Welcome to our new Strategic Plan for 2016-2020 FXU is an independent UK charity and our primary charitable object is the advancement of education of students at Falmouth University & the University of Exeter Cornwall Campuses. We pride ourselves on representing, promoting the interests and welfare of all our students, during their studies. This is all set on our campuses in the unique and beautiful Cornish environment. We also provide a range of social, cultural, sporting and recreational activities. Our levels of participation, in these activities, are exceptional and continue to grow each year. We are also keen to ensure that we, and our students, are doing our bit to protect the environment in which we live and work. All of this work reflects the passion and enthusiasm that our students have here and we are privileged to work on their behalf and to help champion, support and foster this energy. We started this reflection of our strategic plans over a year ago so we must firstly thank the previous FXU Trustees and Presidents who started this process. Since that time we have looked at thousands of pieces of individual
feedback from our students, our universities and external partners. All of this feedback has helped shape and form our ideas to this point, where we now have a new mission, vision and a set of values. We believe these fully reflect and will shape our attitude going forward and they will be embedded in all our work from now on. Linked to this, we have developed seven key strategic themes and it is these themes that will form the basis of our work over the forthcoming years. They represent areas where we can excel as a Students’ Union and that will make us distinctive and unique. Above all, in your feedback, you have told us constantly that all of these themes matter to you. On a final note‌we need you to be involved in all our activity so that our work truly reflects our students’ needs and continues to do so. We thank everyone for their contributions to this work and we look forward to seeing you during the next part of our exciting journey.
We hope you will join us in shaping our future...
Yours,
The Presidents Grace Fisher
Alexa Webster
FXU President Exeter
FXU President Community & Welfare
Fred Mallin
Amanda Chetwynd-Cowieson
FXU President Falmouth
FXU President Student Experience
Vision, Mission & Values
Vision
Values
“We will be an integral part of every student’s journey. We will constantly evolve in response to student demands with innovative solutions. We will strive to achieve a degree of financial independence by 2020.”
1. Relevant
Mission
We will be ready to react or reply quickly to our members’ suggestions.
“Your Students’ Union is the open door to all your questions; to opportunities and advice. We empower you to exceed your expectations and personal aspirations.”
Conducting ourselves to the highest standards and “doing what’s right” for our members, our organisation and our environment.
We will be connected to our members by understanding what they need and want from us.
2. Responsive
3. Sustainable & Ethical
4. Innovative & Proactive A creative and “make it happen” attitude.
5. Diverse & Inclusive Fundamental to everything we do, both in the way we provide services to our members and the way in which we manage our staff. We are committed to treating everyone with dignity and respect.
6. Fun A lively, vibrant and enjoyable experience for everyone.
7. Student Led The student voice will be at the heart of everything we do.
1. Amplifying the Student Voice Hearing what you’ve got to say about your time at University and acting upon it. Why this priority? It goes without saying that the reason for our existence is to improve your time at university. You told us that the most important job we can do is to support your academic achievements and get your university to work harder to make improvements to your study. The vast majority of you (over 90%) said our main job was to monitor the support provided by your university and for FXU to lobby for improvements where necessary. That’s why it’s our number 1 priority.
How we will achieve it? Hearing the voices of over 6,000 students, across three campuses and for two universities will always be a challenge. But we will put into place a structure that allows you to easily feed in your views about your university. Simply…we will ask you to tell us how everything is going. We will do this through a number of feedback opportunities including asking you directly (through questionnaires, focus groups etc.) and a network of student representatives and structures linked to your course, activities, interests and accommodation. At any point or anytime you should have the opportunity to tell us how things are going. We will support your student representatives to ensure they help you shape your course in conjunction with the university. We will help you recognise, share and encourage great academic practice. When things get tough, aren’t going as planned or the university is not helping you achieve your potential we will provide you with help and support through a dedicated independent Advice Service and work with your university to ensure a world class student experience.
What does success look like? • Annually we will ask you for feedback on your time at university and use this information to publish an annual list of FXU student priorities. This list will reflect your experience and directly impact on our work to ensure it constantly reflects your needs. We will ensure this list of priorities feed directly into your university’s plans. • Every year we will train, develop and support all course representatives and give them the tools to collect your opinion so that they also feed directly into your university’s plans. • We will provide an online ‘Make a Change’ section to our website to allow any student the opportunity to propose change that is quick, easy, simple and confidential to use. • At the end of each year we will tell you what we have achieved and what improvements have been made. We will also review our structures and systems to ensure that we give you the best opportunity to have your voice heard. • Our aim is to listen to every single student so that at the end of each academic year we can tell you how many of you we have managed to hear from. • We will provide additional resources so that we hear your voice even louder. • We will invest in supporting the work of our elected Officers to ensure they are trained and have the resources available to enable them to become effective ambassadors for you and FXU.
2. Active Participation University is much more than studying. The way you develop, think, evaluate, make friends and memories are often shaped around your involvement in other activities. Why this priority? You told us (over 80%) that having a wide range of activities was very important to your time at university. We already have incredible levels of participation which also tells us how important these are to you. You also said that you wanted to develop more skills to allow you to succeed after university and that participation in FXU should help this aim. 89% of you felt that you were part of the Penryn and Falmouth communities and that this was an important part of studying here.
How will we achieve it? Diversity is important to us as this provides you with the greatest range of opportunities. We will continue to provide a wide variety of sports clubs and societies so that you will always have something available that interests you. We will also develop a wide range of course related societies so that you have the opportunity to mix with students from other year groups. This mix will give you additional opportunities to learn, appreciate and gain greater insight into your course. All our groups will be open to every student and we will encourage you to work together to share your skills for the benefit of each other. No matter what your background, interests or what is important to you we will help ‘liberate’ you and give you every opportunity to get involved in your passions. We also plan to put on a range of events, campaigns and services that meet your needs. We will offer you the chance to develop your skills with training and resources so that you become effective members of your club or society. With your consent and on your behalf, we will record all of this activity and your participation levels. At any point you can access this information and use it to demonstrate to prospective employers the additional skills you have gained. Students who want to volunteer in the community and raise money for charity will be supported by us so that you make a real difference to the community and lives of others.
What does success look like? • We will provide opportunities for you to tell us how we are doing. • We will provide a system that allows you to easily create a club or society if we don’t already offer it. • At the end of each year we will tell you what our groups have achieved. • We will provide a ‘skills exchange’ so that you can easily get in contact with other students and trade skills to help each other out. • We aim to have the majority of all students involved (>50%) in a club or society and that every course will have a linked group. • Annually we will set a fundraising target and ask you to nominate which charities should benefit from this activity. • We will train, develop and support as many of you as possible through practical opportunities such as first aid training but also in your role as student representatives and student leaders. • We will provide additional resources to support your participation in our activities. • We will provide some financial support to enable you to foster business / employability initiatives. • We will lobby the universities to ensure our facilities, equipment and spaces are up to date and give you the best opportunity to get involved and succeed.
3. Supporting and lobbying for an affordable educational experience University life is an investment but can be expensive. We will try to help you make it more affordable. Why this priority? Today, going to university is a major investment. On a national level we will work with NUS (National Union of Students) to fight for a change to fees and grants so that going to university is affordable for everyone. But, additionally, we also heard you when you told us that studying and living costs are also becoming unaffordable for many of you. For many the essentials of financial management are something you need help with.
How we will achieve it? It has never been more important to understand the true costs of attending your university. Therefore, we will give you the information you need to make smart decisions and help you with tough financial decisions. That’s why we will work with your university to publish, annually, all relevant course costs and specifically what you might need to budget to meet the demands of your course. We will ensure international course costs are clear and fit with the international market place so that they offer value for money. The major additional costs for you when studying are linked to accommodation, food and social activities such as the gym and club membership. We will work with you and the university to ensure all of these offer real value for money and are competitive with the local market and comparable with other universities. If you are employed by us we promise to pay the ‘Living Wage’ and we will push the universities to offer the same employment terms. If times get hard, or you just need some financial guidance, then we will provide independent financial and budgeting advice. We will also work with you to identify any grants or loans that you are eligible for.
What does success look like? • Annually we will publish (alongside your university) the costs associated with your course. • We will request that your university provides an opportunity for you to see how they make money from students and how it is spent. • We will ensure that International student fee information will be published for the duration of the course. • Any price rises to services such as accommodation, catering and sports must be justified to you and ideally should never rise more than inflation. • Wherever possible you should be presented with a number of choices so that you decide how much you can afford. • We will lobby your university to pay the Living Wage and that all students are treated equally and comparably with other staff. • We will invest in access to our Advice Service so that we offer a sufficient service that is timely and appropriate to your needs.
4. Move to financial independence The future of FXU is not in our hands. We want to have more financial control of our destiny so we can support you more. Why this priority? 93% of our finances are reliant on our grants from both universities. Although funding is expected to continue we are vulnerable to financial pressures each university may face in the future.
How we will achieve it? To mitigate this, and allow us to become more self-sustainable, we need to think about financially diversifying. Underpinning this are our charitable objectives to support our members. Therefore, our key objective will be to develop social enterprises that also help support students.
What does success look like? • By 2020 we will have increased our own financial income and reduced our grant reliance to less than 85% of our total income. • We will constantly strive to identify areas of partnership or further efficiencies so that our grant is reflected as an exceptional investment.
5. Generate social impact You are our greatest ambassadors for society and you have the power to influence communities. Why this priority? We recognise that our members represent a significant proportion of the populations of Penryn and Falmouth. As such we have a duty to ensure your voice is also heard at a community level so that your views are considered in local plans. Additionally, we have a huge role to play in improving the environment in which we live both socially and sustainably.
How we will achieve it? Through community partnerships and working with local organisations we will ensure you have a voice. We will build relationships with local public bodies such as the Town Councils so that student issues are relayed and student successes are shared. We will work with local and national businesses to ensure they are aware of your needs and are providing services that are of a high quality, efficient and offer value for money. We are environmentally aware of our actions and will promote a healthy and responsible lifestyle. Our staff will act as ambassadors for sustainability through their own working practices and lead the way in developing sustainable practice in our work places.
What does success look like? • We will become active members of local and regional groups where we can influence activity in supporting you. • We will continue to invest in volunteering and fundraising activities and promote the successes you achieve to the wider regional community. • We will provide investment and support in student-led activities that centre on sustainability initiatives such as minimising waste, recycling and reducing energy use. • We will be accredited each year by the NUS Green Impact scheme and have achieved either Gold or Excellence.
6. Create a diverse, equal and multi-campus experience Understanding and respecting each other regardless of how you came to be here. Regardless of your background, your involvement is essential to us. Why this priority? Equality and diversity are key components to what we do. It is our key principle under this banner that you all have equal opportunities for involvement. Additionally, we need to react to our changing student population so that we constantly reflect your needs and are ensuring our services change accordingly. As both universities develop multi-campus and distance learning opportunities, we must also find new ways of extending our reach.
How we will achieve it? We will reflect and seek to understand your needs regardless of where, how or what you study. Our reach to hear your voice must not be dependent on location and we must strive to ensure you feel part of our FXU community. We will value your input and value others who support equality, diversity and integrity.
What does success look like? • We will invest in widening student participation and understand through research the requirements of all undergraduate and postgraduates. • To work with your university to provide a dedicated and ‘fit for purpose’ postgraduate space. • We will work closely with our partner Union, the University of Exeter Students’ Guild, to ensure our roles are clearly communicated and that we are working in partnership to deliver the greatest benefits to you. • We will work with the Students’ Guild, to ensure clarity in representational issues, and wherever possible, developing a discrete student experience that benefits from parity. • We will work closely with both your universities on all the campuses to ensure consideration is given to the unique nature of sharing a campus and how it can support and enhance the unique student experience this offers you. • Our staff and Officers will support and champion any initiatives to raise the aspirations of the Cornish to attend our universities.
7. Internationally focused In a global market you deserve the best the world can offer. Why this priority? Both universities have an ambition to be world-class and world-leading. We want you to gain a world class experience that is comparable with the best universities throughout the world. We want to ensure you have a continued high level of experience that builds on the uniqueness of the relationship between Falmouth University and the University of Exeter but also reflects the exceptional location and heritage of Cornwall.
What does success look like? • We will work with both your universities to improve the support for international students and all study abroad programmes. We will push for the provision of a shared member of staff via FX Plus or FXU. • We will ask that your universities allocate some funding to help subsidise trips away from campuses, helping international students to explore Cornwall and the benefits of living and studying in the South West. • We will support all international activity such as welcome events and internationally focused events to develop the international feel of both campuses. • We will identify key national and international partnerships so that we can share and learn from them. • Our reputation both locally and internationally will grow as we maintain and improve our status as one of the leading Small & Specialist Students’ Union. • We will work closely with FX Plus to ensure the student service provision remains world-class and that you are given the facilities, support, equipment and support teams to enable you to fulfil your aspirations.
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