ROBERT GORDON UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ UNION
IMPACTREPORT
2014/15
paul greene
michele collie
It’s my pleasure to present the 2014/15 Impact Report on behalf of the RGU:Union executive board and the student body of Robert Gordon University.
Welcome to the 2014/15 Impact Report. This year has seen the Union settle into University Street and begin to develop our presence and services at the heart of the Garthdee campus.
president (communication & democracy)
This academic year has been an important one for the Union, both in terms of governance of the organisation and also the services and opportunities we offer to our students. We have a lot to shout about as an organisation. We’ve seen record numbers of volunteers and society members yet again this year, we have seen students and societies being more involved in the local community and partnership working and we now have more volunteering opportunities than ever. Likewise, in terms of governance, we have had our first successful year of the student-led trustee board, a successful Annual General Meeting and have seen out the first full year of our new constitution in action. It has been incredible to see the Union’s reach and services grow over the past couple of years, and as ever, this year’s successes have absolutely been down to the volunteers who make the students’ union what it is. All that is left for me to say is thank you to all the student reps, officers and RGU:Union staff who work so hard to support our students. I look forward to seeing all of this work grow into fruition in the future.
general manager
The past year has seen a new Trustee Board introduced, with external trustees, student trustees and sabbaticals working together to ensure that the Union is developing and establishing itself in the new location. This has provided a fantastic opportunity for us to benefit from the expertise and knowledge of external trustees, whilst also gaining a wider range of student input at a strategic level. We launched a research project in late 2014 to establish how our members view the future of their Union. The main objective was to get an insight into the needs of our students, and how they rate the role of the Union during their time at university. This is an exciting time for the Union as we embark on a new strategic plan which will take the organisation forward for the next 3 years using students’ feedback to shape our strategic direction. We’ve seen significant growth in engagement and participation this year, particularly with societies, whose membership numbers have reached a record height. This is also evident with registered volunteers clocking up a staggering 15,348 hours in one year. Nightline is another new initiative succesfully launched this year, and provides a student-led peer-to-peer helpline operating through the night as a confidential listening service for students. Our elections saw great success in March, including the introduction of a new voting system, which received positive feedback from students. It also provided the Union with the ability to break voting patterns down to schools and different demographics during the voting period. Due to the continued success of our Go Green project, we have been awarded a further £73,000 of funding for two more projects, which are focused on the reduction of water and waste. Finally, we have had numerous events throughout the year which included nearly 800 students celebrating at our Graduation Ball, as well as the Student Achievement Awards and Sports Awards Ball, where students received recognition for their extra-curricular activities and sucesses.
paul greene stefan gheorge vinny o’donovan edward pollock steve mills gertruda zieniute scott harper niamh healy Michele Collie stephen fiddes hugh coleman gregor mailer zoe gove grant stengs stevie kearney euan davidson shadya el shafiy theresa schwarz emma erwin debbie booth hannah smith eileen lawson norma polson
2014/15
our team
president communication & democracy president education & welfare president sport & physical activity vice president entertainment & events vice president wellbeing & equality vice president environment & ethics vice president sport rag chair General Manager student advice & administration co-ordinator finance co-ordinator graphic designer & marketing co-ordinator graphic designer graphic designer student development & volunteering co-ordinator fundraising & communities intern societies & volunteering intern climate change manager climate change engagement & events co-ordinator pa receptionist deeview student store supervisor deeview student store supervisor
our year representation 4 elections 6 advice & support 7 volunteering 8 nightline 10 raising & giving 11 campaigns & events 12 green initiatives 14 societies 16 sport 18 finance 19 student media 19
Robert Gordon University Students’ Union University Street, Garthdee Campus Garthdee Road, Aberdeen AB10 7GE t: 01224 262 266 hello@rguunion.co.uk Registered Scottish Charity SC016639
representing our members annual general meeting 2015 Held in the Riverside East Ampitheatre for the second time, the RGU:Union Annual General Meeting (AGM) took place, with over 60 students in attendance to debate union policy to keep up-todate with the latest on the Union’s activities. Motions considered included supporting the ‘Living Rent Campaign’ to campaign for clean, safe and affordable housing and the introduction of rent controls in the UK. Other motions included further support for RGU:RAG and to encourage the Students’ Union to work and campaign to improve catering facilities on campus.
student partnership agreement For the second year, RGU:Union took part in a partnership agreement with the University, where the Students’ Union and University work together on a number of themes to empower students to improve the student experience. This year’s themes were focused on building a campus community, raising awareness of health and wellbeing on campus and improving student representation at school level. Real progress was made in working more closely with class reps and improving communication between class reps and faculty officers, as well as in promoting our healthy living initiatives led by the ‘Fit for the Future’ campaign and RGU:Sport. The campus community part focused on ‘quick wins’, including spending £15k on new furniture to make the campus a more comfortable place, extending opening times for catering facilities, making it easier to book out rooms for student use and finally getting some microwaves on campus for students. RGU:Union is planning to continue this relationship in future, developing new themes to focus on in the coming year to continue to develop the student experience.
389 elected student representatives
99% percentage of student reps who considered training ‘very useful/useful’
97% percentage of student reps who felt they were ‘able to make a worthwhile contribution to the student experience’
100% percentage of student reps who would ‘recommend the training to other student reps’
advice & support who we advise The service provided advice to students on over 500 occasions in 2014/15, via phone, email and in person. Of the students who used the service, approximately 57% were from outside the UK, an increase on approximately 50% last year. Not only is the service used more by non-UK students, it is disproportionately so, as only 31% of the student population is from outside the UK.
what we advise on Of the cases advised on, 36% concerned Academic Appeals, an increase on 34% last year. This is the third consecutive year in which the amount of interactions that concerned academic appeals has increased. Of the other issues advised on, the second most common was Student Misconduct cases, accounting for 23% of the total.
36% 23% 36% of cases concerned academic appeals
23% of cases concerned student misconduct
elections Our March election saw the introduction of a new voting system, using the MSL platform, which provides a much simpler and more visually-appealing user experience for both voters and candidates. A number of statistics are presented to the Union during the election voting process, including demographic, faculty, course and voter location breakdowns. This allows us to relay information to candidates regularly to help them target their campaigns more efficiently throughout the different buildings on campus.
“the new voting system was so easy to use, and it was very useful to be able to see all the candidate pictures, videos and manifestos in one simple system” edward pollock, candidate This helped boost overall turnout figures, as we saw over 1700 individual voters cast 9383 votes across all positions - the second highest turnout figure ever for an RGU election.
election winners 2015 PRESIDENT (COMMUNICATION & DEMOCRACY) EDWARD POLLOCK PRESIDENT (EDUCATION & WELFARE) STEVE MILLS PRESIDENT (SPORT & PHYSICAL ACTIVITY) GIANPIERO FRANCHI VICE PRESIDENT (SOCIETIES) DAVID MUNRO VICE PRESIDENT (ACADEMIC) JOHN DORAN VICE PRESIDENT (INTERNATIONAL) FRED FERIFE VICE PRESIDENT (WELLBEING & EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES) MARTIN THOMSON RAG CHAIR MARTY MCGOURAN
election candidate martin thomson speaks during candidate question time
9383
where the votes came from faculty
Total number of votes cast in this year’s election
1734
sex
number of individual voters year of study
13 number of candidates running across all full time and part time positions
1920 1680
1616
1505
1413
1335
2009
2010
2011
1734
2012
2013
2014
student election turnout figures since 2009
2015
volunteering Due to a combination of increased opportunities for volunteering, a stronger online and social media presence and improvements to our system for logging hours, the total number of hours volunteered by RGU students between March 2014 and February 2015 was up significantly on the previous year, rising from 9,000 to over 15,000. We’ve focussed on developing partnerships and joint projects, building on links with organisations like CLIC Sargent, Action Medical Research and the Aberdeen Youth Games, where students play a leading role in the delivery of key projects and initiatives. The switch to the new RGU:Union website is an exciting development and our current site looks more attractive and is easier to navigate, while the volunteering module will be developed and tested during the summer months, being rolled out fully for the start of the 2015/16 term. This will allow organisations to upload their opportunities directly and students will be able to look through searchable databases, while also logging their hours directly onto their profile on the site. These developments will not only be exceptionally user-friendly, but will considerably cut the amount of admin time for the staff team, freeing us up to offer more volunteer support and continue to develop exciting new volunteering initiatives. In 2015 we were able to increase our offering by taking on two Interns on 15-hour-a-week, fourmonth contracts; Shadya El Shafiy was responsible for Societies and Volunteering, with Euan Davidson focussing on RAG and Communities. Both have made an impact on our volunteering department, bringing new ideas and considerable enthusiasm to their roles, overseen by Stevie Kearney, our Student Development and Volunteering Coordinator.
providing extra curricular development opportunities for our students
15,348
86
1,000
hours logged by our registered volunteers in 2014/15
number of students receiving volunteering awards
highest number of volunteering hours recorded by one student this year
volunteering partner award winners organisation focus: clic sargent 14/15 20 HOURS Aditya Prakash Mhairi Sharkey Niaomi Gray Dina Konglevoll Opeyemi Oladejo Karen Mitchell Sophie Dolderer Shadi Khakpour Mariem Ahmed Nicola White Gergana Aleksandrova Katie Gibson Rowan Crawford Catheryn Loach Claire O’Donnell Heather Beveridge James Johnson Regan Turner Amin Hedayetullah Callum Martin Katie Nicol Maria Kopsida Awa Sow Debora Dimitrova Samina Galle Julia Oniksimova Line Broe Dalsgaard Devin Evans Lydia Hiu Mun Man Louise McDougall Thomas Ojo Simona Stojanovska Mark Alalibo Daniel Emele Milliharjun Jayachandran Lara Seymour
50 HOURS Shannon Smith Hayley Dawson Chantelle Ord Steven Hair Chioma Odukwe Charlotte Rigdin Kerry Harrison Ellen Laird Sophie O’Donnell Hannah Summers Caroline Orr Julia Waack Anastasia Baka Victoria Bola-Okerinde
Chloe Wilson Lisa Meridith Maeghan Reilly Rima Chaudhry Ifeoma Victor-Igwe Edith Dinkpa Chisa Onyejekwe Lynne Fox Perrine Odorowski
100 HOURS Louis Currie Laurens Kromme Robert Vinke Kerryn McRae Caroline Ngondo Andrea Cox Scott Sanderson Joanna MacQueen
200 HOURS Rebecca Shaw Stewart Pitt Sreejish Sreenivasan Lewis Eden Becca Lloyd Emma Diamond Tom Saddler
300 HOURS Martin McGouran Ashley Thomson Lauren Cursiter Niamh Healy Ashley Graham Amy McNelis Shadya El Shafiy Nicola Robertson Gordon Crabb
500 HOURS Lisanne Heijne
750 HOURS Edward Pollock
1000 HOURS Steve Mills
With so many volunteering opportunities on offer, we’ve had to focus on the ones which offer RGU students the best volunteering experience and the most benefits. A great example of this new approach has been our link with CLIC Sargent to help promote their upcoming Iron Ride cycling event. Working alongside two other prominent Scottish-based children’s charities, the team at CLIC Sargent have developed a fundraising bike ride which will test the endurance of even the most experienced – a 180km route is the longest of three options on offer and the hills reach gradients of 24%. RGU:Union’s Student Development and Volunteering Coordinator works with the charity to develop a student-led project, where RGU volunteers are involved in several key aspects of the planning and promotion of the event, which takes place in Tayside in September. A team of six students have taken on roles such as the sourcing of corporate sponsorship in order to build this first-time event into a success, while they will also be marketing the ride to cyclists and charity enthusiasts in order to help secure the target of 700 participants. This project is an example of the type of volunteering opportunities we are aiming to create for RGU students by working alongside our charity partners across the region and further afield.
nightline Nightline is our brand new student-led peer-to-peer helpline, which aims to offer a non-judgmental, confidential and anonymous listening and support service to students at Robert Gordon University outside of academic hours (operating form 8pm through until 8am). It’s said that one in four people suffer from mental health illnesses, and for students this may be for a variety of issues: from academic stress, bullying or debt, to loneliness, depression or bereavement; from arguments with flatmates or worries about a friend, to addictions, eating disprders or self-harm; from relationship or family problems to sexuality, sexual abuse or abortion. As well as telephone support, students can also contact Nightline by email, or through an online instant messaging system. The service’s launch year has been an undoubted success, and it has established an incredibly high profile across the university campus, thanks to the hard work of an team of enthusiastic volunteers - and not forgetting their mascot, Robbie The Bear. RGU:Nightline’s positive launch has also been recognised by the national Nightline association, who named founder Steve Mills ‘Volunteer of the Year’ at their annual conference. RGU:Union received a nomination in the ‘Most Supportive Union’ category.
volunteer of the year steve mills rgu:nightline founder , winner (
)
nightline association annual conference ‘15
most supportive union rgu:union, nominee nightline association annual conference ‘15
introducing robbie the bear, rgu:nightline’s very own mascot
106 logged uses of the rgu:nightline service between feb and may 2015
41 rgu:nightline volunteers registered
£2000 fundraising amount raised by rgu:nightline since november 2014
raising and giving Each year RGU students raise thousands of pounds for local, national and international charities and good causes, and there is a proud history of student fundraising at the RGU:Union. 2014/15 was no different, with many student projects raising significant sums as part of their studies – Business Studies and Event Management students especially – while increasing numbers of our societies contributed their spare time and efforts to generate funds and awareness for particular causes.
£6035
approx amount raised for charities and good causes by students at rgu
The Research Students Association (RSA) has long been one of the largest and best run societies at RGU:Union and this past year they organised a sponsored sleepout at Kaim Cottage which raised over £200 for Save the Children, while their participation in Aberdeen’s annual Santa Run event made an additional £200 for Wildhearts children’s charity. RGU:Union’s Electronic Gaming Society were the largest fundraising group last year, raising almost £1500 through their events. The two most successful were their 24-hour gaming marathon, which raised over £600 for Mind, and their “Completathon”, where their team completed 100 computer games in 24 hours, generating a total of £721 for gaming-based charity Whizz Kidz.
go green In 2013, RGU:Union secured funding from the Climate Challenge Fund to establish a carbon footprint initiative at RGU. The goal is to reduce the University’s carbon emissions and promote sustainable living. The initiative was brought to life as Go Green in February 2014, realising a variety of sustainability projects such as a community garden. A second round of funding started April 2015 with the emphasis on waste, recycling and sustainable water consumption. Go Green encourages stakeholders through offline and online activities to realise small changes to their lifestyle which can have a positive impact on our environment and reduce the effects of climate change. Students, staff and the local community are involved in Go Green projects.
community garden Since March 2014, Go Green has an allotment with raised beds, growing vegetables which are consumed by volunteers as well as users of the Veg Bag scheme (see “Food Co-op”). A polytunnel is used to grow chillies and other sun-loving plants. RGU students and members of staff, as well as the wider community, are encouraged to take part in the gardening and other activities on site. The Go Green allotment as part of the Garthdee Field Allotment Association’s area was assessed along with others by the campaign “It’s Your Neighbourhood” by Keep Scotland Beautiful and reached the assessment level “Thriving”.
bike hire scheme As of October 2014, Go Green’s Bike Hire Service allowed students to bypass buses, cars and heavy traffic. Not only is cycling a great way to stay in shape, it also has a dramatic impact on carbon emissions. The scheme has been handed over to the RGU:Cycling Club and is now student-led.
110 More than 110 tonnes CO2e savings through Go Green projects in the funding period 2013-2015
20 20% reduction of electricity use at Woolmanhill Halls from 2014 to 2015 compared to previous year
160 Nearly 160 bikes were rented out in the funding period 2013-2015 (including winter break).
energy ambassadors Energy Ambassadors receive full training in order to carry out energy audits and find the best ways to reduce carbon emissions from different sites on campus and in residential areas. Many more students have shown an interest in taking the Energy Ambassador training up-to-date to keep the scheme sustainable.
food co-op As of October 2014, Go Green staff and its volunteers run a Veg Bag scheme. Organic vegetables are packed in reusable bags and can be purchased every fortnight. The fresh produce has been ordered by up to 50 people at a time, involving staff and student volunteers. Packaging of food can be reduced through this scheme. Food Co-Ops are run by and for their members. This means that all work is done by volunteers, and students can be active consumers, taking charge of the quality and origin of their food.
halls energy challenge Students in Woolmanhill Halls and Crathie Student Village were encouraged to take part in the Halls Energy Challenge, competing against each other to see who could save more energy. Go Green provides students with information about energy-saving initiatives. In the Halls Energy Challenge, a monthly winner is announced online, with the overall champion for the year receiving a prize. With this online engagement, Go Green encourages different fun ways of being ethically sustainable, while offering film nights and opportunities for students to socialise.
water & waste
ÂŁ280,000
With a student body of over 17,000 people, in a university which features a fully equipped gym, the demand for water is enormous. Go Green aims to decrease water waste and plastic bottle pollution, by encouraging the use of mains water from the countless taps and water fountains around campus, as well as providing reusable water bottles.
The total amount awarded to the Students’ Union as part of our Keep Scotland Beautiful applications (2013-2016)
Waste management is also one of the biggest issues facing university campuses in this generation. With the sheer numbers of students now in further education, the demand for materials and infrastructure is gigantic. Therefore, Go Green aims to reduce waste, reuse and recycle items on campus and in student halls while allowing students to find all sorts of fun and useful ways to improve how they manage material waste.
events graduation ball Having successfully trialed a second night (Thursday) to the Graduation Ball in 2014, the event continued to grow this year and saw around 800 attendees fill the city’s iconic Beach Ballroom across both Friday and Saturday nights. Full tables for the event were snapped up in record time yet again, with students queuing outside our Deeview Store from 7:30am on the day of release, and selling the event out after just 3 hours.
student achievement awards ball The Student Achievement Awards Ball returned to the Hilton Treetops Hotel this year, with over 150 students, staff and guests helping us to celebrate a fantastic year for societies, volunteers, and student involvement at RGU. Over 100 awards and certificates were presented, including the Society of the Year trophy and prestigious Students’ Union Scarlet Award.
rgu’s wee music festival As part of Mental Health Awareness Week, we hosted RGU’s first ever ‘Wee Music Festival’, which saw a handful of acts, including singing groups, percussion performances and live bands, perform in various locations across the University campus.
3 full tables for our graduation ball sold out in a record 3 hours this year
52 the number of awards presented to lecturers, tutors and support staff at the i love my lecturer awards
800
freshers week The introduction of ‘Welcome Week’, taking place before official start Freshers Week saw us produce a bumper 16 day events line-up to welcome new students to RGU and the city. An official partnership with The Garage Nightclub and Campus Bar provided us with a number of headline entertainment acts such as Neon Jungle, The Midnight Beast and BBC Radio 1’s Ally McCrae.
i love my lecturer awards This year saw the fifth installment of our annual I Love My Lecturer Awards scheme, which aims to reward exceptional teaching and support staff at RGU by allowing the student body to submit nominations and stories of excellence and inspiration. Once again we received well over 100 nominations, and were able to present 52 awards at a ceremony held in the Riverside East Building.
around 800 students attended our graduation ball over two nights
16 we hosted 16 days of events during this year’s freshers period, incorporated ‘welcome week’ for the first time
give it a go week ‘Give It A Go Week’ took place once again at the beginning of the first semester, and aims to provide students with another opportunity to familiarise themselves with the many student involvement opportunities available with the Union and throughout the university. Societies and student groups were encouraged to hold their first meetings during this time, and a number of different showcase events took place throughout the week.
societies This year has seen sizeable growth in the number of students signing up to societies and student groups, and also an increase in the number of promotional, social and fundraising events taking place. Competition was fierce for the Student Achievement Awards, with ESN RGU eventually being awarded our Society of the Year, which was all the more remarkable as this was their first year as a society. The Language Society picked up Best New Society, with Diagnostic Radiography collecting Academic Society of the Year and Dumbledore’s Army were awarded Most Improved Society after seeing a 400% increase in their membership numbers. The Electronic Gaming Society were the winners of a new category – the Community Ambassador Award – in recognition of their many fundraising events for local charities. As well as societies, there are individual awards too and one student this year won the coveted Full Scarlet – the only one handed out in the last two years. Ashley Thomson, Co-President of the Interprofessional Education Society (IPE), received this award in recognition of her considerable work for the society, being nominated for NUS and NUS Scotland society awards, as well as collecting the personal award of Pharmacist of the Future at the annual Scottish Pharmacist Ball. One of the key strategic priorities for the last 12 months has been making the creation of new societies easier for students in order to increase society numbers. The processes remain the same, but the presentation of information has been simplified, and this will continue into 2015-16 with the launch of the new society handbook. There are new societies being created all the time and for 2015-16 there will be even more, as we look to ensure that the Union has a huge variety of opportunities for students to get involved, whether they are happy to be a society member or if they are keen to go for a committee position or even run for society president. We’ll always work hard to support any students who have an idea for a new society and we aim to have 50 societies in total by the end of 2015-16.
members of esn:rgu, our 2014/15 society of the year
student ach awards bal society win society of the year esn:rgu academic society of the year diagnostic radiography new society of the year language society most improved society of the year dumbledore’s army Most improved academic society of the year forensic society
society focus:
esn:rgu
Shadya El Shafiy, Society President
ESN RGU has been on a very exciting journey over the last year - the society has gone from two members to the largest non-academic society at RGU, and picked up a few awards along the way, not only from RGU:Union but also from the UK-wide ESN group. From Edinburgh to Amsterdam, ceilidhs to pub crawls, Halloween to Burn Night, our events have been extremely successful. We have had an immensely busy social calendar, striving to find a balance between charity work, socials, trips abroad and cultural outings.
hievement ll 2015 nners
This success would not have been possible without the support of our fantastic members, our diligent and hard-working committee, our partners across the city and of course RGU:Union. We have just returned an all-new committee for the 2015/16 session and look forward to building on the momentum from the last year, with more members, more trips, more socials, and more charity fundraisers.
award for continued excellence christian union community ambassador award gaming society student leadership award ipe society student engagement award rgu:nightline student voice award mental wellbeing society society person of the year ashley thomson
society event focus:
forensic society ball
Nicola Robertson, Society President
“Organising the first ever Forensic and Analytical Science course ball was a stressful but enjoyable experience. Ticket sales exceeded our expectations; we initially hoped for 75-80 and we sold 117 tickets, which was hugely satisfying. On the night of the ball we held a raffle which raised £500 for the ARCHIE foundation. As a committee we were ecstatic to have managed to raise so much. If we were to do this again, we would have the tickets made a lot earlier as we kept running out! Overall though, this was a very successful event and one we’d be really keen to do again next year.”
1600 the total number of members registered with our societies
10 40 the number of societies receiving awardeds at this year’s saa ball
we have over 40 student societies affiliated with the union
600 the number of new society members registered this year
sport 2014/15 proved to be yet another successful year for sports clubs at Robert Gordon University. Both Rugby and Cricket teams secured promotion from their respective leagues, and the Women’s Football team made it to the final of the Scottish Cup competition, sitting alongside other outstanding performances for RGU from our Rifle, Table Tennis and Curling representatives. The Boat Club also secured a fourth consecutive victory in the Aberdeen Asset Management Universities Boat Race, which sees our teams square off against city rivals Aberdeen University. This win brings our total number of wins up to six, closing the gap on AU who have claimed fourteen since the race’s inception. The year was capped off with a celebration of all sports success at RGU, with the annual Blues Awards Ball, which saw Rugby claim the Club of the Year prize, and the Rifle club named Team of the Year.
awarded one star for the healthy body healthy mind initiative from nus scotland
rgu:sport awards ball 2015 winners club of the year rugby team of the year rifle sports person of the year derrick sloane new club of the year lacrosse volunteer of the year sally carns fresher of the year fraser chape
1200
32
46
the total number of sports club members
total number of sports clubs
total number of teams across all clubs
finance Union Income Overall income was £494K and £16k over budget. The main source of the additional funds were partnerships negotiated with companies operating in Aberdeen. This funding will be used to take forward projects during 2015-16. As these agreements are uncertain year to year they are not budgeted for. It also allows for the creation of a proportionate reserve to ensure the financial stability of the Union. Trading Income A small surplus of £3K was achieved which is in line with the Union’s aim to provide quality goods to students while minimising the cost to them. It also reflects the move away from relying on trading to finance the Union which was essential following the closure of the Bar and Café.
from the previous year, such as the Market Research project costing £10K, which will aid us with the production of a strategic plan. In addition Accounting System and VAT support was required during the year, costing £6,000. Summary A lot has happened over the year, including the integration of Sports Club finances with the Union, and the strengthening of working ties with RGU:SPORT. It is pleasing to report that the overall performance has produced an increase in reserves of £22K. However in addition to the need for these funds to be available to develop projects.
Union Expenditure Total expenditure this year is £469K which is almost £8K less than the budget. In addition staff costs were closely controlled and came in £10K under budget. Included in these costs were items which could be undertaken as a result of partnership arrangement
student media This year has seen student media at RGU grow further and develop significantly. Media is a relatively new venture for RGU:Union, with Radar Magazine running for a second year this year. Radar had two editions this year, with a articles ranging from advice to celebrity interviews, all written and published by RGU students. Radar also grew its social media presence with hundreds of students engaging online. RGU:Radio has grown significantly this year, with a fully contested election at its annual general meeting leading to the most successful year of radio to date. There was a vast range of shows from rock to feminism to current affairs produced by RGU students with thousands of listens online through podcasting services. RGU:TV is the newest strand of the media group, and is slowly growing to generate a range of content, and this year saw students produce a number of videos from event highlights to election question time and more. 2014/2015 has been the most significant year for the media group to date, and has seen the Union recruit graphic design placement students from the University, who have focused on refreshing the RGU:Media branding.
radar
R O BERT GORDON UNIVERSIT Y ST UD ENTS’ UNION U NI V ERSITY STRE E T, GART HDEE CAMPUS, GART HDEE ROAD, ABERDEEN AB10 7GE 01 224 262 266 HELLO@RGUUNION.CO.U K RE GISTE RE D SCOTTISH CH ARITY SC0 1663 9