Impact Report
2011-12 Oxford Brookes Students’ Union
ASHLEY arYee president
Our Mission . This is why we exist:
Oxford Brookes Students’ Union exists to provide representation, support and inspiration for its members throughout their student experience.
Our Vision
This is what we are working towards: We will be the representative voice of Oxford Brookes students; recognised and respected by our students, the University and our local community. We will campaign effectively for the continuous improvement of the Oxford Brookes student experience.
Our Strategic Activities What we do as a union to deliver our vision and mission: Welfare & Advice Participation & Activities Representation & Support
Democracy
Ensuring the views of our membership are reflected in the way we run the Union.
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Our Values
These are the principles that guide how we work.
Effectiveness Using our resources prudently to achieve our mission in a measurable way.
Accountability
Taking ownership for our activity and performance; and reporting back to our stakeholders in a transparent way.
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Introduction
impact report
2011/12
As president of a students’ union with an aspiration to represent, support and inspire its members, I am proud to report on the successes and impacts of the Officer Team of 2011/12. From our core services, such as representation and advice, to the activities that we provide or facilitate, this report details some highlights from the last academic year. Being a membership organisation means that Oxford Brookes students are the Students’ Union. We have been delighted this year with the tireless work of many of our members. Student volunteers welcomed new students over Arrivals Weekend, managed the logistics of a vibrant Freshers’ Fair, delivered an impressive Safety Bus service, joined local residents in the annual spring clean event, OxClean, and have dedicated an incredible number of hours to staff the Advice Centre reception. Other students have given up a great deal of time to lead Societies, represent students on their courses, attend service user groups, sit on committees, and more. Our elections process benefited from a significant financial investment this year and the level of student engagement is a testament to the success of the campaign.
2012/13 Looking forward to 2012/13, there are a number of exciting projects that my team and I are working on:
Welfare & Advice
Participation & Activities
Representation & Support
Student Pad website Our Advice Centre staff have been working with Oxford City Council, local landlords and letting agents to create an ethical code of conduct around student letting. As part of this work we have invested in a dedicated housing website that features only accredited landlords, who have signed the ethical code. We’re proud of and confident in this new partnership - it will give our members more protection when house-hunting and improve standards in student accommodation.
New agreement between Oxford Brookes Students’ Uninon and Academy Music Group (AMG) The partnership will see AMG providing a unique programme of student entertainment primarily delivered at their O2 Academy venue. Events will include a weekly Wednesday ‘Brookes Big Night Out’, comedy from the Glee Club and the nationally renowned ‘Propaganda’ on Saturdays, amongst other events that aim to appeal to a broad range of students.
Student Rep Systems This year we are restructuring the network of student representatives. We are introducing Departmental Reps, who will represent students in meetings, at a department and faculty level. We have also recruited a second full time Reps Coordinator to help support the needs of the reps. This will improve the Students’ Union’s ability to represent the views of members and ensure every student at Oxford Brookes has the best possible academic experience.
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Safety Bus The Safety Bus takes students home at night. It exists to make getting home safer for lone or vulnerable students. It is staffed entirely by students and recent graduates who work on a voluntary basis.
Our year in numbers :
32volunteers 170NIGHTS COVERED 452i ndividual shifts 3,400 volunteer hours 20,208 miles driven
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Key 2011/12 Moments: During Freshers’ Week a student who was new to the city left Clive Booth Halls to walk back to Warneford Halls. Unfortunately, she got lost on her way back and ended up in Marston, well away from where she should have been. It was late at night, the student was alone, unsure about which direction to go in, and had been drinking. She grew increasingly worried. Fortunately she remembered the Safety Bus scheme and had the number saved in her phone. Despite not knowing an exact location the well-trained Safety Bus volunteers were able to find the student and get her home within 15 minutes.
A student living at Harcourt Hill campus was working late in the Gipsy Lane library and found that he missed the last U1 bus back to his halls. Finding he had left his wallet at home he couldn’t order a taxi and felt it was unsafe to walk the 5 miles home, late at night carrying a laptop. He called the Safety Bus and the team made sure he got home safe and within good time.
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2011/12 Impact of the Safety Bus on volunteers: ‘Knowing that I may have saved someone from a really bad experience, possibly being mugged and ending up in hospital, is a pretty great feeling.’
‘Sometimes when you hear the SU President, or someone senior in the University, talking about the Safety Bus, it makes you feel proud to be part of it.’
‘People know me because of what I do with the Safety Bus… people at the SU, wardens in halls, university staff and students I have picked up. It feels pretty good to be known for something that everyone respects.’
‘Being a Safety Bus volunteer is odd - you get to know all sorts of people who you would never normally talk to. People like: bouncers, club promoters, police, and so on. It’s like being part of a different world than you normally see as a student.’
‘I have a great time. I met a lot of my friends through volunteering on the Safety Bus.’
‘It can be quite hard work, and you do sometimes feel very tired, particularly after a difficult shift, but there’s something great about feeling like that, when you know you have done a good job.’
safety bus
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Advice The Advice Centre is staffed by friendly, professional advisers who offer independent, confidential and impartial advice, for free, to all members. The staff help students with all sorts of issues relating to student life from housing to academic concerns; health, welfare and wellbeing; crime and safety; immigration and employment and more.
Things we’re proud of: number of clients
The seen by Advice Centre staff has almost
Our year in numbers
:
doubled since 2009/10
951
145% increase in subjects
We have seen a
clients seen by an Adviser and THOUSANDS MORE sTUDENTS helped at the Advice Reception Desk
advised on from 2010/11
2,423
Over £61,000 was gained from Student Finance England this year to help members with financial difficulties to stay at university.
Subjects advised on
£193,146
09/10 6
10/11
11/12
£193,146
2,423
951
£119,508
1,693
730
£168,000
1,882
551
worth of money gained to support students
Clients seen by an adviser Subjects advised on Money gained
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2011/12 Impact of the Advice Centre on students: Case 1:
Student Finance England had refused to fund a student migrant worker who was unable to finish her degree without financial support. The Advice Centre helped the student to get the two years’ funding she was entitled to and she was able to finish her degree.
Case 2:
A student was owed money by her former landlord, who refused to pay. An adviser helped the student take the landlord to court, who ruled in her favour and the student was able to recover her money.
Case 3:
Case 4:
When a complaint was made by a student against the University, the Advice Centre took the case to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA). The OIA found the case was partially justified and awarded the student £1,350 compensation from the University.
Case 5:
An adviser successfully helped a student to get back on their course, having been excluded by the University.
The Advice Centre worked with a group of students to get their full deposit back and to be re-housed when Oxford City Council deemed their private rented accommodation ‘uninhabitable’.
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Societies Societies help our members get more from university life by keeping healthy, having fun, developing skills and trying new things.
Our year in numbers:
60Societies 35hours on
average per week of student-led, societyrun sessions in the SU Lounge & Studio
Key 2011/12 Moments: Fortune Players
The Fortune Players performed ‘Hair’: the seminal sixties tribal love rock musical, over a series of nights. The cast and production crew, all members of Oxford Brookes Students’ Union, worked incredibly hard for months, with support from the University’s Music department, to ensure each performance was faultless. The society also performed a show penned by members of their committee titled ‘Mad About Musicals’ as well as Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado about Nothing’ over three nights.
Dance Society organised too many dance workshops to count in 2011/12, covering a range of disciplines from street to ballet and all the way back again, all taught by students. They also ran workshops for disadvantaged children with the charity KEEN.
societies affiliated in 2011/12 teams into national competitions
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Formula Brookes, the motorsports society, entered three teams into the British Universities Karting Championship, a competition the society has won four times in the last eight years. ‘Brookes A’, which formed relatively recently compared to other teams, won seven races and two of the 11 rounds outright, finishing 4th overall. ‘Brookes B’ came 8th overall, and ‘Brookes C’ were 22nd - a fantastic achievement considering that over 60 teams were entered this year.
Dance Society
5 BRAND New
3 societies entering
Formula Brookes
fortune players
At the end of the year the performers put on their annual show in the SU Studio, involving over 30 dancers performing a range of styles and routines all choreographed by members of the society. Over 200 people attended the dazzling show across both nights.
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2011/12 A taste of what members in societies got up to in 2011/12: Architecture Society:
Organised a series of lectures and hands-on building techniques workshops with materials ranging from traditional earth and blockwork to living willow branches and straw bales. The gazebo constructed as part of the living willow project is still thriving months later.
Christian Union:
Held a carol service for the University with attendance from over 150 students and staff.
road trip society
Law Society:
Organised Oxford Brookes’ entry to a national mooting as well as the Law Society Christmas Ball.
Road Trip Society:
Trips to the south of England, to beaches, reefs and to Alton Towers… amongst other locations.
Dance Society, Fortune Players, Circus Skills, and the Glee Club: Came together
to put on a spectacular variety show in aid of BBC Children in Need, raising over £1,000 during the night.
architecture society
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Reps On each course, students step forward to represent the views and needs of their peers. They do this by taking students’ issues forward to their respective departments and faculties and help to solve them. The Reps ensure Oxford Brookes Students’ Union is supporting the academic experience of students across all courses.
Our year in numbers:
570
registered reps
over 300%
increase in reps trained vs last year, due to the introduction of online training.
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Things we’re proud of: Online training
When students first become a rep they often have little or no experience of the formal committee meetings with senior members of staff that take place. To help each Rep get the most out of them, for the students they represent and for themselves, the Students’ Union developed online training and instructional videos delivered in bite-sized chunks.
Keep your eyes peeled: Reps Coordinator
Because reps are so important to making students’ experience of university better, the Students’ Union has recruited a second Reps Coordinator. We now have two members of staff who are dedicated to supporting reps. They will do this by organising regular Reps Forums, providing regular briefings about what is happening in the world of education, giving detailed reports to departmental reps before meetings of the Academic Enhancement and Standards Committees, and by helping individual reps with problems they cannot resolve themselves.
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2011/12 Impact of BEING A STUDENT REF: ‘I know a lot more than most students about how the University works, and how organisations generally work.’
‘I can see some things that happen now that are because of what I said in a meeting a year ago. It’s actually quite a good feeling to know that as a student; I have changed the way things happen.’
‘I’m not a student any more. I graduated last year and am working now. You’d be surprised how much time was taken up in my job interview talking about being a rep. They seemed to like the fact that I had put myself forward, and that I had been in meetings with senior staff.’
‘When I first started as a rep I was nervous and didn’t really want to go into the departmental meeting, but I was really surprised to realise that they really wanted to know what students think about things.’
‘Sometimes stuff goes wrong that you think everyone knows about. What I found out is that a lot of lecturers and university staff don’t know, and we were able to tell them like it is. It’s always worth speaking up because we know a lot of stuff that the University doesn’t.’
student reps
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ELECTIONS The Students’ Union is run by students, supported by a team of professional staff. The students in the Student Officer Team consist of the full-time positions of President, Vice President Student Experience and Vice President Academic Experience. There are also a number of part-time positions. The team is elected through a democratic elections process, where any student can nominate themselves for one of the available positions. Our elections process benefited from a significant financial investment this year and the level of student engagement is a testament to the success of the campaign. For Elections 2012 we worked with student communications agency, Magpie, to deliver a brand new campaign ‘Be a Change Maker’. Students were encouraged to work in their Students’ Union, change the lives of 18,500 students and begin an amazing career. The campaign used ambient media, as well as traditional media, to seek passionate and dedicated students to lead their Students’ Union in 2012-2013, working on behalf of the students at Oxford Brookes to make sure every member has an amazing university experience.
‘changemaker’ bunting
Our year in numbers:
1,952 votes were cast in the 2012 Elections.
44 students were
nominated for candidate positions
Tom Paul Ashley the chosen full-time officers
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2011/12 Impact of the 2012 Elections
Things we’re proud of:
Seven students from Oxford Brookes received paid work as Campaign Ambassadors, as part of the elections promotion.
Between Elections 2011 and 2012 we achieved a
165% increase
in voter turnout (from 733 to 1952 voters).
Around 300 students came to our Results Party. Student Officers and parttime staff work with an amazing, diverse group of people, making a positive change to the lives of students as well as their own.
‘changemaker’ publicity
3.5 times the number of candidates were nominated for positions
in 2012 compared with 2011.
Their year in position leaves a lasting impact on the Union, University and the wider community.
a 3-step process was communicated
campaign ambassadors
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Finance Income vs. Expenditure 2010/11 £1,400,000
£1,200,000
£1,000,000
£800,000
£600,000
£400,000
£200,000
£0
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Total income £1,365,451 Total expenditure £1,204,830
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2011/12 Expenditure Breakdown 2010/11
reshers’ Week F £10,697 rading operations T £338,744 Clubs & societies £220,835 tudent representation S £320,665 elfare services W £253,126 xternal representation E affiliations £46,507 overnance costs G £14,256
Income Breakdown 2010/11
lock grant B £857,516 Grant for rent £150,087 etting of space L £31,091
dvertising income A £22,823 reshers’ Week F £32,967
I nvestment income £369 Trading operations £232,258 lubs & societies C £9,214 US Extra N commission £11,617 ther income O £7,501
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Oxford Brookes Students’ Union Find us: Helena Kennedy Student Centre Headington Hill Campus Headington Oxford, OX3 0BT Tel: 01865 484750 Email: obsu@brookes.ac.uk Facebook: Facebook.com/ OxfordBrookesSU Twitter: @OxfordBrookesSU #WeAreOBSU