioneered a new approach to online retail for Students’ Unions. This involves working with suppliers such as Epona to provide order fulfilment via print on demand, whilst retaining the marketing function at a local level. This has opened up new markets, giving students access to a greater range of merchandise, and ultimately, will provide a model for smaller Unions (particularly FE) to drive revenue.
Increased our media sales: We restructured our approach to media sales, putting in place formal agreements and developing new advertising opportunities in our new building. Developed a student lettings agency: To fill a gap in the Huddersfield housing market which the University currently doesn’t, we’ve established and are now building a full service lettings agency for students. This is driven by improvements outlined in the Rate Your Landlord survey we ran this year.
Launching ready for the 2014/15 academic year, HudLets is a housing provider set up by Huddersfield Students’ Union. It will provide access to the full range of agents and landlords, ensuring a fair deal for all parties and ultimately aims to drive up the quality of student housing in Huddersfield.
Key Results From Rate Your Union 2014 As a membership organisation, we know it’s really important to understand what you think of the Students’ Union. As part of our annual Rate Your Union survey we ask a number of important questions, linked back to our strategic plan, around the key themes which have a direct impact on your experience. The majority take the form of agree/disagree, modelled on the National Student Survey.
83%
think the Students’ Union has a positive impact on their life at the University of Huddersfield.
83% are satisfied with the Students’ Union at Huddersfield. 16% of students could identify one benefit of membership. 23% of students could identify two benefits of membership. 17% of students could identify three benefits of membership.
% Positively Agree
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services are accessible, inclusive and friendly
91%
has a positive impact on my life
83%
supports students in personal development and employability
75%
has supported me in meeting new people and having fun at University
78%
has positively impacted on my wellbeing
82%
has positively impacted on my finances
63%
provides value for money
72%
engages with me effectively
77%
accurately represents students to the University and achieves positive change
81%
keeps me well informed
81%
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Key Trends
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e recognise that it’s sometimes very easy to indicate single year increases and claim victory, especially given the year that we’ve had. Therefore, we’ve provided some trend data to show how these increases fit in with our journey.
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W W W. H U D D E R S F I E L D . S U / I M PA C T @HUDDERSFIELDSU