Impact Report 2015/16
Message from Wesley Hudson 15/16 President
H
ello from all of us at the Students’ Union. I hope you will enjoy this report which aims to summarise and highlight the work the elected Officers and staff did during the academic year 2015/16, to try to make the student experience the best it can be. This was my second year in office and was one of real change, setting the Union on a new path.
We started the year with another lively Welcome Week, including new events such as the Wellfair, aimed at promoting health and wellbeing whilst studying. In the first semester we launched our Don’t Rent yet Campaign, culminating in another very well-attended Housing and Community fair, this year including local voluntary organisations to help showcase opportunities for students to give something back to Worcester. It’s been a great year for volunteering. As part of a West Midlands Volunteer Network, we took part in national Student Volunteer Week in February, with a programme of activities aimed at raising awareness of how volunteering can support people in need, as well as employability. It also wouldn’t be right to talk about volunteering
There have been some excellent results from our sports teams which culminated in a second consecutive Varsity win over Gloucester University (15-11). There has been an increase in memberships of sports clubs and societies and in the types of societies and their range of activities. We also undertook to increase the number of students working for us, creating new posts in marketing and student engagement.
Representation
Strategic
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Advice
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Sport
SU
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Officer
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Celebration p.32
Welcome
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Green
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Development The Union streamlined its Student Council to reduce the previously onerous number of positions it had to fill and more importantly, enable more effective conversations. The Executive Committee also had a number of successes through its Part-Time Officers, such as feeding back to the University on its Disability and Dyslexia services and creating excellent links with areas of expertise within the University, including domestic violence.
without a mention to the many Student Academic Reps (StARs) which whom we have endeavoured to increase our engagement this year, as well as with the hard-working Institute Reps.
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Out and About
to the SU
& Support
Campaigns
Impact
Thank you all for a formidable year.
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Week
Marketing
and Communications
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Commercial p.37 Services
We ended the year with our Celebration Week to congratulate students and staff for their dedication and outstanding achievements, as well as with a referendum on NUS affiliation. Finally, I would like to thank my fellow Sabbatical Officers, Lewis Arnold and Hemaka Pathiranage who, in their respective roles, had an extremely successful term in office. They helped to create solid foundations upon which future officers can now build to ensure the Union continues to go from strength to strength. There is a lot still to be done but I have every confidence that the Union, working with the University, will make a huge difference to the student experience over the next few years.
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Behind
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Funding
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Key Challenges Ahead
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The Scenes
Student Development, Activities and Employability
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Over The Year We ... Developed a new vision, values and core strategic goals for the Union
Had a question on satisfaction with the UWSS for the first time – this came out at 59%
Won Varsity 15-11 V Gloucester University and came 61st in the national BUCS league table
Supported the University to increase engagement in the NSS by 34%
Went up 15 places to joint 41st in the Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey
Had a quorate AGM with the NUS President in attendance
Established ‘SU on Tour’ (which became SU Out and About) and spoke to over 600 students
Overhauled our back office processes and support for the Trustee Board
Helped increase the number of students applying for the Access to Learning Fund by over 30%
Equalled the number of votes in our main Election as last year over less days
Supported students to establish 14 new societies and advertised 92 different volunteering opportunities for student with 68 organisations
Reinstated Executive Committee and streamlined Student Council, achieving quoracy at every Student Council meeting
Supported 186 student cases and dealt with a further 537 queries about academic, housing and student matters through our Advice Centre.
Helped students give 29,000 hours to good causes
Saw amazing achievements in sport including rugby, netball, badminton and hockey (+ individual stars)
Sold over 3,000 NUS cards (by May 2016)
Achieved Bronze Green impact accreditation
Received almost 500 nominations in the SCAs for 255 members of staff.
Had 533 students and staff attend our Celebration Week
Raised over £3,600 for charity
Paid 50 student staff over £84,000 over the year!
Retained a 68% satisfaction rate amongst students in the NSS
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Strategic
Development
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he Officers and staff worked on developing some key principles and direction to underpin our work for the next few years, taking us up to 2021. These are set out below:
SU Out and About
Our Vision
Our Values
Representing and supporting students to develop and achieve
Professional Accountable Positive
Inspirational Student-centred Entertaining
Our Core, Strategic Goals: I ncrease the number of students who know about and use our services
reate and promote opportunities for students to C develop transferable skills
acilitate wider student involvement in decisions F that affect our members
elp students to be safe and to enjoy University H life
rovide responsive, appropriate and accessible P support and advice to students
A
big part of our new strategy is to increase awareness of what the SU can offer our diverse membership. To this end, we introduced ‘SU on Tour’ which, after feedback from City Campus students, became ‘SU Out and About’.
We went out 24 times to 9 different locations on City and St John’s campuses, and spent over 50 hours speaking to c.600 students. We explained how to get involved in the SU - such as joining a society, becoming a volunteer or student trustee, even designing our new logo - as well as what services and support we provide.
We promoted specific activities, including elections and Students’ Choice Awards and asked for opinions on different subjects, from our chosen charity, to what facilities students would like to see on City Campus.
Some of the outcomes from SU Out and About: e sent a report to senior W University staff with student feedback on what facilities they felt were needed on City Campus; e promoted the Access to Learning W Fund (ALF) and helped increase the number of students applying by over 30% on the previous year;
e encouraged students to W apply to be Institute Reps and SU Trustees, and to log their volunteer hours; e gave advice to 20 individual W students on mitigating circumstances and academic appeals; e took students through our W Degree Classification campaign to help them understand what was needed to achieve their desired grade. We are delighted how well SU
Out and About was received and will continue the initiative to meet as many as our members face to face as we can.
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Welcome to the SU
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e always hope that, whatever the query, students can get help from the SU and from friendly student staff at our Welcome Desk.
From September 2015 to May 2016, the Welcome Desk recorded receiving 971 phone calls, 728 email queries, and 3384 visitors. The actual figures will be much higher as it’s not always possible to keep tally during busy times. They also dealt with 605 queries from SU and University staff and recorded 9225 students using the SU lounge area and PCs over the year.
The most common student queries related to: NUS cards Speaking to the Officers Sports and societies Independent advice The University (largely directions, course and finance queries) Binding Freshers Marketing and Sponsorship Jobs
“It’s a friendly environment in which to work, with an excellent team, and a good way to interact with other students and learn more about the SU.” Welcome Desk Assistant
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Student Development,
Activities and Employability Societies
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e love our societies! We ended the year with 31 continuing societies, with14 new societies having set up over the year, an of 6 increase on 2014/15.
he total membership T increased to 819 members (from 696 in 14/15) and the highest membership count went to Anime and Manga at 70. The following societies and their committee members were congratulated for particular achievements at our Societies Ball in May 2016:
dministrator of the Year A Emma Waters (Loco Show Co.)
cademic Society of the Year A – Archaeology
ociety Leadership Award S -Hayley Annison– (Zumba)
ociety of the Year - Bright S Futures
utstanding Contribution to O Societies - Matthew Sargeant (Spotlight Theatre/Student representative for general interest societies) aG and Volunteering R Society of the Year – Zumba est Event - Yule Ball (Harry B Potter Society) ost Improved Society M Harry Potter Society Best New Society – Debate
We are now working on developing a societies’ handbook, revising the grant system for newly-approved societies and volunteering groups, as well as new financial procedures so that society accounts can be kept up to date online.
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The number of V-Record hours by May 2016 had reached c.30,000 by 402 students. Some of the awards given out at the VosCAs in May, included:
00 Hour Award - Distinction in 1 Volunteering (54 students)
Jason Trueman BSc(Hons) Environmental Science
00 Hour Award - Excellence in 2 Volunteering (30 students)
Institute of Sport and Exercise Science
00 Hour Award - Exceptional Attainment 5 in Volunteering (8 students)
Louise Preston BSc(Hons) Sports Studies
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Student Academic Representatives of the Year 2015/16:
olunteering continues to be a key focus for the Union.
We supported new Student-Led Volunteering Groups, including Uni Boob Team, Helping Handbags and Nightline and we started talks with the University on improving how students’ volunteering and extra-curricular activities can be recognised within the HEAR.
Institute of Science and the Environment
tARs Accreditation – Bronze (6), Silver S (1), and Gold (6)
Volunteering
This year we worked with 68 local partners and organisations, securing 92 different volunteering opportunities. These ranged from caring roles within hospices and charities, support for wildlife and environmental sustainability, providing photographic, marketing and website support, being local guides, and volunteering in charity shops and on helplines. We continued to enjoy particularly strong links with the lovely people at Headway Worcester Trust and the Worcestershire Ambassadors.
0 Hour Award - Achievement in 5 Volunteering (93 students)
Institute of Education Tamsin Bailey BA(Hons) Primary Initial Teacher Education: Later Years (5-11yrs)
“It inspired me to help out more in the community with those less fortunate and join in more events.” “It was really fun and stress relieving. The people there had so much passion.” Volunteers, Student Volunteering Week 2016
Institute of Health and Society Jake Corbett BSc(Hons) Nursing Adult Branch
Institute of Humanities and Creative Arts Seraphim Bryant BA(Hons) Joint Creative and Professional Writing & Illustration
Worcester Business School Rebecca Davies BSc(Hons) Business, Accountancy and Marketing
SU Volunteer of the Year: Debra Doyle ommunity Volunteer of the Year: C Katinka Ernst eadway Worcestershire Student H Volunteer of the Year: Sara Wilkins utstanding Volunteer of the Year: O Laura Haynes orcester Students’ Union President’s W Recognition Award: Frances Storey
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Student staff We want to support student employability wherever we can and, to this end, increased the number of student staff we recruited over the year to 50, creating new roles in student engagement, as well as in marketing and promotions. We also tried to involve them more in the ongoing development of the Union. Students worked over 11,600 hours for us and earnt over £84,000 between them. In our annual recruitment round in May 2016, we received over 90 applications for 30 vacancies and delivered comprehensive induction training for our 2015/16 recruits in September. For the first time, we surveyed students about what it is like to work for us. Over 3/4 of respondents felt that they had learnt new skills whilst working with us, had enjoyed it and felt part of a team, and would recommend working for us to other students. They also felt customer service was a high priority and that if they saw something wrong they felt they could mention it. Areas to work on included making sure their ideas were taken into consideration, that they all have regular team meetings with their supervisor, and they are more involved in the ongoing development of our services. Longer term, we are keen to develop initiatives to support students applying for jobs and attending interviews, helping students understand how to translate what they have done at University into impressive applications.
“I learnt so much from the training presentation and had no idea the SU did so much!” “Working for the SU has been fantastic… I’ve learned so much about how to apply my designs into real world situations. It has forced me out of my comfort zone allowing me to learn many new skills and has boosted me ahead of many of my peers. Working for the SU is an experience I will always be thankful for and has given me a brilliant kick-start for my future as a Graphic Designer.” “I really enjoyed working in the SU and it felt great to be involved in events... Working behind the bar allowed me to meet a large number of people I wouldn’t usually have come across on campus.” - Student Staff, 2015/16
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Representation
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mproving how we represent our members is one of our core, strategic goals. Whilst there is still room for improvement, we feel the academic representation system continued to strengthen and evolve during 2015/16, enabling an effective feedback loop with the University.
Just shy of 600 students, including Student Academic Representatives (StARs) and Institute Representatives have volunteered or worked to enhance the academic experience at the University. Through StARs Forums, Institute Rep forums, Course Management Committees, Institute Board meetings, Students as Partners (SAP) projects and more, these student representatives have contributed to improving academic quality at the University.
The stats: tARs- 580 (minimum of 2 per S course) I nstitute Reps (IRs) - 14 (minimum of 2 per Institute) olunteering hours logged V c.1,750 aid hours logged by Institute P Reps - c560 200 StARs attended training here at Worcester and in partner colleges, including Exeter and Cornwall. We know a lot of Reps completed online training, although currently it is very hard for us to track how many, which is something we are working to address. Areas covered within the training included representing others, problem solving, affecting change, managing difficult situations and holding effective conversations.
Stars forums: Four StARs forums took place across the year, two per semester. Chaired by the Union’s Vice President Education (VPE), and attended by Pro Vice Chancellors and senior service managers from the University, including the Academic Registrar. They gave StARs the chance to ask probing questions and provide student feedback on:
tudent services & the S international experience (26 StARs, 5 IRs attended) ersonal Academic Tutors/ P Assessment & feedback (32 StARs, 6 IRs) L ibrary services & Student surveys (29 StARs, 4 IRs) tudent led timetabling S (52 StARs, 8 IRs)
The forums also gave students the opportunity to raise a whole host of general queries including: Evening lectures, minimum and maximum module intakes, Wednesday lectures, split lectures, students with caring responsibilities, support for students with disabilities and dyslexia, field trips, room bookings, cancelled lectures and seminars, PG courses, exam receipts, printer credits, course costs, study space in the Hive, electronic submission, NSS completion rates, handover procedures for personal academic tutors, mental health issues, building works, and even water fountains.
“The Students’ Union has a vital role in ensuring that students are well represented and have an active role in enhancing the academic experience. We have diverse networks of student representatives across the university who have the ability to significantly influence the development of the institution.” Ross Renton, Pro Vice Chancellor (Students)
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Institute Rep forums: New for 2015/16, the monthly forums had two main functions. Firstly, to inform the VPE of good practice that might be replicated across the institution, or things the VPE should recommend for improvement within Institutes or University-wide. Secondly, to discuss problems, suggestions and issues arising from the StARS forums or initiatives that could benefit the student experience, such as cross-institute placements.
Elections Elections took place in October 2015 for the 9 Part-Time Officer positions and in March 2016 for the 3 Full-time officer positions and NUS Conference delegates. In October, students across campus elected a Mature Students’ Officer, International Students’ Officer, RAG (Raise and Give) Officer, Student Disability Officer, Sustainability Officer, and Welfare Officer. In March, we had a good number of candidates for the Full Time Officer roles - 4 for President, 6 for VP Education, and 2 for VP Activities – and 2 for NUS delegate. We reinvigorated the Elections code of conduct, regulations, and complaints procedure and had support from the University in providing a Deputy Returning Officer. Candidates’ speeches and debates took place at the Hive and
within the SU just prior to voting and the results were celebrated at the “Out for the Count” event. The voting period was reduced to 3 (from 5) days due to research around voting patterns and to consider the candidates’ welfare. It also enabled us to staff ballot stations to talk to students, in addition to the on-line voting option. Despite the reduced number of days, we received a similar number of votes to 2014/15, with 1112 students casting 4043 votes (and100 abstentions). We were pleased to secure more votes than ever from students on City Campus (18% of the voters). We know increasing engagement in our elections is a must going forward; encouraging candidates to get out and talk to students is key as those who did that well really reaped the benefit.
Referenda (NUS and EU) In May 2016, Student Council voted in favour of holding a referendum on NUS affiliation, as did 13 other SUs. Quick organisation was needed to maximise engagement as Council felt it was important to act expediently when the issue was current. Arguments for and against were provided on-line and 3 students put themselves forward to campaign on both sides and lead the referendum debate. Despite promotion on-line and at ballot stations, it was very hard to engage students in the vote and we did not hit quoracy. Of those students who voted, the overwhelming majority chose to remain affiliated to the NUS. It was a very useful exercise in learning how much (or little) students understood about NUS and, also, gave us the chance to talk to students about the EU Referendum, encouraging them to register to vote.
AGM We held our Annual General Meeting (AGM) in January 2016 and were pleased to invite Megan Dunn, the NUS President to answer students’ questions as well as talk about NUS’s key campaigns and priorities. Megan received queries about nurses’ bursaries, the Maintenance Loan and the NUS’s plans on sustainability.
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Advice
& Support
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015/16 was our Advice Service’s busiest year to date with 537 contacts recorded and 186 individual cases dealt with.
Of the 186 student cases, the highest number of students (76) came from the Institute of Health and Society and the lowest from the Business School (18). The number of students seen averaged at around 22 per Institute. Casework was relatively equally spread across the year, with a slight peak in April and May. Of the students who came to see us, 59% were female. Academic issues constituted half of our casework, with the most common relating to academic misconduct, fitness to practice, mitigating circumstances, complaints and appeals.
A further third of casework related to accommodation, including leaving contracts and tenancies early, failures to give notice, and problems obtaining deposits back. Other types of casework included problems related to employment, conduct, finance, mental health and welfare.
“The student advisor was really supportive and made me feel much more at ease about my situation.”
“It was encouraging to talk to someone independent. A fantastic service that has helped me tackle my concerns.”
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Officer
Campaigns
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he Officers ran a number of campaigns over the year. They were aimed at helping students to understand calculations around degree classifications, what to look out for when renting in the private sector, and how to improve health and wellbeing whilst studying.
After delivering a ‘House of horrors’ campaign in October and publicity in December asking students to ‘sign a Christmas card, not a contract’, the President, with support from University Residential Services staff, staged a very popular Housing and Community Fair in February.
The number of landlords at the fair rose by 20 on the previous year to 65 and a number of community organisations and statutory agencies also came. We recorded 687 students attending, most looking for houses in groups. They told us their 3 main considerations were location, price, and if bills were included. In our survey following the fair, 85% of respondents stated they had found a property to rent and all of them said they had taken the time to read their contracts before signing. Most (68%) of students who found out about the fair via word of mouth so we need to work on how we promote the fair next year and we must find a larger capacity venue.
It is clear the housing fair is an important fixture in the SU calendar and an 89% satisfaction rate proves the positive effect the fair has on students and landlords alike.
National issues The Officer team, in consultation with Student Council, also worked closely with the University in their response to the Government’s White Paper on the new Teaching Excellence Framework, attending an extraordinary University Governors’ meeting to feed in the student perspective. They also collaborated with Student Council and, subsequently, society committees in agreeing a new Code of Practice on Freedom of Speech for the University, in response to legislative requirements arising from the Government’s Prevent Strategy. The Officers were keen to work with the University on this to ensure any process around external speakers whom societies might like to engage was clear and appropriate.
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Green Impact
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his year we recognised that we needed to start anew with our Green Impact Students’ Union accreditation and to build on the Excellence Award achieved by Wesley (President) in 2014/15 for his campaign on reducing our effect on the Polar Ice Cap. We were pleased to achieve the GISU Bronze standard through initiatives like:
ampaigning with the C University, on ‘Every Other One Water’ and ‘Water you Doing?’; educing photocopying by the R SU and recycling much more; I dentifying ways to reduce our key environmental impacts; orking with the University on W Snap it Off, Green Week and recycling initiatives in the local private housing sector; nhancing close down E procedures for our services and spaces;
I nvolving SU staff more in developing ideas on how to improve our environmental practices, as individuals and communally. romoting the annual NUS P Sustainability Skills survey and coming 3rd in the country with 698 respondents.
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Sport
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015/16 was a good year for Sport at Worcester with increases in membership and some fantastic team and individual achievements. Our final BUCS placing was 61st with 611 points (in 2014/15 we were 59th with 536.5 points)
Some membership statistics for the year: 263 SU Sports club individual 1 members, an increase of 11% and 128 students on 2014/15; 1361 total sports club memberships, an increase of 123 on 2014/15; ale to female ratio stayed M similar to previous years at 53:47; embership from the Institute M for Sport and Exercise Science remained similar with 40% of those students being members of an SU sports club;
At the very-well attended Colours Ball in May, Full Colours were awarded to:
• Jennifer Pinnell Special Achievement 2016 - Emma Boddy (Rowing)
• Men’s Cricket - Ethan Holmes
• Administrator of the Year 2016 Emily Blatchford (Equestrian)
• Badminton - Will Kitching I ncreases in membership from other Institutes, most markedly in Institute of Science & the Environment; I ncreased Level 4 and 18-21 age membership but a decrease in 22+age membership; L argest SU club remained Men’s Football. Netball continued to increase its membership to over 90. Large increases in membership compared to 2014/15 for Snow Sports, Boxing, Equestrian & Social Sports.
Highlights of the year include: Men’s Badminton - 1sts Winners Midland 2A & Midland Conference Cup winners Ladies Badminton - 1sts Winners Midland 3A Men’s Hockey - 1sts Winners Midlands 2A
Ladies Netball - 1sts Winners Midland 1A, BUCS Trophy Cup & won playoffs to Premier league Ladies Netball - 2nds Winners Midland 3A & runners up Midland Conference Cup Ladies Netball - 3rds Winners Midland 6A Josh Coulton - Silver BUCS Boxing Championships Ben Oliver - Bronze BUCS 100m Wheelchair racing & Silver BUCS 800m Wheelchair racing Will Kitching - Welsh Senior National Champion Men’s Singles, L8 BUCS Badminton Championships We won the University Wheelchair Basketball Championships (NonBUCS) Rachel Lund & Lark Davies secured England Caps for Ladies Rugby
• Ladies Rugby - Rachel Lund • Ladies Rugby - Lark Davies • Wheelchair Basketball - Kayla Bell • Wheelchair Basketball - Evelyn Robets • Wheelchair Basketball - Leah Evans • Wheelchair Basketball - Judith Hamer • Wheelchair Basketball - Sophie Carrigill • Athletics - Matt Hudson-Smith • Kickboxing - Aston Cook
Other awards on the night included: • Most Improved Club Player 2016 Ethan Morrey (Mens Volleyball) • Charity Fundraiser of the Year 2016 - Men’s Cricket
• Male Athlete of the Year 2016 Will Kitching (Men’s Badminton) • Female Athlete of the Year 2016 Rachel Lund (Women’s Rugby) • Sports Team of the Year 2016 Netball 1st • Sports Club of the Year 2016 – Netball
A lot of work was also put into improving the health and safety processes and procedures around sport, particularly around injuries and away trips/matches. The SU dealt with some behavioural issues within certain teams, and did so in partnership with the University and according to our Bye Laws. It culminated in Men’s Football being removed from the Varsity competition and a review of the structure of the club for 2016/17. We are very keen that our sportsmen and women always represent us in an appropriate manner.
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Varsity
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e co-hosted the12th Varsity encounter between Worcester and Gloucester University, this year with 25 different fixtures (a rise of 4 on 2014/15). University Student Services and Security staff gave their full support for us to make this a safe and highly enjoyable event for students and families. Worcester retained the Varsity Trophy for the second consecutive year and for third time in Varsity history, winning 15-11. Over 600 students took part and around 1500 spectators cheered them on. Yey!
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Celebration Week
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his special week in May allowed us to share and promote student and staff commitment and achievements over the year. Over 530 students, staff and guests attended our Students’ Choice Awards, Colours Ball, Societies Ball, and VoSCAs (Volunteering Awards) and it was a fitting end to a full-on year!
As recognition of your best efforts, it simply doesn’t get any better, it’s like winning an Oscar!”
Over 500 students nominated 255 academic and support staff from across the University in our Students’ Choice Awards. Some of the winners told us:
“…it means that students have taken the time to respond and vote, which indicates they really do feel tutors have given their best. To then win is really uplifting, as it gives a professional and personal boost at one of the busiest times of the year.”
“I was so honoured…and flabbergasted to come out on top… my students will know that I care and value every one of them and this award makes me so proud; it is my key achievement this year.” “It literally means everything. To be honoured in this way tells me I am doing something right and that I’m serving you, the students in the way that meets their needs and requirements.
“This is a great honour, especially knowing that I work every day with a dedicated team of Senior Lecturers who are equally deserving…I consider it an honour to walk into a classroom and assist students…helping them to achieve in education…I thank you for the feedback, the recognition of my work and for this award.”
Following on from the Awards, we presented a poster at the annual University Learning and Teaching Conference where SU staff and Officers chatted to attendees and guests about the awards, how they were organised, and we also received some excellent ideas on how we could extrapolate further information from the results.
Here are the overall winners: Outstanding Lecturer Worcester Business School (WBS) Alan Graham Institute of Humanities and Creative Arts (IHCA) Simon Bovey Institute of Health and Society (IHS) Chris Clarke Institute of Education (IoE) Andrea Holloway Institute of Science and the Environment (ISE) Colin Perkins Institute of Sport and Exercise Science (ISES) Katie Fownes
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More Students’ Choice Awards ... Best Module WBS e-business IHCA Introduction to American Writing IHS Introduction to Forensic Psychology IoE Professional Studies ISE Introduction to Forensic Science
IHS - Martin Lipscomb - Developing Nursing Competency IoE - Seán Bracken & Lorna Loy -Equality and Diversity: The Educational Experience ISE Caroline Rosen - Displaying the Past: Museums, Artefacts and Collections ISES - Lerverne Barber, Vanessa Jones & Stuart Whigham Application of Learning Theory in Physical Education
ISES SPRT 3019 14-19 PE and Sport
Best Personal Academic Tutor Best Member of Support Staff
WBS Christopher Bowers
Jackie Bryant Student Money Adviser (Student Services)
IHCA David Broster
Sue Hudson Aramark
HIS Jacqui Fernell
Outstanding Innovation in Teaching
IoE Alison Prowle
WBS - Stephanie Matthews & Simon Quigley BUSM 3549 IFRS for SMEs IHCA- Simon Bovey - Scriptwriting: Ideas, Development and Structure
ISE Colin Perkins ISES David Mycock
Extra Mile Award Michele Lefevre Specialist Academic Support Tutor (Student Services)
Craig Williams Coach Education and Development Manager (ISES)
“…it means that students have taken the time to respond and vote, which indicates they really do feel tutors have given their best. To then win is really uplifting, as it gives a professional and personal boost at one of the busiest times of the year.” Students’ Choice Award Winner
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Commercial Services
Marketing
and Communications New SU logo
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n the spirit of being studentled, the SU held a student competition in the second semester to design a new logo for the SU, to be rolled out in the 2017/18 academic year. We received a total of 46 designs, which was fantastic.
The competition was also used by one Design lecturer as part of a 1st year module. A shortlist of 5 designs were put to a vote involving Student Council and SU staff. A clear winner emerged in Minesh Patel, a Computing Students in their second year at the time who was thrilled on hearing the good news. We will now plan implementation of the new design and render the logo professionally for a variety of media.
Below is some information relating to our on-line engagement @ June 2016: Facebook likes:
Website:
3:28 Average Session duration
WSU Page 4,961
Overview data from 1st August 2015 to 30th June 2016 is as follows:
5.42 Average Pages per Session
87,638 individual Sessions (people visiting the website)
48.2% New Visitors
Pear Tree 2,037 #TeamWorc 2,001 Other social media platforms: Twitter 5,597 followers Instagram 396 followers
43,656 users 474,675 page views
51.9% Returner Visitors
Spikes in website usage correlated to important singular events, such as voting in elections, celebration week, and jobs being advertised.
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his year the SU bar, Upstairs at the Pear Tree, maintained our Best Bar None award status as a venue that provides a safe and secure environment for students to unwind. We continued to encourage students to hold their own events and, as well as our regular nights, hosted a Mario Karts gaming night, a Loco Society reunion and the Harry Potter society’s Yule Ball.
We held weekly Quiz, Sports and Karaoke evenings, 7 of which were 3am events. Highlights of the year included the Hallowe’en Scarefest with Loco Society members, the Dissy Day celebrations, which just shy of 400 students attended, and St Patricks Day. The number and variety of private bookings from the local community this year increased to 15, from wedding receptions and birthdays to army veteran reunions and high school proms. This has had a positive impact on how our venue is perceived by the local community and provided the bar with an extra source of income.
Next year we will deliver a new range of events and increase the level of student involvement in designing and marketing our programme. Whilst we had a strong Semester 1 in 2015/16, attendance at our events reduced in comparison to previous years in semester 2, which we want to address. We will continue the student forums we started to hold at the end of 2015/16 to gain more insight into what nights out students want. We also want to develop a new cocktail and mocktail menu and, in response to student feedback, to start holding events on Saturday nights, to enable those students who don’t return home at weekends to socialise and relax with us.
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Behind
The Scenes
M
uch has happened in 2015/16 to improve the back office, as well as health and safety, processes and procedures of the Union. Most of the changes would not be hugely exciting for our membership but those that affected them directly included how we recruited, inducted and paid our student staff and how we administer club and society finances.
We extend our huge thanks to the External and Student Trustees who finished their term of office in summer 2016 and very much look forward to working with our new Board members. We will focus on increasing engagement and investment in the Union through better demonstration of our impact.
“This has been a challenging year at times for the Union and we extend our sincere thanks for the support we have received from a number of University personnel and departments in helping the Union to implement change and challenge itself.”
We have also done a lot of work on providing greater support, training and administration for our Trustee Board. We developed an annual schedule for the Board meetings, reinstated an Appointments Panel and Finance and HR Sub- Committees (which then met monthly), agreed a matrix of delegated responsibilities, revised the Union’s risk register and reserves policy, appointed new external auditors, and appointed new External and Student Trustees.
Wesley Hudson, SU President 2015/16
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Funding
W
e received a similar Block Grant this year to that of 2014/15 at £370k. This came in 4 instalments over the year, due to the late publishing of our 2014/15 accounts in March 2016, and to give the new SU senior management the ability to allocate the grant according to immediate need.
We achieved additional income of £83,400 through (long-term and shortterm) advertising arrangements with Tramps Nightclub/Pub, McDonalds, The Co-op, Dominoes Pizza, and Endsleigh, the former of which allows us to promote safe nights out and after parties to students, with a partner who is keen to work with the us, the University, and the local Police. The Pear Tree Bar had a difficult trading year, particularly in Semester 2. The management and Officer team undertook in July 2016 to conduct a wholesale review of the programme of events within the bar for 2016/17, to ensure we refresh and respond to student feedback. We very much hope to provide a positive outcome this time next year.
This was the final year of the unit rental to Berry’s within the Students’ Union, and we, also, generated moderate income through Freshers Fair (£3,000), and c.£19,800 through the sale of 3058 NUS Extra Cards, helping students to save ££££s along the way. By June 2016, sales of NUS cards had declined from 2014/15 by 363. This has been a national trend and we will be working with NUS to try and rectify this in 2015/16.
Affiliations:
Grocery and general sales from our Campus Shop, despite good clothing sales, were significantly down on 2014/15. This was disappointing and resulted in strategic discussions with the University around the future management of the shop to ensure an optimum student experience.
A very important area of development this year has been our strategic discussions with the University about the SU’s space and facilities. We are very pleased to be part of the University’s long-term vision and plans for campus development and delighted that, in the interim, they helped us to refurbish our building on St John’s campus, bringing our frontline services together to improve the student experience for 2016/17.
Overall, financially and commercially, 2015/16 was a challenging year for the SU but one which enabled necessary, honest self-reflection and a change in our focus and processes. We aim to continuously improve the entertainment and social programme for students in the coming years as it is crucial that the SU affords students the opportunities to have fun and relax in ways they want to whilst they are here.
NUS - £19,300 Advice UK - £240 BUCS - £10,200
Refurbishments
Overall, financially and commercially, 2015/16 was a challenging year for the SU but one which enabled necessary, honest self-reflection and a change in our focus and processes.
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Key Challenges Ahead
T
his has been a year of major change in the Union but we are very conscious that there is still plenty to do. Whilst we can’t list everything here, to give a flavour of the task ahead, we must work to:
Develop operational plans underneath our core, strategic goals Improve the experience for City Campus students Fill all Part-time Officer and Student Council Rep positions Improve engagement and outcomes from StARs and how we measure and promote their achievements Increase students accessing our advice and support service Increase satisfaction with the Union
Increase the investment in and resources of the Union Improve our on-line platforms and profile Improve turnout in our elections
Be assured we are up for the challenge! Closing remarks - Jade Haley, 2016/17 SU President: First and foremost, I wish to thank the 2015/16 elected officer team for their incredibly hard work over the year. Wesley, Lewis and Hemaka achieved so much and have enabled James and I to come into our roles with a solid foundation, as well as leaving very big shoes for us to fill! I wish Lewis and Wesley all the luck in the future careers and know they will be successful in whatever they do. I am very excited to be President and am especially looking forward to working with James, Hemaka, and the staff team, to ensure another formative year.
We have various aims and ideas we would love to see transpire, all seeking to improve the student experience of Worcester SU. Student wellbeing is one of my top priorities and I would love to see an increase in awareness surrounding mental health and an improvement in the support services we currently have in place for our members. I also want to see an increase in the levels of engagement we have with students from more diverse backgrounds and want to work closely with mature, international, LGBT, and BME students. Wesley had an extremely successful campaign focused on private rented accommodation and I will be continuing this too. I am motivated and dedicated to ensure we have a good year and know I could not have a better team alongside me. I hope I can provide you with a really positive report this time next year on what we have achieved. Thank you to all those who have been supporting and helping the Union over the past year – I really look forward to working with you.
Jade
“I believe that the Student Union staff, from the welcome desk to the bar staff, but especially the office staff, are not only a credit to the Student Union but to [the] University also. Throughout my final year of my course the “behind the scenes” staff treated me with such respect and consideration that I felt like a member of the team… These people work tirelessly for the benefit of students.” SU Volunteer 2014 – 2016
Vacant
Part Time Officers @ May 2016 Mature Students’ Officer - Debbie Doyle International Students’ Officer
Student Disability Officer - Fran Storey
LGBT Officer
Sustainability Officer
Welfare Officer
- Michael Sherratt
- Claudia Calin
Women’s Officer
RAG (Raise and Give) Officer - Amy Wigley
- Jo Hunter
Full-Time Officer Trustees
External and Student Trustees
President – Wesley Hudson
External Trustees – Richard Bishop, Jill Wilson, Natalie Hanson
Vice President Education – Lewis Arnold Vice President Student Activities – Hemaka Kariyawasam Pathiranage
Student Trustees – William Pritchard, Alice Gentle, Diane Noble,
www.worcsu.com /worcestersu
Black & Minority Ethnic Students’ Officer
Design By @WorcesterSU
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