Freshers’ Survey 2014 response Question 1: How would you rate the following events which took place during Freshers' Week 2014? (Rating from 1 to 10, 1 being Did Not Enjoy At All, 10 being Thought It Was Brilliant)
Rating of events 35 30
Percentage
25 20
Welcome BBQ (Saturday 13th)
15
Open Mic Night (Thursday 18th)
10 5
The Big Freshers' Quiz (Saturday 20th)
0
Mega all day Karaoke & Bandeoke (Sunday 21st)
Freshers' Week activities 9 8 Rating out of 10
7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Welcome BBQ (Saturday 13th) Average rating 6.232142857
Open Mic Night (Thursday 18th)
The Big Freshers' Quiz (Saturday 20th)
Mega all day Karaoke & Bandeoke (Sunday 21st)
6.853658537
7.78125
7.865384615
Out of all the events the Welcome BBQ is cause for most concern with 20% saying their enjoyment was distinctly less than average and another 20% only reaching around 6 or 7 on the satisfaction scale (so not a resounding success). Only 15% registered a 10 making it much lower than all the other events Each of the events seems to have a smaller spike between 3 and 5 saying they weren’t too happy or only had average feelings about events. Then the spikes either land on the 7 mark (so happy enough with the event
but not feeling they are excellent) or on 10 (thinking it was great.) Perhaps this indicates that this should be a five point scale covering Really Didn’t Enjoy At All, Didn’t Enjoy, Average, Good and Great. The 1 to 10 rating may have provided recipients too much choice in filling it out. Using an average (mean) figure presents a different perception of the events ratings, however the BBQ still comes out last.
Question 2: How did you find out about the events? (Answer options: Website, Posters, Word of Mouth, Facebook, Twitter, FVC, Lineup Leaflet, Other [Please Specify]) How did you find out about the events? Answer Options Website (www.worcsu.com) Posters Word of Mouth Facebook Twitter Freshers' Volunteer Crew Line-Up Leaflets Other (please specify)
Response Percent
Response Count
32.3% 56.5% 39.5% 56.5% 15.3% 29.8% 19.4%
40 70 49 70 19 37 24 6
answered question skipped question
124 4
How did you find out about the events? 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0%
This appears to reflect the amount of time / effort and coverage that was given to the different communications methods; Posters produced (mostly by the bar) and the Facebook page which with the Tramps lineup release was in posting frequently through the day. Ultimately all these options should be used, however with the amount of work that goes into a specific communication field, more resources need to be made available to push all of the areas. “Word of mouth” needs more definition also – this could be through flatmates, course mates or indeed asking at the SU Welcome Desk. The website did not have as much information on it as other areas in anticipation of the work the Media Lab were to do on it. Some information had to go there from student requests. Next year a more cohesive
strategy of Freshers’ website info should be worked out. Perhaps using the Media Lab to build a custom Freshers’ area although this would take time, money and resources. No specific details were given in the Other section
Question 3: How useful did you find the Fairs?
How useful did you find the fairs? Percentage of responses vs. opinion 50 40 30 20 10 0 Very
Fairly
Not at all
The Freshers' Fair (Monday 15th)
Didn't attend
Couldn't attend
The Sports and Activities Fair (Wednesday 17th)
The Freshers’ Fair received around 4% more lukewarm responses than outright positive ones – However, the term “useful” may not be the best choice here. Those students who would find it useful might be only the ones going along to sign up to a doctor’s surgery or an employment agency. If collecting freebies is the focus of the majority of students then this event in their minds wouldn’t be “useful” per se. Looking at this graph more options may have been needed, again maybe a five point scale between very useful, useful, neither useful nor not, not really and not at all. Unfortunately looking at the responses between 15% and 20% of responders didn’t go at all although it was less than 10% of both that were not able to at all.
Question 4: If you have joined a club or society did you find the process of joining easy?
If you have joined a club or society did you find the process of joining easy? Yes
No
Haven't joined any
36%
59%
5%
If you have joined a club or society did you find the process of joining easy? Answer Options Yes No Haven't joined any
Response Percent
Response Count
59.1% 4.7% 36.2%
75 6 46
answered question skipped question
127 1
Perhaps consider here that most responding to the survey would have joined clubs or societies as this is one of the major ways the SU engages with students in the first place. Good to see less than 5% of students didn’t find the join up process easy
Question 5: Did you buy an NUS Extra card during Freshers' Week? Do you have any comments?
Did you buy an NUS Extra card during Freshers' Week? Do you have any comments? Yes 35% No 65%
This does not indicate the number of Students who have bought an NUS Extra card from us. Indeed 8 of the responses commented that they had not bought an NUS card during Freshers’ week but already had them and given that 55% of responses were from 14xxx student numbers, this further skews the results.
Question 6: Did you meet any of the Sabbatical Officers during Freshers' Week? Did you meet any of the Sabbatical Officers during Freshers' Week? Answer Options Yes No Don't know
Response Percent
Response Count
33.6% 43.0% 23.4%
43 55 30
answered question skipped question
128 0
Did you meet any of the Sabbatical Officers during Freshers' Week?
Don't know 23%
Yes 34%
No 43%
“Don’t know” seems to be the major issue here as it shows students didn’t know what or who the Sabbs were so this message is not getting across as effectively as needed in the E-newsletters, the Induction Talks or the Social Media / the Website. Considering that 55% of responses to this survey were from 1st year students, the same percentage should say “yes” to this question as most induction talks were covered by Sabbs. However, looking at the original data, just taking into account the answers from 1st year students, 40% said they hadn’t met a Sabbatical Officer, 23.7% said they didn’t know and 13.3% said yes. For the other years the percentages are 12% for don’t know but 46.6% for no and 41.4% for yes. This could be seen that 1st years simply don’t know who the Sabbatical Officers are, but with the majority saying they categorically hadn’t met a Sabbatical Officer it seems they know full well, but the Sabbs aren’t getting themselves known by new first year students. 13.3% of all new first years is an impressive figure but as is shown, work needs to be done to improve awareness of who and what Sabbatical Officers are. Of course it could all hinge on the word “meet”. Seeing the Sabbs in an induction talk isn’t the same as meeting one of them.
Question 7: If you did meet any of the Sabbatical Officers during Freshers' Week, where / when did you meet them? (Please tick all that apply) If you did meet any of the Sabbatical Officers during Freshers' Week, where / when did you meet them? (Please tick all that apply) Answer Options Induction talks Welcome weekend Events Around accommodation In the Students' Union building Other (please specify)
Response Percent
Response Count
48.9% 38.3% 46.8% 8.5% 44.7%
23 18 22 4 21 3
answered question skipped question
47 81
If you did meet any of the Sabbatical Officers during Freshers' Week, where / when did you meet them? (Responses vs. Location) 25 20 15 10 5 0 Induction talks
Welcome Weekend
Events
Around In the Students' accommodation Union building
Following on from Question 6, one would expect a much higher response from the Induction Talks section but again, seeing them in a talk isn’t the same as actually meeting one of them. Do the Sabbs need to be seen around accommodation during Freshers’ Week more?
Question 8: If you are a first-year student, did you find the electronic newsletters sent by the Sabbatical Officers useful? If you are a first-year student, did you find the electronic newsletters sent by the Sabbatical Officers useful? Answer Options Yes No Didn't read them Didn't receive them Not a first year student
Response Percent
Response Count
19.8% 7.4% 7.4% 24.0% 41.3%
24 9 9 29 50
answered question skipped question
121 7
If you are a first-year student, did you find the electronic newsletters sent by the Sabbatical Officers useful? Yes
No
Didn't read them
34%
41%
13%
Didn't receive them
12%
Nice to see just shy of three times as many students who actually read the E-newsletters found it useful rather than not according to the survey. These results don’t match the reports on the E-newsletters provided by the University where Wes’ initial and Tom’s final E-newsletters achieved an opening of around 75% of recipients. The second E-newsletter from Abi achieved an opening rate of just over 50%. Of course, opening the emails with the newsletters on doesn’t necessarily mean reading and the people who responded to the Freshers’ survey could have been primarily people who didn’t open the email. Of course, some second and third years may have answered this question even though it was clearly directed at first years. The lines might be blurred between “didn’t read it” and “didn’t receive it” as it is likely that many students will have received the E-newsletter and ignored it, or not recognised it for what it was. A follow up to this would be useful to see how many emails made it into the junk mail folders
Question 9: How helpful did you find the Freshers' Volunteer Crew (in the Purple T shirts)? How helpful did you find the Freshers' Volunteer Crew (in the Purple T shirts)? Answer Options Very helpful Fairly helpful Not helpful Had no contact with them
Response Percent
Response Count
54.0% 31.0% 0.0% 15.1%
68 39 0 19
answered question skipped question
126 2
How helpful did you find the Freshers' Volunteer Crew (in the Purple T shirts)? 60.0%
54.0%
50.0% 40.0% 31.0% 30.0% 20.0%
15.1%
10.0% 0.0% 0.0% Very helpful
Fairly helpful
Not helpful
Had no contact with them
Great to see a total 85% positive rating for the FVC and 0% negative feedback. As for the 31% fairly helpful response – it seems a current factor of the FVC that a core of dedicated volunteers participate and there is a lot of falloff after a couple of days. Perhaps with this falloff is a lack of engagement from volunteers who don’t stay on message. Also with volunteers as many are of a helpful, conscientious, introverted nature maybe their lack of outgoing behaviour makes them fairly helpful. Still, this is splitting hairs when they did a good job.
Question 10: If you arrived before Freshers' Week (i.e. International Students, Nursing Students, PGCE Students etc.) how useful did you find the information and support you received? If you arrived before Freshers' Week (i.e. International Students, Nursing Students, PGCE Students etc.) how useful did you find the information and support you received? Answer Options
Response Percent
Response Count
Very useful Somewhat useful Not at all useful
54.5% 33.3% 12.1%
36 22 8
answered question skipped question
66 62
If you arrived before Freshers' Week (i.e. International Students, Nursing Students, PGCE Students etc.) how useful did you find the information and support you received?
Not at all useful 12%
Somewhat useful 33%
Very useful 55%
Again maybe a five point scale between very useful, useful, neither useful nor not, not really and not at all. This is an encouraging statistic with 88% of responders answering positively. This is an area where work will never really stop as the Students’ Union would want Freshers’ Week (and indeed all of its services) to be relevant and useful to those groups that start their courses before the main bulk of students.
Question 11 (Comments): The main theme of the comments were about access to the events, and how applicable they were to students not studying or living on St. John’s Campus. Of particular mention was events for mature students who weren’t interested in the night events or anything alcohol related, also students commuting or living on City Campus did not find access to the events easy. This was the case for students who started earlier or were on placement whose lectures had begun by Monday 15th and the Freshers’ Fair. Some of the feedback given was specific to their courses and those inductions and not of relevance here. Negative feedback was given about the charges for Sports and Societies at the Wednesday fair as it seems that some students hadn’t received their loans at that point. There is little that can be done about this as the charges are set by the clubs themselves in order to carry out their activities. Of note in the feedback were the freebies that could be picked up at the Freshers’ Fair and the Facebook coverage. More daytime events for future Freshers’ weeks was noted as well as more information being made available. Lastly the suggestion was made for more assistance with Freshers’ making friends, so “ice-breaker” elements would be of use in the future.
Conclusion: The survey itself Overall response was 127, much better than 2012 but a little lower than 2011 (a limited survey took place in 2013 with forms filled in at the Welcome Desk – a planned feedback session had no attendees.) The response was akin to 2011 perhaps because of the prizes on offer (this year two iPod Shuffles.) 55% (70) of responses came from current first year students (beginning with a 14 number.) Next year it may be useful to conduct two surveys with one going to current first years and the other returning students. I feel we can’t discount the opinions of returning students, as they can always compare and contrast different Freshers’ Weeks. With the purchase of iPads we have the opportunity to greatly increase the survey participation. Naturally much more planning and work would yield a better result. More social media pushing, all student emails, volunteers on the ground with iPads – Sabbatical Officers and student council pushing the survey to their contacts, the VP Student Activities to Clubs and Societies, the VP Education to StARs. Perhaps even some kind of engagement from lecturers! Noted above under each question are observations on how the questions could be changed or the focus shifted to allow the SU to collect feedback that is much more useful. One question not considered so far as suggested by Phil Roberts, the SU’s Commercial Development Manager is “did the students have fun?” Ultimately we get caught up in the work of Freshers’ week and the later analysis then lose sight of one of the main reasons it is there; for students to have fun.
Freshers’ Week 2014 From the results collected in this survey, Freshers’ Week 2014 was successful but there are areas that have clearly shown room for improvement. What is clear is that any event or element of Freshers’ Week where a good deal of work has been put in is much more successful than other areas where this effort was missing – i.e. the success of Facebook as opposed to Twitter, the Quiz, Karaoke and Open Mic nights compared to the BBQ etc. All the resources of the Students’ Union need to be used effectively as possible to make all the events, areas of communication etc. as good as possible. The perennial issue facing Worcester Students’ Union is engaging the wide variety of students who make up its membership; from the stereotypical 18 year old undergraduate living in halls, to commuting, mature, international, professional and post graduate students etc. Engagement during Freshers’ Week is no exception to this issue but can be seen as far more important as it is the first and best chance the SU has at making a good impression. Feedback from students always notes how commuting students struggle to attend events, how mature students may not be interested in the night events with alcohol and how professional students are already on placement by the time Freshers’ week comes around. Serious thought needs to go into the purpose of Freshers’ Week for these students, why the SU wants these students to engage with us and what Freshers’ Week’s role is in this (rather than creating an event to herd these students to with good attendance being the aim) and what kind of events, info, freebies etc. these students would respond to. There is a “chicken and egg” scenario related to this situation as well; What needs to come first, more demand from these kinds of students to warrant specific events tailored to them, or more work on the part of the SU first which would drive up attendance and engagement? Suggestions made for events which appeal to a greater diversity and are more accessible include daytime quizzes and resurrecting the idea of a family fun day. It also should be noted that the mature students and enjoying
an alcoholic drink are not mutually exclusive. It may be more that mature students can’t or don’t want to go clubbing and ‘over-indulge’ in the way that some a-typical 18 year old undergraduates may like to. The second issue that affects the Students’ Union is how to engage with students at City Campus. With no facilities there for the SU and little to no human resource to be based there either this is an issue with no easy answer. Part of Phil Roberts’ feedback on Freshers’ Week below is the suggestion of providing a mini bus service from City Campus up to St. John’s and back for events. This would help in the short term. Welcome Weekend went much more smoothly for the University and indeed it was the NUS Extra stalls selling cards in the Peirson building that caused many of the queues. There is the opportunity to drive traffic into the SU next year holding the NUS sales in the Pear Tree. This will also enable volunteers to direct students and families into the SU when they invariably leave the conference centre after picking up their keys looking a little dazed and confused. On the subject of volunteers it is great to see all feedback from those who encountered the Freshers’ Volunteer Crew (the FVC) was positive. With a permanent volunteer coordinator in post for next year (without any distractions doing maternity cover for other roles) more work can be done recruiting and training FVC perhaps earlier on in 2015 and this could help in the drop-off of volunteers throughout Freshers’ Week and to make them even more useful to arriving students. It has been noted how new and returning students got their info on Freshers’ Week and a good deal of effort went into Facebook coverage. This took quite a lot of work on a daily basis but the engagement of new students via social media can improve next year with the posting functions now been done by the Welcome Desk. Other social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram can be explored better in the run up to Freshers’ 2015 and perhaps real time engagement with new students can happen. The one resource that was not utilised well enough was the website because development work on the website was happening at the same time as the Freshers’ week work and it was thought that there would be little use developing Freshers’ information on the site if it were to be removed shortly afterward. With the continuing development of worcsu.com this should not be a problem next year and the site can be used much more fully. Staying on the theme of informing the students the opening rates of the E-newsletters has improved on last year and is a worthwhile thing to continue. It should be noted that next year these will need to go out later after Alevel exam results day due to complications with the usage of student contact info before results are released. Further work can be done promoting the Sabbatical Officers and who they are (linked in with their induction talks) which would raise their profiles in the eyes of new students. Freshers’ week is always at the mercy of the weather which luckily stayed OK for most of it. Some events were more successful than others. The BBQ on the afternoon / early evening of Saturday 13th has been shown by the survey to be one of the least successful events showing a spike in average or unsatisfactory sentiments from students. With the event being little more than a very basic BBQ provided by Berry’s outside with the bar open this is understandable. Something else would be needed in future to ensure the success of a Welcome BBQ – perhaps some live music (although not loud live music as has happened in years previous), a better-than-basic BBQ or some icebreaker activities. Next year, greater promotion would be needed as well as no posters were produced, with little coverage online via the website or social media. The Freshers’ Fair setup was smooth based on the experiences learnt in previous years and mostly went ahead fine. Issues arose due to the noise made by the Spotify bus and the Tramps DJ inside the Marquee. Indeed the Spotify bus caused the fair to suffer as the Marquee had to be reduced in size to accommodate it (reducing the amount of stalls that could be fit it) and then provided little to students afterward except a moderately attended beatbox set and some belated handing out of wristbands.
Although it was a question on the survey that could have been worded better, the “usefulness” of the Freshers’ Fair can be looked at in years to come. Do students mainly want the freebies / vouchers / discounts on offer or do they want information on local services such as doctor’s surgeries and to talk to stalls from employment agencies? Or indeed both? Events on Tuesdays and Thursdays have struggled in attendance in years previously and this year was no exception. The difficulty being that Monday and Wednesday nights are the bigger nightclub nights so students may be a little worse for wear attending something the following day. Added to this is the similarity of the Freshers’ Fair and the Market Stall Day and the restriction on advertising that could be done including Social Media meant turnout was low. Lastly, with a number of clothing stalls all booked in the same space, there wasn’t a great diversity of stalls that could have attracted a greater student turnout. The Sports and Activities Fair on Wednesday 17th went well despite the initial handicap of an induction being held in the Sports Centre interfering with the setup (which actually turned out to be little more than unsupervised bowling practice in the nets). There were a couple of hiccups with the Sports and Societies not knowing what to do with the barcode stickers (some confusion coming from the fact some were printed incorrectly on the backs of the sheets) and changing the costs of memberships at the last moment which caused till and website setup problems but all in all the event was fine. These technical notes will be kept in mind for next year. The Freshers’ Karaoke and Quiz were successful and set a good precedent for the year for students to engage with these two weekly activities.
Commercial Services feedback (based on notes given by Phil Roberts, Commercial Development Manager) The Welcome BBQ provided by Berry’s suffered from late preparation, uncompetitive prices and the lack of choice. The event was as advertised but did not meet expectations for students. The Freshers’ Fair on Monday 15th was affected by the presence of the Spotify Bus which prevented the use of a larger “L” shaped marquee as in 2013. The L shaped layout in 2013 helped the flow of people round the Marquee and reduced bottlenecks with Tramps Nightclub’s stall in the corner of the L. This would be a better format to use in 2015. The noise generated by the Spotify Bus was also a serious issue, potentially disturbing any inductions or lectures that had already begun at that time of year. Spotify will not be asked to return next year. To note here as well is that the Tramps’ DJ was too loud and will be ask to reduce sound levels next year. Advertisement of the Freshers’ Fair could be improved on the day itself although plenty had gone on in the days and weeks prior. Having banners on each entrance for the event has been suggested. The Market Stall day on Tuesday 16th was too similar to the Freshers’ Fair and confused students. The Students’ Union’s ability to advertise the Market Stall Day was also impaired by the similarity of the two events. It has been suggested that a mini indoor festival style event would work better with live acoustic music and craft / gourmet food and drink. However it is strongly suggested that an event on the Tuesday of Freshers’ Week is avoided. Lastly it is suggested looking at running a free Mini Bus from City Campus to St. John’s on the day or the Freshers’ Fair. The cost would be around £50 per hour for a 14 seat Mini Bus although the SU may be able to source this for free from the University if enough notice is given. Dave Tomkins