IMPACT REPORT 2014/2015
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
OUR YEAR IN NUMBERS THEMES 4 AND 5 IMPROVING STUDENT ENGAGEMENT, COMMUNICATION & INSIGHT
THEME 6 DEVELOPING OUR PEOPLE
THEME 7 ENSURING SUSTAINABLE PRACTICE
CASE STUDY GENERAL ELECTION
KEY RESULTS FROM RATE YOUR UNION 2015 KEY TRENDS
4 8 12 16 18 22 24 26 28 30
INTRODUCTION
H
uddersfield Students’ Union exists for one sole purpose, to make student life better. Our mission statement reflects this but more importantly so should our work. That’s why we produce annual impact reports. This document, available in a wide range of formats — including video, printed booklet, online and through social media — gives an insight into the work we have done over the previous academic year. We’ve achieved a lot for students this year and have even broken a couple of records along the way, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do better. We’re always looking at how we can improve and, at the 18 month point of our fouryear strategy, we have made some serious progress towards our seven strategic aims and enablers. This shows our dedication 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.
JOSH ELDERFIELD SU President 2014/15
COCO TOMA
VP Comms & Democracy 2014/15
MIKE MCGOUGAN VP Education 2014/15
ALYSIA FORD
VP Wellbeing & Equalities 2014/15
JORDAN AIRD
VP Student Activities 2014/15
THEME 1 SUPPORTING STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC SUCCESS, EMPLOYABILITY AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
T
his year we changed the way we listen to students’ views and launched our online initiative, Your Big Ideas (see page 18 for a more in-depth look). This platform has allowed us to focus on issues that really matter to students in Huddersfield. Alongside this our Student Exec Officers have continued to campaign on major issues that directly impact on the experience of students at Huddersfield. overnment U-Turn on Cuts to the G Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA): The culmination of a year of action against cuts to the DSA resulted in over 100 MPs signing an Early Day Motion against the proposed changes. Our Student Exec Officers and Union Councillors were cited during a Westminster Hall debate on the issue before the planned cuts were put on hold for two years. Launch of HudBooks: This year we have focussed on ways in which we can have a positive impact on students’ finances and in October we launched our online trading platform, HudBooks.
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Dedicated Support for Course Reps: This year we’ve further improved our support for course reps by appointing a member of staff to develop their ideas. This has helped to grow the number of reps to over 850 with an additional 25% increase in the amount of those trained (325 up to 406). Some examples of changes we’ve supported course reps in making are:
1. Queen Street Studios were found to have no printers and not enough computers for students. Printers were immediately installed and the school is putting more computers in over the summer to benefit future students. 2. Access to a lab that was essential to student development was not allowed outside of scheduled bookings despite not being used. Students were given access to the lab in un-booked slots the day after it was raised with the department. 3. Online submissions through TurnItIn (on UniLearn) have historically been due in at 09:00. Students raised the issue that UniLearn support starts at 08:00 which put a lot of stress on students on submission days should it go down. As a result, a new time of 12:00 was agreed for submissions to allow students more time should UniLearn support be required. 4. A module was brought to the attention of a school as being outdated with software that was no longer the sector standard. The school agreed to change the module to reflect contemporary software the following year and put on optional extra classes for current students to explain the new software. 5. On numerous occasions course reps have brought to the attention of the University, times when teaching quality has dropped below the expected standard. As a result of this, more experienced staff members have assisted in lectures, improving the quality of teaching and making courses more engaging and interesting.
“The proposed cuts to the DSA was a big issue that we had to deal with. By lobbying local MPs and raising awareness through a targeted social media campaign, we secured a huge result for the students of Huddersfield that has seen the cuts postponed for several years.”
COCO TOMA VP COMMUNICATIONS & DEMOCRACY
5
Changed our Volunteering Offer: We have changed the way we offer opportunities to students and now boast a fully functioning brokerage service that has seen students volunteer over 800 hours of their time to help others. Here’s a few of the different ways we’ve championed volunteering this year: 1. Freshers’ Festival Volunteers: For the first time ever we recruited a team of Freshers’ Festival volunteers to provide support during moving in weekends and help with events throughout Freshers’ week. 2. Summer Jobs Fair: 23 organisations attended our first ever Summer Jobs Fair where over 430 students signed up for opportunities on the day. 3. Large Community Projects: Our popular Students at the Heart of Hud projects enjoyed more success with both events running at full capacity, helping more than ten organisations in the local community. The two days of action, involving over 150 students, were also nominated for the Huddersfield Examiner Community Awards. 4. Student Volunteering Week: We held the biggest Student Volunteering Week yet with a variety of successful and popular events taking place throughout the week. These included a volunteering fair, a day of community volunteering from sports clubs and societies and a talk from an inspirational speaker.
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Overhauled our Student Leadership Programme: In October we launched the Student Leadership Award — the successor to our STARS programme — which delivers support, training and recognition to our student leaders to boost their employability after graduation. Developed in conjunction with the University Careers and Employability Service, the award has already seen 35 students reflect on their experience in Students’ Union activities from a professional skills perspective. Student Staff Recruitment: We have continued to champion the importance of student employment within the SU and last year paid out £82,905 in wages to our student staff team. We’ve continued to expand the amount of opportunities available within the Union and have created new roles across all our departments giving students a wider range of employment options in a range of specialisations. This increase in roles saw us receive 167 applications for student staff positions in our last round of recruitment.
“Gaining my Student Leadership Award at the Vice-Chancellor’s level has allowed me to be recognised for all the volunteering I do. I feel this has helped me become more employable and it’s an amazing talking point when it comes to interviews.”
CLEMENTINE CROWTHER STUDENT LEADERSHIP AWARD PARTICIPANT
“I joined HarvestHud to learn about the cultivation of food. What I didn’t know was how much I was going to learn about myself. The plants grow, the project grows, the volunteers grow and the leaders grow. HarvestHud is one of the true jewels of my life. I want to thank the SU for making it all possible.”
MATTHEW HEATH HARVESTHUD PROJECT LEADER
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THEME 2 GIVING STUDENTS AN ENRICHING AND FUN STUDENT LIFE
O
ur clubs and societies are the life blood of the Students’ Union. Providing students with the opportunity to represent the University across a wide range of sports and socialise with like-minded individuals in societies is beneficial to an enriching and fun student life. We have continued to dedicate resources to developing emerging activity groups and have seen this come to fruition with the number of clubs and societies available to our members hitting a record high of 113. This year we launched our 100 Things Challenge, a series of events and activities for students to complete in Huddersfield and the surrounding area. This has coincided with an uplift in the range and quantity of events we offer as we invested in a dedicated member of staff to coordinate our Give It A Go programme, Freshers’ Festival events and work on a year round programme of events and opportunities. Launched a Framework for Activity Groups: The Activities Quality Mark is our very own accreditation scheme for student-led activity groups within the Students’ Union. It aims to support societies and sports clubs by providing them with opportunities for development, identifying successes and rewarding achievements. Since the award launched, 25 clubs and societies have successfully achieved accreditation including gold awards for H-Karts, Islamic Society and Radio Hud.
8
A Freshers’ Festival for All: Our annual welcome event has continued to grow and we expanded our offering to include even more non-drinking events to cater to changing student demands. Tickets sold out to the full week’s events in record time and we launched our biggest ever Freshers’ event, HudLive, a 2000 capacity outdoor festival headlined by world famous artist, DJ Fresh. Ran a Festival of Sport to Bring Varsity Home: We held the biggest ever Varsity in Huddersfield against local rivals Bradford with over 2000 students taking part on the day. With the event sold out, the day ended with a capacity crowd cheering on a home win. Big successes came in the number of new women’s sports teams taking part in Varsity for the first time, increasing the scope and opportunity for all students to represent the University. Created Partnerships to Deliver More Events: Working in partnership with DIGS has allowed us to create a tailored programme of events for students living at Storthes Hall Park — the first time this has ever happened. We have also worked closely with a number of local businesses to ensure students get discounts to events while our continued relationship with our partner venue has provided students with significant discounts on food and drink.
“Getting involved in societies has been one of the best decisions I’ve made at university. I’ve seen my organisational, professional and management skills excel and been involved in running campaigns, engaging with the local community and raising money for charity.”
OMAR AL-QAISIA PRESIDENT ISOC
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Bigger Calendar of Headline Events: Appointing a new member of staff to coordinate our events calendar has allowed us to extend the number of headline events we run. Away from Freshers’ Festival and Varsity here’s a short overview of the different ways students have been able to get involved with the Students’ Union this year: Spring Break: The penultimate stage of our General Election campaign saw over 500 students attend our voter registration drive event, Spring Break, headlined by the world’s leading video DJ, Beat A Maxx. Bonfire Night: As a Students’ Union we want to find new and interesting ways to interact with the entire student population. Featuring a fireworks show, food stalls, bar and bonfire, this family friendly event was hosted at Storthes Hall and attended by over 1000 people.
Educating Huddersfield: Bringing together the best academics and course reps from across the University this teaching conference gave an insight into new and innovative teaching methods worth sharing. Christmas Week: We celebrated the festive season in style with a full programme of events that included trips to Christmas markets, carol singing and our very own Christmas Fair. Thank You Awards: This student-led, collaborative event between the University and Students’ Union saw over 650 nominations submitted. Held in St. Paul’s Hall, they celebrated those members of staff who have made a significant positive impact on student life.
KEY STUDENT INVOLVEMENT AREAS
THIS YEAR (TO DATE)
10
NUMBER OF STUDENT CLUBS/SOCIETIES
113
NUMBER OF MEMBERS
2849
NUMBER OF COMMITTEE MEMBERS
435
NUMBER OF COMMITTEE MEMBERS TRAINED
341
MONEY RAISED BY RAG
£16,787
“As a Course Rep and Student Staff Member at the SU I thought it was my duty to really encourage students to vote in the General Election. Especially those students who had never voted before, as getting your voice heard on both a local and national level is not only important, but also exciting.”
DILARA CHANGIS STUDENT VOICE CAMPAIGNER
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THEME 3 LOOKING AFTER STUDENT WELLBEING AND FINANCES
D
emand for advice and support has once again increased — a continuity of a trend we have seen for the past four years. Our team have helped more students than ever before on issues including finance, academic and housing support, with over 5000 students visiting the Advice Centre. This year has seen the initial rollout of our Digital Advice Centre project with a trial and full launch of an SMS text back service to give students reminders about appointments they have made with the Advice Centre. Since launching, this scheme has resulted in a decrease in the number of no shows by 45% (112 down to 61) with 336 hours of adviser time saved. Here are some more examples of how we’ve helped students: New University Guarantor Scheme: Our Student Exec successfully lobbied the University’s Access to Learning Fund Committee to put together a guarantor scheme so they can better support students who are unable to secure a housing guarantor. Prior to this scheme, students whose parents are deceased, estranged or just simply going through financial difficulty, had been left without housing guarantors and had to pay a full years rent upfront.
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“I had got myself into a right mess. I owed hundreds of pounds in rent and had no money to feed myself. After being evicted I had seriously thought of giving up. I spoke to an adviser from the Advice Centre and with their help I was able to find temporary accommodation near to the University. They helped me get a grant from the Access to Learning Fund which helped me find more permanent accommodation.�
THOMAS ADVICE CENTRE USER
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Removal of Housing Admin Fees: After launching HudLets, our student lettings agency, we lobbied a number of local accommodation providers to drop admin fees for students. Northpoint Living, Kirkgate Residence and Broomfield House all agreed to drop charges for students who booked their accommodation through HudLets. Student Money Week: This week-long series of events in February highlighted different ways students could save money and what grants were available to them. A direct result of the work done during this week was an increase in applications to the Access to Learning Fund, meaning more money in the pockets of students. Housing Week: Continuing our theme of safe and supported students we checked more than 100 contracts during Housing Week. This ensured that students knew what they were signing. We also continue to work closely with our student lettings agency,
BREAKDOWN OF ADVICE CENTRE CASES
HudLets, highlighting issues with landlords and halls providers and effecting change to the standard of accommodation for students. Removal of Card Charges: Our Student Exec and Union Councillors worked together to remove card charges from purchases under £5 in the Students’ Union Shop. This change has helped to save our students over £15,000. Ensuring Student Safety: We teamed up with local taxi provider, A1 Taxis, to create a safe taxi scheme. Aimed at students in an emergency situation the scheme helps those in need who are unable to afford a taxi fare home. This partnership also helped us save students money with A1 Taxis offering discounted fares for all those who produced a valid University of Huddersfield student card.
LAST YEAR
THIS YEAR CHANGE (TO DATE)
14
FINANCIAL APPOINTMENTS AND ENQUIRIES
897
1061
+18%
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS AND ENQUIRIES
1042
1785
+71%
HOUSING APPOINTMENTS AND ENQUIRIES
952
819*
-14%
GENERAL APPOINTMENTS AND ENQUIRIES
345
1668
+383%
*This decrease coincided with the launch of our student lettings agency HudLets. Since opening their doors in September they have dealt with a large number of enquiries that had previously been in the remit of the Advice Centre.
“After contacting the SU about an issue I had, they encouraged me to take my idea further – thus my campaign for scrapping sanitary tax began. In the space of two months not only have I won my campaign but I have also been elected the new Women’s Officer and been shortlisted for Student Campaigner of the Year.”
GEORGINA WALL YOUR BIG IDEAS CAMPAIGNER
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243 THANK YOU Awards 2015
75,000+
650
+3,000 50
4.9K
27%
TURNOUT
74
59
406 2,567
7 3 3,1 2 0 19 13,964
5,333 113
£82,905
4,676
£1.2M
£15K
THEMES 4 AND 5 IMPROVING STUDENT ENGAGEMENT, COMMUNICATION & INSIGHT
T
his year we’ve focused heavily on improving the way we communicate our ideas and campaigns with our members. From digital marketing campaigns to faceto-face discussions, we have strived to make sure that students are involved and informed every step of the way during our journey. Here’s a few of the ways we’ve done that: Built on Our Elections: Our core purpose is representation and we focussed on getting this key message to our members during the election process. Over the three stages of the SU elections we used big data to break down patterns and target students we have missed in the past. This helped us secure a record turnout of 27% with 4932 students voting in the elections for the 45 candidates. Got Students Involved in National Politics: Our biggest campaign this year centred on the General Election and in particular getting students registered to vote. Through a three stage process we informed students about the importance of being an active citizen and successfully registered over 3000 students to vote. Read our case study on page 26 to see how we achieved this. Launch of Your Big Ideas: We have changed the way students interact with the democratic processes of the Students’ Union with the launch of Your Big Ideas. This online ideas platform means that our decision making committees are
18
steered directly by student consensus and has led to changes in the way we operate. A great example of this was our decision to absorb the cost of VAT on all sanitary products in the SU Shop following a student campaign. Since launching, over 50 student ideas have been posted to the platform and over 17,500 students have interacted with the ideas. Become a More Social Union: We’ve built up our social media presence by launching platforms such as Snapchat, Pinterest and Periscope while still concentrating on developing a greater mix of content to promote on our current channels. This has ensured we’re constantly engaging members in new and interesting ways that fits their changing habits. Become Responsive: We have changed how we work on social media and now respond to all messages (where possible) to ensure that students always have someone to contact when they have a problem. Got the Decorators in: Over the year we consulted students on how they wanted their SU to look. Through face-to-face interactions and social media debates, students voted for one of three possible design options and we completed the first stage of these works over the Easter break. The Students’ Union now feels like a space students own — just like it should.
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Improved Our Email Offering: By looking at how students are consuming email communication, we have been able to improve the experience of our users. Data showed that over half of our students opened their emails on a smart phone so we adapted and made our emails responsive. Now our emails look as great on a mobile device as they do on a desktop which is represented in an increase in read rates from 15% to 40%. Continued to Offer High Quality Video Content: We’ve continued to invest in our ability to deliver high quality multimedia content and have produced 59 different videos covering a range of topics and events. Alongside this investment we’ve also looked at how students consume video and responded appropriately PLATFORM
to ensure our content is always available to our members on the media platform they use. Over the course of the year our videos have been watched over 75,000 times — up 200% on last year. Test, Develop and Evolve Our Website: Since launching our new website we’ve experienced unprecedented growth with over 730,000 unique page hits on our content. The site’s development is an ongoing process and we continue to push the NUS Digital platform to its limits, bringing in custom areas for our campaigns and large scale events. This year we launched our first website dedicated to Freshers’ Festival to ensure that students could get all the information they needed about starting life in Huddersfield in one place. LAST YEAR
THIS YEAR CHANGE (TO DATE)
20
9458
13,670
+44.5%
5775
8925
+54.5%
—
1066
N/A
SNAPCHAT
—
914
N/A
WEBSITE UNIQUE HITS
616,385
733,120
+18.9%
Using Insights to Inform How We Work: We have made changes to the way we work with data to ensure that we don’t waste resources and can quickly identify changes in student habits and spot trends. To help us understand this data we have invested in student staff roles in research. These have given us a unique opportunity to proactively change the way we work so we can continue making student life better.
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THEME 6 DEVELOPING OUR PEOPLE
H
aving top class staff is essential if we are to reach our strategic aims. Over the past year we’ve appointed a number of new members to our team that fit our mission, vision and values and we continue to look for new talent while offering our staff opportunities to develop their own abilities. Investors in People: In March 2013 we received the Investors in People award and set our sights on gaining silver accreditation by January 2016. Our dedication to develop our team has seen us achieve this ten months ahead of schedule and we were awarded silver accreditation in March 2015. In addition to this we have focussed on training our team to ensure that we can consistently perform to a high level. Over the past year we have supported two members of staff in attending the NUS Leadership Development Program while six members of staff are now IOSH (Institution of Occupational Safety and Health) and NEBOSH (The National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health) qualified ensuring we can always deliver high quality, safe events. Job Exchange: With such a varied range of staff roles we have introduced a job exchange programme where members of staff from all areas of the Students’ Union were eligible to try different roles. Giving staff this opportunity allows them to understand the
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different challenges each department faces and the impacts they have on students. Staff Satisfaction Survey: For the third consecutive year we participated in the NUS-led staff satisfaction survey. This type of work provides the senior staff team and Student Exec Officers with a rich and positive picture of staff satisfaction. It also serves as a benchmark against other participating Students’ Unions as well as the wider third sector. The headline result from this year’s survey was that the staff engagement index was 90% - up from 82% in 2014 – which means we’ve achieved a significant portion of our 2014-2018 strategy for ‘Our People’. Other highlights from the survey include:
95%
of respondents agreed that they would willingly put in extra effort in order to help the organisation – an indicator of the calibre of staff employed and the value we put on teamwork.
96%
of respondents agreed that they work with skilled, competent people who are good at their jobs while 93% agreed they are given the necessary training to do their jobs effectively. Our policy of employing the best staff and providing them with frameworks to improve was recognised with silver accreditation from Investors in People.
96%
of respondents agreed they are treated equally, irrespective of ethnicity, gender, disability, age, sexual orientation or religion. To achieve this for the second year running demonstrates our resolve to providing a safe, equal opportunities environment and our staff reflect these values.
“85% of our students agree the Students’ Union and its services are accessible, inclusive and friendly. These positive results are delivered by a staff, officer and volunteer team who are committed to delivering great services and making a difference for students.”
MATT MILLS CHIEF EXECUTIVE
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THEME 7 ENSURING SUSTAINABLE PRACTICE
F
ollowing our relocation to Student Central we have remained committed to the continued financial sustainability of the Students’ Union. Our shop’s prominent position on campus has contributed to this with an increase in year-on-year sales with all profits being reinvested in student services. A key success story this year has been the launch and progress of our student lettings agency HudLets. Based within the Students’ Union, this service is committed to a core ethos of providing students with high quality, secure housing without any hidden fees. Over the course of the year over 700 students have used the HudLets service with over 120 students housed. Here’s a few other ways we’ve maintained our sustainability: Secured External Funding for Projects: To ensure we can continue to deliver an extensive range of events we must secure funding from a wider range of sources. This year we secured £15,000 in funding from the Cabinet Office to deliver our General Election campaign - see page 26 for more details. By working closely with our commercial partners we were able to negotiate funding for half the cost of our student event team. We have also successfully bid for and secured funding for a Freshers’ Festival intern
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through the University to help us deliver an even bigger and better welcome event. Increasing Media Sales: As a result of streamlining the booking processes, along with investment in staff in this area and professionally executed advertising campaigns, media sales have continued to increase over the past year. Evidence of this is in the long-term collaborations that we have secured with local, national and international organisations such as A1 Taxis, Domino’s and Santander and also through increased income during Freshers’ Festival. NUS Extra Cards: This year has seen a concerted push on NUS Extra cards to achieve our strategic aim of positively influencing student finances. This has led to a dramatic increase in sales bringing in over £12,900 (up 29%) to the Students’ Union as well as saving students an average of £523 a year. Built a Range of New Partnerships: As our event calendar expanded so has the opportunities for us to work with local and national organisations. This year we have teamed up with a large number of these to deliver students everything from fireworks at our bonfire night event to matching half of the donations raised during RAG Week.
CASE STUDY GENERAL ELECTION 2015 This year we were presented with a unique opportunity to mobilise students in the General Election and ensure that their voice was heard on a national scale. This type of campaign, which only comes around once every five years, was two years in the planning and focussed largely on getting the student body registered to vote. Changes to government policy brought an end to the old ‘head of household’ registration process which allowed all students within halls of residence to be block registered. They were now required to register on an individual basis and getting this information across to students while building interest in national politics posed an exciting challenge. Over these two pages we detail how we successfully registered over 3000 students using a three stage campaign that included face-to-face conversations with hundreds of students, hustings with candidates and a huge government funded party. Stage One - A Student Manifesto: It was essential that any campaign we run around the General Election represented the voice of our members. Utilising a team of student staff members and our Student Exec Officers we spoke to over 200 students about what they wanted in their manifesto. Key issues centred on healthcare, the local economy and not surprisingly, tuition
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fees. Once we’d collated the responses we created and disseminated our student manifesto to local candidates, key stakeholders and student groups. Stage Two - Voter Registration Drive: Working alongside the University we deployed stage two of our campaign, aimed at getting students registered to vote ahead of the 20 April deadline. Taking place during our annual Democracy Week we ran a number of events on campus and released our register to vote video online through Facebook. Alongside this, our enthusiastic student staff team actively engaged the student body and successfully registered over 1800 students over the course of the week. Going beyond campus, we worked with local further education institutions including Huddersfield New College to register an extra 450 students to help push us over our target of 2000 Huddersfield students registered. Not content with beating that target we successfully bid for £15,000 funding from the Cabinet Office to give our drive a final push. This allowed us to host our voter registration party, Spring Break, where students needed to register to vote to gain entry. Featuring world famous video DJ Beat A Maxx, over 500 students filled The Warehouse helping us surpass our stretch goal of 3000 students registered.
Stage Three - Get Out The Vote: Casting a vote is about more than just ticking a box. It involves making a well informed decision about who you want to represent you in parliament. To ensure our students fully understood the politics of local candidates we hosted a hustings event with candidates for the Huddersfield constituency with questions focused on issues that mattered to our members. What’s the Impact? Over 3000 students were registered to vote by the end of our campaign. This defeated the negative impact of the block registration removal and demonstrated to politicians that our students have an active interest in who represents them. It also demonstrated the Union as an effective amplifier of their voice.
“Getting students actively involved in national politics has made me extremely proud as an officer. We’re here to make sure the student voice is heard and I believe we did that in Huddersfield.”
JOSH ELDERFIELD SU PRESIDENT 2014/15
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KEY RESULTS FROM RATE YOUR UNION 2015 The Students’ Union is a membership organisation and it’s the opinion of our members that is the driving force behind everything we do. In order to truly make student life better it’s essential that we understand how closely we align with student priorities and where we need to focus our resources. We do this by conducting our annual Rate Your Union survey where we ask a number of important questions linked to our strategic plan and key SU services that have a direct impact STATEMENT
on the student experience. The majority of the questions take the form of agree/disagree, modelled on the National Student Survey. Key results have all been largely positive and we’re very proud to say:
85%
of students think the Students’ Union has a positive impact on their life whilst at university — an increase of 2%.
LAST YEAR
THIS YEAR CHANGE (TO DATE)
28
I AM SATISFIED WITH THE SU AT MY INSTITUTION
67%
77%
+10%
THE SU AND ITS SERVICES ARE ACCESSIBLE, INCLUSIVE AND FRIENDLY
80%
85%
+5%
THE COURSE REP SYSTEM IS EFFECTIVE AND SECURES IMPROVEMENT
37%
43%
+6%
THE SU SUPPORTS MY PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AND EMPLOYABILITY
45%
49%
+4%
THE SU SUPPORTS ME IN MEETING NEW PEOPLE AND HAVING FUN AT UNIVERSITY
53%
58%
+5%
THE SU HAS POSITIVELY IMPACTED ON MY WELLBEING
49%
51%
+2%
THE SU HAS POSITIVELY IMPACTED ON MY FINANCES
23%
26%
+3%
THE SU PROVIDES VALUE FOR MONEY
44%
45%
+1%
STATEMENT
LAST YEAR
THIS YEAR CHANGE (TO DATE)
THE SU ENGAGES ME EFFECTIVELY
52%
53%
+1%
THE SU ACCURATELY REPRESENTS STUDENTS TO THE UNIVERSITY AND ACHIEVES POSITIVE CHANGE
55%
63%
+8%
PERCENTAGE OF STUDENTS ABLE TO IDENTIFY THREE BENEFITS TO MEMBERSHIP
43%
45%
+2%
I AM KEPT WELL INFORMED ABOUT THE STUDENTS’ UNION
62%
73%
+11%
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KEY TRENDS
T
he main message from this year is one of positivity as we continue to grow as an organisation. We’ve made great strides towards reaching the targets we set in our strategic plan, but it’s important to put this year into the context of previous performance. There are some amazing upward trends that display year-on-year improvement across our core services. Perhaps the most pleasing change for us as a membership organisation is the difference in election participation over the past nine years.
From a low turnout of 5% in 2007 to this year’s record 27%, we can see students are becoming more politically aware of the Students’ Union and the role they play in steering it through elected officials. That record turnout also puts the SU in the top quartile of Students’ Unions across the country — something everyone can be proud of. For a more in-depth look at the statistics displayed over these two pages you can get the full dataset at huddersfield.su/impact.
ELECTION TURNOUT 30
6000 TURNOUT TOTAL VOTERS TURNOUT % OF ELECTORATE 5000
25
4000
20
3000
15
2000
10
1000
5
0
0
VOTES
30
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
1218
1398
1567
2134
3579
4971
4140
4058
4932
5.20%
6%
6.8%
9.2%
15%
21.3%
24%
24.52%
27%
% TURNOUT
ACTIVITY GROUP TRENDS
3000 2400
125
ACTIVITY GROUP MEMBERS NUMBER OF ACTIVITY GROUPS
100
1800
75
1200
50
600
25
0
0 2008/09 2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
2013/14
2014/15
820
1001
1177
1449
1926
2609
2849
no data available
no data available
46
57
77
90
113
ADVICE CENTRE USER COUNT
6000
4000
2000
0 2008/09 2009/10 1718
2255
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
2013/14
2014/15
2369
3030
5268
5600
5333
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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