Students told us about their…
➢ Student income and part-time work
➢ Sense of student community
➢ Student support
Speak Week results
1,131 participants
November 2024
Speak Week
25th Nov - 1st Dec
SUBU’s Full Time Officers designed the survey to explore three main themes:
1. Student income & part-time work
• How do students fund their student lives?
• How easy is it for students to find part-time work?
2. Sense of student community
• How important are various aspects of the University and wider community to students?
• How satisfied are students with their experiences of these?
3. Student support
• Do students know where to access academic, housing, personal and wellbeing support?
• What has the biggest impact on the student experience?
• What should SUBU focus on to help students have the best student experience?
Speak Week since 2018-19: student participation
This Autumn’s Speak Week engaged 1,131 students – the highest in recent years!
Speak Week November 2024: demographics
Student origin
When compared to BU*, Speak Week demographics show:
• Slight overrepresentation of FST students
• Slight underrepresentation of Level 6 students
• Overrepresentation of PGT students, and International and European students
• Significant underrepresentation of home students
• Significant overrepresentation of students whose origin is unknown *Source: Qlikview
Speak Week November 2024: demographics
1,131 participants
Additional Speak Week demographics show:
Is this your first year studying at BU?
• A large proportion of Speak Week respondents were under 21 years old (47%)
• Around 10% of responses came from those aged 30 and above
• 48% of this Speak Week’s responses came from students in their first year of study at BU
Theme 1 Student income
and part-time work
Theme 1: student income and part-time work
Q. How do participants fund their student lives?
1,131 participants
The top 5 things student participants do to fund their lives are:
• Using their student loan – 56%
• They receive support from family, friends, and/or network – 45%
• They saved up before coming to university – 35%
• They are working part time* – 33%
• 21% at up to 15 hours a week
• 12% at over 15 hours a week
*Note that an additional 46% are still looking for part-time work which they need to find to fund their student lives (see slide 13)
Theme 1: Student income and part-time work
Funding student lives with Student loans
Responses about student loan use were significantly associated with students’ age, study level, whether students were in their first year of study, and student origin (p< .01).
Student loan use by age
1,131 participants
Older students and postgraduates were less reliant on their student loan than younger students and undergraduates.
Additionally, 72% of Home/UK students fund their life using their student loan.
Theme 1: Student income and part-time work 1,131
participants
Funding student lives with Support from family, friends and/or networks
Percentage of participants who receive support in this way by first year/ not first year of study
First year of study Not my first year
Students in their first year at BU were more likely to receive support for their student life in this way (p< .01).
When grouped by Level, the highest % of students receiving support from family, friends and/or networks, were in Level 4 (1st Year) and Level 7 (PGT).
International students are also more likely to receive support in this way than Home/UK students, with 63% receiving this versus Home/UK at 38%.
Theme 1: Student income and part-time
work
1,131 participants
Funding student lives by saving up before coming to university
Students who saved up before coming to university were significantly associated with Age and Student origin (p< .01).
Over 40% of students aged under 21 saved before coming to university, to fund their lives.
Over 40% of European students (nonUK), saved before coming to university.
Theme 1: Student income and part-time work
Q. Are participants currently seeking part-time work?
The most common response from students was “Yes”, with 46% of respondents currently looking for parttime work.
Overall, 79% of students are either already working part-time, or are looking for part-time work.
21% of students do not need parttime work to fund their student lives.
Responses
Theme 1: Student income and part-time work 1,131
participants
Are participants currently seeking part-time work - by student origin
87% of International students are either currently looking for part time work or have found it, more than Home/UK (79%) and European students (69%).
Home/UK Students have had the most success finding part-time work, with 38% of the population working part-time already.
European students need part-time work the
Theme 1: Student income and part-time work
Q. How easy it is for participants to find part-time work?
1,131 participants
For students who have already found part-time work, or are currently seeking it, in general finding part-time work is difficult. 59% of students said finding part time work was difficult or very difficult.
SUBU’s work supporting students to fund their student lives
1. Part-time paid campus-based roles for around 200 students, including:
• 150 roles in our commercial areas (Dylans’ Kitchen and Bar, The Old Fire Station, Student Shop)
• 16 roles in content creation/ graphic design in SUBU’s Communication department
• 11 roles in events and promotion (including Open Days), and more…
SUBU’s work supporting students to fund their student lives
2. Supporting students to find part-time work
• Collaboration with BU Careers to promote a PartTime Jobs Fair
• Working closely with BU Careers team to enhance SUBU’s cross-promotion of part-time work opportunities to students
• Stand Out Summit – SOS – ‘Brand Yourself, Land a Job’ student confidence-building event planned for 5th March 2025
• Planning to explore potential links for student part-time roles with SUBU’s business and sales contacts
SUBU’s work supporting students to fund their student lives
3. Ongoing cost-of-living support
• Community Kitchen at both Talbot and Lansdowne
• Breakfast Clubs at both Talbot and Lansdowne
• Supper Clubs with FTOs cooking!
• Pantry Packs
• Small Emergency Grants provision
• Supermarket vouchers as additional support for International students as they cannot access student bursaries
• Offering honorariums to Part Time Officers so the roles are as inclusive as possible and are not only open to students with ‘spare time’
• SUBU Advisers becoming qualified as budget coaches
• Jessica Toale MP recently commented in Parliament about the impact of student renting costs, quoting research that BU and SUBU Officers promoted and building on what was covered in SUBU's November MP Spotlight event
SUBU’s work supporting students to fund their student lives
4. Collaborating on projects with BU
• Working with BU’s Pro Vice-Chancellor Student
Experience on a timetable enhancement project, which aims include to develop timetables that students can more easily fit part-time work around
• Working with BU Estates to explore expanding the BUfunded, free, sustainable period product provision to Portsmouth and Yeovil campuses
Theme 2 Sense of student community
Theme 2: Sense of student community
1,131 participants
To explore the sense of student community with participants, we asked students about the following 8 aspects:
• Feeling part of their campus community
• Opportunities to socialise on campus
• Small drop-in events on campus
• Student-led groups and societies
• Diversity of their course staff
• Safety and security on their campus
• Sense of community in their local area
• Safety and security in their local area
Theme 2: Sense of student community
1,131 participants
‘Importance of’ and ‘Satisfaction with’ the student community aspects
Students rated each aspect to show
• how important it was to them
• how satisfied they were with their experience of it
The rating scale for perceived importance and satisfaction offered four options:
• Not at all important / Not at all satisfied
• Not so important / Not so satisfied
• Somewhat important / Somewhat satisfied
• Very important / Very satisfied
The two slides that follow show the number of participants who selected each option in the importance/ satisfaction scales.
Theme 2: Sense of student community
Ratings for importance and satisfaction by number of participants
Theme 2: Sense of student community
Theme 2: Sense of student community
Identifying
‘gaps’ between average importance and satisfaction ratings for each aspect
Each of the rating scale options below were weighted by assigning scores as follows:
• Not at all important / Not at all satisfied: score of 0 (zero)
• Not so important / Not so satisfied: score of 3.3
• Somewhat important / Somewhat satisfied: score of 6.6
• Very important / Very satisfied: score of 10
The importance and satisfaction results for each aspect were calculated by firstly multiplying the number of participants who selected each option by its corresponding score. The total sum of each aspect’s scores was then divided by the number of total participants, giving each aspect’s Average Importance and Average Satisfaction scores.
The difference in points between these average scores for each aspect provides the ‘gap’ score. 1,131 participants
Theme 2: Sense of student community
1,131 participants
SUBU’s work to support sense of student community
1. Student safety and security on campus and in the local area
• SUBU’s Community Wardens, who support students living in the local community and support good community relations
• Exploring options for developing an app to help improve student safety
• Two safety-related Student Summit policies (Make campus safer for marginalised students and Lobby to end sexual harassment, misconduct and violence on campus)
• Tom Hayes MP mentioned women's safety as a concern recently in Parliament, which was a topic discussed in SUBU’s MP Spotlight event in November
SUBU’s work to support sense of student community
2. Student community on campus
• Ensuring events are free or as low-cost as possible to make it easy to join and the timings work for students
• Multiple events for student groups for example BlackFest, student parents’ events, cheese and wine evenings, a Community Kitchen spin-off for students to meet up with free hot drinks, an LGBTQ+ Queermas, thriving clubs and societies…
• Increase in the number of International student-related clubs engaging with relevant national bodies and clubs
Theme 3 Student support
Theme 3: Student support
1,131 participants
Whether participants knew where to access academic, housing, wellbeing and personal support offered by SUBU and BU
participants
Theme 3: Student support
The biggest positive impact on the student experience is… (132 comments)
Friendships and community
(51 comments, 38.6%)
Clubs, societies and sports
(22 comments, 16.7%)
Support services (19 comments, 14.4%)
Academic (19 comments, 14.4%)
327 total comments
BU Staff (12 comments, 9.1%)
1,131 participants
The biggest negative impact on the student experience is… (195 comments)
Finances and cost of living (89 comments, 45.6%)
Mental health (20 comments, 10.3%)
Academic (18 comments, 9.2%)
Making friendships and fitting in (17 comments, 8.7%)
Accommodation / living situations (12 comments, 6.2%)
Theme 3: Student support
1,131 participants
What SUBU should focus our work on to support the best student experience
Doing things that support students’ mental health
Cost-of-living support schemes
Offering advice and support around academic issues
Helping students make friends
Representing the views and interests of students at a university or course level
Bigger events on campus or locally
Student-led groups or societies
Representing the views and interests of students at a national level
Smaller drop-in events on campus
Campaigning for change at a university, local, or national level
What
Theme 3: Student support
1,131 participants
SUBU should focus our work on to support the best student experience
Almost all age groups agreed on the Top 3 items that SUBU should focus their support on:
Doing things that support students’ mental health
Cost of living support schemes
Offering advice and support around academic issues
Those under 21yrs prioritised “cost of living support schemes” over “doing things that support students’ mental health”.
Theme 3: Student Support
1,131 participants
What SUBU should focus our work on to support the best student experience
Home/UK
International
European
1. Cost of living support schemes
1. Doing things that support students’ mental health
2. Doing things that support students’ mental health
3. Offering advice and support around academic issues
SUBU’s work on student support
1. Supporting student mental health
• Out in the Woods – a new student-led programme, in collaboration with BU's Psychology department and Talbot Village Trust, to improve student wellbeing by connecting them with the natural environment around the university
• Talbot Campus STARS drop-ins (Sexual Trauma And Recovery Services)
• Gambling addiction drop-ins
• Student Summit policy to Make Sunflower lanyards available and cost-friendly on campus
• SUBU staff and Officers receiving Mental Health First Aider training
SUBU’s work on student support
2. Advice and support on academic issues
• SUBU Advice academic support, for example, Fitness to Practise and Academic Office panels
• ‘Mastering the BU Academic Experience’ and ‘Mastering Exams and Revision’ sessions, providing specific skills and resources for student in collaboration with BU’s Library and Academic Skills staff
SUBU’s work on student support
3. Making friends
• Much of what that SUBU does aims to help students make friends, as one of our strategic aims is 'Ending student loneliness’
• Running the International Buddy Scheme
• Trialled a partnership pilot Buddy Scheme with BU's Business School – it had less impact as a single project outside of the International Buddy Scheme, so SUBU will run the International Buddy Scheme again from January 2025
• Multiple student events and opportunities for students to meet each other and do things together…