UPSU Impact Report 2011-12

Impact Report

2011 / 12

contents

President’s Introduction Parliament President Deputy President UPC VP Sports Sports and socs VP Activities and Comms Volunteering VP Education and Welfare Advice Representation Communication and social enterprise Closing remarks

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Impact Report 2011 / 12

President’s Introduction

I have great pleasure in presenting the 2012 UPSU Impact Report, which will highlight the achievements of your Students’ Union over the past academic year. This report contains individual summaries from each of our Sabbatical Officers, covering their individual portfolios and activities this year. Alongside these are overviews from each of our departments, outlining the contributions they have made this year to develop and enhance the student experience.

The past 12 months have seen unprecedented levels of change and development within UPSU across a number of different areas, the vast majority of it positive; and it is this continued commitment to positive progress that I believe sets us apart as a Students’ Union of excellence. Over the past year we have strengthened our strategic relationship with the University through both our Senior Management Team (SMT) and Sabbatical Officers. As a result of this link we have been able to secure the transfer of a number of University services to Union management, a process piloted with the transfer of the Re:Union catering outlet earlier this year. Following the exemplary nature of this transfer, we are now in a unique position to take on the far larger Sport & Recreation department, a move that makes us unique in the HE sector. Further to these large commercial developments we have also strengthened our services in membership development and representation. This year saw the launch of the School Rep system, developed by our Vice President Education & Welfare, which gave student representatives unprecedented involvement with senior faculty meetings in order to strengthen our representative structure. Alongside this, the Union has also been involved in developing a new ‘students as partners’ project that will help to more fully engage students with their institution during a period of intense change within the sector. It is also a testament to the skill and dedication of our staff and membership that we have made such progress without a full staff compliment. I believe that as an organisation we have succeeded in delivering our vision, mission and values over the past 12 months; a statement that I am sure will continue to ring true for 2013.

Thomas Davidson UPSU President

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PARLIAMENT

This year saw the creation of a new Parliament sub-committee; the Academic Campaigns Committee will work alongside the Course Rep system to empower elected School Reps to lead on academic campaigns thereby complimenting the more welfare orientated campaigns of the other elected officers sitting on Parliament.

The welfare campaigns initiated by Parliamentarians this year included the inception of an outreach programme to educate schools about the issues surrounding LGBT and the approval of a Zero Tolerance to Sexual Harassment Policy which links in to a national initiative by the National Union of Students (NUS).

UPSU undertook a cost and service analysis of the benefits of affiliating to NUS as a result of a motion calling for a referendum to review our affiliation with the National Union. After lengthy debate with members of the NUS Executive Committee Parliamentarians decided it was in the best interest of the members to remain part of the National Union and that a referendum was not necessary at that point, however it was acknowledged that a periodic review of the relationship was needed.

Other guest speakers to Parliament included the NUS International Students Officer and representatives from the Library to discuss issues around loans and fines.

In addition to the 5 dedicated Parliament meetings Parliamentarians and School Reps also formed the core student representation at an open meeting to debate whether UPSU would support University staff in action against cuts to pensions.

With 85% of seats on Parliament filled last year it is hoped that the success of the February 2012 elections; which saw the highest ever voter turnout of 5914 voters, will have highlighted the importance of student representation and lead to all seats being filled in the October 2012 byelections.

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President THOMAS DAVIDSON

What is my role?

As president, my primary remit is to provide a link between the student body and senior members of staff within the university as well as other local and national stakeholders. I ensure that the opinions, needs and issues of Plymouth students are appropriately represented to these groups. I am also responsible for the strategic development of the Union, as both a commercial organisation and a representative body through the Board of Trustees. This group, comprised of current students, sabbatical officers and a number of external trustees meets regularly to develop long term strategy for the union and approve decisions that will affect the entire organisation. Finally, I act as an ambassador for the student body, be it at the University Board of Governors, in front of the local media or when dealing with other stakeholders; I ensure that the student voice is heard by those that need to listen.

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President THOMAS DAVIDSON

How have I improved the lives of students?

This year, the presidency has been held by two separate post holders. Abi Pettit was elected during last year’s elections but unfortunately resigned from her post during the Autumn term. After standing in temporarily, I was appointed by Student Parliament as president for the rest of the 2011/12 term of office. Due to this, I did not have a manifesto as such, but I have contributed to a number of large changes within the University and Union despite this.

Chief amongst these achievements has been my role in the acquisition of a number of University services and their subsequent transfer of management to UPSU. Starting with the Re:Union catering outlet, which started operating as an SU operation from January 2012, we have been given an unprecedented opportunity to run on-campus services the way students want them run.

Our management of ‘The Kitchen’ has been shaped by student opinion and the outlet has had a successful first six months, with some big changes in store for 2012/13.

Following this success, I helped design our strategy to manage and operate the University Sport & Recreation Department. Following student focussed research on how we could develop the service, the University has provisionally agreed to transfer the entirety of the Sport & Recreation department to the Union. This provides us with a unique opportunity to deliver a student centred sport & recreation service in a manner unheard of in the current HE environment.

I have also contributed to the University Services Refresh, the first stage of the ambitious ‘Plymouth 2015’ project. This project, which aimed to refine and enhance student services across the campus, was developed throughout 2011 and I was involved to ensure that any decisions made were reflective of the University’s commitment to the student experience. The resulting changes of the Services Refresh will help to make sure that the University is as flexible as possible in responding to the needs of students.

Finally, I have been involved with a number of senior staff appointments within both the University and Union.

This year the Union has recruited a new Director of Membership Development, Sarah Davey, who has proved to be an exceptionally capable addition to the Union Senior Management Team. In addition to this, I have contributed to the appointment of two new Deputy Vice-Chancellors within the University, who will be picking up an incredible amount of work in the coming months. Throughout all of these processes, I have ensured that student opinion is conveyed to senior members of staff, ultimately benefiting our membership whenever they interact with the University.

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Impact Report 2011 / 12

President THOMAS DAVIDSON

My Biggest Achievement This Year?

Without a doubt my biggest achievement as President this year has been working to secure the transfer of the University Sport & Recreation to the Union. When this transfer takes place, in September 2012, it will give us a unique opportunity to re-align the services offered to better fit the needs of students. Following research and planning undertaken with student input, I am confidant that the UPSU Sport & Recreation service will be a brilliant addition to the range of services we already provide.

Impact Report 2011 / 12

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DEPUTY President Richard GarratT

What is my role?

As the Deputy President of UPSU, among other duties, I do a lot of work with what is historically considered to be ‘unengaged students’ through three main demographics, these being: International students; postgraduate students and partner college students. As a University and Student union we have over 12,000 of our students whom are based at one of our 18 partner colleges.

I also currently represent the Faculty of Health, Education and Society, many of whom also study away from Plymouth and often endure many similar problems those at our partner colleges have.

I am in charge of the demographic model that is UPSU parliament.

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DEPUTY President Richard GarratT

How have I improved the lives of students?

A lot of the issues that we have with students studying off the main campus is that they often feel out of touch and unable to get involved. A similar problem with both international and postgraduate students; however in the form of us not fully understanding what it is they want from their students’ union and therefore not catering for it.

While this is a topic that cannot be championed and over estimated enough, I feel myself and UPSU as an organisation has made some encouraging in roads this year. Arguably long overdue, however it now seems to have become apparent to the organisation that we need to make much more of an effort to take services to the students, rather than just presuming that all we need to do is increase the outreach and consistence of advertising our on campus services and events at the various colleges. Recently conducted student research paints a pretty graphic picture of the views of off campus students, the majority feeling that UPSU “only bother to contact them if they are looking for their money”. Over the past few months I have began working on ensuring this will not be the consensus next year. Most of my work within this specific demographic is found within the section entitled ‘My Biggest Achievement’.

The key is understanding why these students are unengaged; much of the blame can be put down to communication problems. Speaking to students makes you realize how easy some measures to ensure better and more effective communication is. A huge amount of UPC students will never go on their University emails, choosing to use their college account instead, this unfortunately means that UPSU can not reach them via email. To encourage a simple forwarding of their University account email address to their college account (the process of which is explain in induction packs) I have set up a competition where once the forward has been put in place they email me. Five students will then be selected at random from this pool and given £20 Amazon vouchers. £100 is a small price to pay to ensure the 12,000 plus UPC students are getting essential information from their student union whether this be advice or the ability to vote for their sabbatical team.

There is also now social networking pages that will post event, commercial, support information that is specifically aimed at off campus students on Facebook and Twitter. These channels allow the viewing of aspects of UPSU at a glance on a media that the majority use every day.

The Postgraduate student society have now had monthly meeting slots arranged with me, to ensure we are supporting them in every way we can, whether this be by ways of entertainment, advice or academic/ personal support. There has also been a calendar of events arranged over the summer months specifically aimed at postgraduate and international students.

These are run by UPSU, however have been set up to recognise these certain demographics needs and wants, for example trips to IKEA and boat tours around the area they will be living in.

Parliament seems to have also been neglected over recent times, towards the end of the year it has had new life pumped in to it. It has been rebranded and those who were elected as parliamentarians have been provided hoodies boasting the new logo and their positions, not only does this help introduce an element of pride and recognition in the committee who evidentially choose the direction of the student union but it increases the publics awareness of it. To further awareness the dates of parliament have been included in our UPSU calendars, which will go out to all first years.

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DEPUTY President Richard GarratT

What was your biggest achievement this year?

The major project in place to counter this will be the newly implemented ‘mobile student union’. A campaign UPSU have just managed to secure funding for, courtesy of the University. The mobile students’ union will do exactly what the name suggests; acting as an extension of our building, being regular situated around our vast partner college network, having an eye catching ‘mobile students’ union’ will generate both excitement and interest. Something that doesn’t happen from a person walking round a campus in a UPSU hoody. Unengaged students will be drawn in by the vehicle and even if they are, for example FE students, then chances are they will relay to others what ‘that campervan was doing here’. UPSU should be the focal point at any event attended by students, during Freshers 2012 UPSUs’ presence will go far above and beyond what has been done before.

The schedule for UPC Freshers period is currently just having the final touches put on it. Along with confirmed dates of ‘welcome days’ at 80% of the colleges where we have obtained permission to run our ‘stand’ out of our van, we have begun to put together an ‘off campus fresher’ team. The team runs much like our on campus freshers angels, however it has been created to specifically address the needs/restrictions of off campus students. I have arranged for both our snowriders and surf club to have tables at these events, two clubs that have traditionally gained most interest from UPC students, and whom allow them to join and come along on holidays/trips without having to commit to trainings every week in Plymouth. Not only will this aid the generation of excitement at the ‘fair’ itself, but it also begins to demonstrate to the student that as a student union we are understanding the position they are in and moulding the opportunities we present to cater for that.

The ‘UPC Freshers’ period will also see the launch of our maiden event working alongside CCSU (Cornwall College Student Union). As an extension of Camborne’s ‘freshers fair’ UPSU and CCSU will be holding an after party, providing student with various activities, music, food as well as having the chance to meet and chat to the ‘off campus fresher’ team in a less formal environment.

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Impact Report 2011 / 12

partner colleges UPC

Our work with our Partner College students has continued to grow and develop this year. We started the year with excellent engagement with induction & welcome events in the colleges, and distributed 4000 copies of our UPC Student Mini Guide which provide information about the services and opportunities within UPSU. We had excellent involvement from the start of the year with our paid UPC representatives in our 5 largest colleges, and these student reps have proved essential in communicating messages back to their fellow students from UPSU, as well as representing their views at various meetings. We trained our Partner Colleges Course Reps using our newly developed Course Rep Training session, and were able to distribute our new UPC-specific Course Rep Handbooks. We worked very closely with the UPC faculty to trial a new UPC Course Rep online forum - the Virtual Voice, and this has provided excellent opportunities to share messages with UPC course reps, as well as providing a new hub for discussions between representatives.

The UPSU Deputy President has spent a significant amount of time engaging and communicating with UPC students via newly created social networking accounts.

We have grown a large base of followers, and facebook friends, which has given us new opportunities to promote upcoming events, activities, and news from UPSU. Throughout the year we have continued to raise awareness and involvement of Union and University opportunities and have seen a steady increase in engagement, for example, this year we doubled our voter turn out from Partner Colleges in UPSU elections.

Impact Report 2011 / 12

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VICE President SPORTS TOM DAVIDSON

What is my role?

As Vice President Sports, my primary remit is to develop sporting opportunities for students, alongside a commitment to the broader sporting agenda, in Plymouth. I help to develop sports strategy through a broad range of commitments at local, regional and national levels. I ensure that the needs of our sportsmen and women are listened to by local service providers and work to develop such services across the city. I am also responsible for driving the wider sporting agenda within the university; such as developing campaigns to get new students involved in sport and to develop the university’s commitment to health & wellbeing.

I am also responsible for representing general student issues and developing the Students Union as an organisation; not only with specific regard to sport but across many different aspects of student welfare. These various responsibilities include academic appeals, course representation and Union development. .

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VICE President SPORTS TOM DAVIDSON

How have I improved the lives of students?

This year I have had to balance an exceptionally challenging workload, balancing the demands of both my roles as Vice President Sports and Acting President. Despite this, and with the exceptional support provided by the Sports & Societies team, there have been some brilliant developments over the past year that have helped to develop sport in Plymouth.

Chief amongst these is the completion of the University Sports Strategy, a document codeveloped by University and Students Union staff.

This document, which ties into the broader long term strategy for the university, will help to shape and focus sports development at Plymouth by taking advantage of our surroundings to deliver a first rate sporting experience. In tandem with the upcoming transfer of the University Sport & Recreation department to the Union, I am sure that we will be able to deliver a credible and competitive sporting offer in the coming years.

This year I have also been involved in a project to develop the Staddiscombe site in order to provide better facilities for the clubs that use the site on a weekly basis. This multi party project, led by Plymouth city Council, will develop the Staddiscombe site over the coming years following investment by the University and other local stakeholders. I have been involved in this group due to the high level of usage that our clubs require of the site. Once the works have been completed, the site will offer a substantially improved experience to those using it.

I have also continued to develop the Team Plymouth brand over the past 12 months, and this season saw an increased number of teams wearing a unified kit following the brand’s inception in 2010/11. As the brand develops, it will aim to provide all competitive teams with a unified kit that will be instantly recognisable as Team Plymouth whether they are competing locally or nationally. It is my hope that in coming years, our sportsmen and women will be distinguished as professional, highly skilled young athletes and this, in part, will be due to their image on match days throughout the academic year.

Impact Report 2011 / 12

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VICE President SPORTS TOM DAVIDSON

What was your biggest achievement this year?

Although the Sports & Societies team have done some incredible work this year, I believe that my biggest achievement as Vice President Sports has been the input I’ve had in developing the University Sports Strategy. With this document competed, there is now a definitive set of objectives for sport at Plymouth University which will help to drive the sporting offer in Plymouth over the coming years.

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SPORTS & societies

Sports and Societies Fair kicked off the year, it was as busy as ever with the SU clubs and societies signing up over 11000 members, an increase of 2000 on last academic year.

There were 109 different clubs and societies on offer to students which increased to 119 over the year.

There were 33 teams entered into BUCS Weekly Leagues, equivalent to 350 students, plus a further 350 involved in local league and friendly matches, in such sports as American Football, Badminton, Basketball, Fencing, Football, Hockey, Netball, Rugby, Squash and Tennis.

There were also thirty clubs/societies funded by the Students’ Union to take part in National competitions.

There were a number of achievements during the year, four teams were promoted in their BUCS leagues including Men’s Lacrosse who are now the second Plymouth University team in the Premier League.

Ladies Tennis travelled to Glamorgan where they won silver medals in the BUCS Conference Cup. There was also success in local league, Men’s football achieved promotion for all 3 teams in the Plymouth & District League and were top of the league in the Devon Wednesday League. Men’s hockey reached the final of the Devon Cup and Ladies Hockey made the final of the Devon Plate. There were also gold and bronze medals in Judo at the Plymouth Open.

In the BUCS Nationals Gold medals were achieved in Athletics, Judo, Surfing and Snooker.

In the overall BUCS championships 2011/2012 the Plymouth University came 38th out of 155 institutions a jump of 3 places on the previous year.

It was the first year of the Activate, Motivate, Generate project and a large number of SU clubs worked alongside the University to engage students who would not normally take part in sport. This project has lead to increased club membership and new SU clubs being created.

In Societies Musical Theatre Group put on a fantastic show, Thoroughly Modern Millie, which was well supported by University students and staff and raised sufficient money for the society to put on a production next academic year.

RAG raised their profile by putting on some huge events including a 75ft Bungee Jump. Over the year they raised £8 500 for a number of different charities.

Societies gave 7 077 hours to Volunteering and community projects and some Sports clubs were hugely involved in various RELAYS projects, something that has been increasing year on year.

The annual Varsity event took place over the last two weeks of the spring term with 11 different sports and involved about 500 students from the University of Plymouth and UCP Marjon. The event also raised money for charity and this year £14 500 was donated to the two charities, The Motor Neurone Disease Association and The Drake Foundation a local Plymouth charity.

This year saw the Men’s and Ladies football matches played at Home Park Stadium, the home of Plymouth Argyle FC. A great boost in raising the profile of the Varsity Event.

The clubs and societies also did a massive amount of fundraising for charity, overall they raised £9 750 for a number of charities including Sport Relief and St Lukes Hospice.

To round off the year and to celebrate the achievements of students from both sports clubs and societies two awards ceremonies were held this year. Over 200 students attended the Sports Awards where 9 Full Colours and 59 Half Colours were given out, and 100 students attended the Societies Awards where 22 Colours were presented to well deserving individuals.

Impact Report 2011 / 12

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VICE President Activities and Communications Jazz Singh-Khaira

What is my role?

Over the last year as VP Activities and Communications I have overseen Societies and Volunteering. A vital part of the role is Student media, namely the knowledge and UPSU radio but also ensuring there is effective communication between UPSU and students, particularly on who and what the sabbatical team are. This year I represented the Faculty of Science and Technology and took on the training of course reps, facilitating network meetings and attending faculty board.

Following the departure of our President I took on responsibility for the Sustainability agenda, and carried out the Green Week campaign.

In March I successfully ran for the position of UPSU President and look forward to leading UPSU over the next year.

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VICE President Activities and Communications Jazz Singh-Khaira

How have I improved the lives of students?

Improving access to information.

As one of my first acts I worked with the Communications department to design a new website with improved navigation and appearance, making Union information and events more accessible to students. As part of the development of The Knowledge student paper we also created an online hub for stories to be uploaded at any time.

Creating awareness of UPSU structure and services.

I worked with a local company to create an animation that raised awareness of what it is UPSU do and how we are run. I hope to develop an awareness campaign over the next year to develop this idea getting students to ‘Know your Union’ 24/7 coursework hand-in.

Working with school reps in the Faculty of Science and Technology, we piloted a Student Staff Liaison Group with responsibility for operations, through this group we established a 24-hour hand in service through a drop in box in the library, which gives students flexibility in handing work in outside of office hours. This service has received remarkable feedback and is used very frequently; my hope for the next year is to extend this facility across other faculties in the University.

Helping students make informed decisions For Green and Ethics week I launched a label in the Student Union shop to help students make informed ethical decisions when purchasing anything from water to toilet roll. The ‘Green Choice’ label was applied to products which scored more ethically in comparison to similar products sold alongside.

Information on sustainability was supplied alongside this in the form of shelf talkers. Although this was deployed in green week the information stayed up for the rest of the year and we hope to continue the use of the label. One particular area which lacked a suitable alternative was drinking water, so we produced some bottles with the campaign branding ‘One Green Bottle’ to raise awareness of this issue, I hope to develop this by getting some free water points on campus.

Providing opportunities and recognizing excellence in students I created roles and appointed 4 sub-editors to assist the editor in developing the Knowledge student paper to provide a better service to students and also much needed experience for students wishing to enter the sector- the appointments saw a huge rise in the number of articles submitted and students engaged. With funding accrued by my predecessor I worked with the Media Rep to purchase some much needed equipment to further develop our UPSU Radio- I have worked closely to support the Radio Society who have brought the station on leaps and bounds, this provides students with another channel of communication and provides essential experience for students involved in creating shows and running the station.

In one of my last acts as VP Activities and Comms I organised and held the first UPSU Societies Awards to recognize and celebrate the hard work and achievements of Plymouth University Societies and individuals that have devoted their time at university to these groups. After going through over 100 nominations this year we recognized students for their leadership, work in the community and dedication to their society. The ceremony went down very well and I hope it continues in years to come.

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VICE President Activities and Communications Jazz Singh-Khaira

What was your biggest achievement this year?

As a team I feel we have this year increased our visibility through the use of imagery- enabling students to put a name to a face. This could have contributed to the massive increase in voter turnout and has also been reflected in the market research carried outwhere 27% of students taking the survey were able to put roles and names to the faces of sabbatical officers.

I hope this means that more students are engaging with what we do.

My proudest moment however was when 22 students joined me to volunteer in the local community to tackle a seasonal waste problem. The Community Clean Up was held to coincide with the student exodus- we spread awareness and provided students with tips on packing up for the summer & disposing of waste responsibly. The students came out in force on the Day of Action where we got stuck in clearing waste in the problem areas in the wider area around campus.

The activity was met with much praise from the local community- as President this is something I hope to develop and hold on a much bigger scale next year.

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volunteering In the academic year 2011-12 students have this year participated in over 15,500 volunteering hours within the local community. Value to the community is huge, not just financially but through the skills, time, enthusiasm and effort contributed by the committed volunteers.

The student volunteer society Volunteer in Plymouth organised and delivered 43 projects in 2011/12, working with 179 student volunteers and engaging in 2735 volunteering hours.

The annual Volunteer Fair in October saw approximately 800 students in attendance with 43 local community groups promoting their work and volunteering activities.

Student volunteer Rachel Nafzger was chosen to carry the Olympic Torch in Plymouth in recognition of her continued community activities and for her role as a Future Flame Ambassador for the 2012 Games.

Rachel also received the Volunteer of the Year Award at the 2011 VC’s Enterprise Award ceremony.

The Volunteer Department was awarded the Investing in Volunteers Award Quality Standard in January 2012. Investing in Volunteers demonstrates real achievement measured against a rigorous national standard and the Department was assessed against a range of best practice standards and proved to excel in all aspects of working with volunteers.

The RELAYS (Regional Educational Legacy in Arts and Youth Sport) project is now in its final stage, and to date, RELAYS has far exceeded all expectations set – together across the South West of England, the RELAYS teams have involved nearly 70,000 young people in activities. Over 330,000 people have attended the events and festivals. For over 4,000 students and volunteers, this has been an incredible opportunity to gain experience and employability.

So far this year RELAYS at UPSU has worked with a fantastic group of 124 students who have volunteered on events and activities and a total of 1502 of RELAYS volunteering hours have been completed.

Impact Report 2011 / 12

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VICE President education and welfare emma wilson

What is my role?

My role requires me to gather the views of students and represent them within the university. I attend high level committees within the university and feed up issues which are raised by students on the ground to ensure that every student studying with Plymouth University feels that they are represented academically and are supported throughout their studies. I also liaise closely with the Advice Centre to hear first-hand what issues students are facing and work with the staff to put in place any actions needed to address these issues. Additionally I oversee the Course Rep system and provide comprehensive training for reps, support students to run their own campaigns and run several welfare and education based campaigns throughout the year.

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VICE President education and welfare emma wilson

How have I improved the lives of students?

PERSONAL TUTORING REVIEW:

THE UNIVERSITY PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT:

This year I have been a key member of the Personal Tutoring Task and Finish Group, which was set up in order to review the personal tutoring practice and policy at the institution. Several students joined me and members of both academic and professional services staff in this group, which over the course of several meetings created a new policy for tutoring. In this policy there are several key wins for students including the introduction of a minimum of 3 meetings per academic year. UPSU fully support the launch of this new policy and believe that it will contribute to enhanced student support for students at Plymouth University.

Together with Colin Munn, a university member of staff, I launched the University Partnership Agreement. This project sought many views and ideas from students and saw staff and students meeting to discuss the concept of partnership and the expectations from each party.

I facilitated workshops at the programme level in the School of Marine Sciences and Engineering and was delighted to witness the discussions amongst students and staff which ultimately led to better understanding on both sides and new ideas to improve quality on the programme in question. I worked hard to ensure that the spirit of partnership between staff and students remained strong throughout, to avoid the production of a legalistic compact agreement, many of which have been introduced in other institutions. I supported the requirement that both university and programme level Partnership Agreements are revisited regularly in a joint approach by both students and staff, the agreements will therefore act as strong drivers for the enhancement of quality and will be key in managing expectations on both sides as we move into the new horizons of higher education funding.

CHANGE ACADEMY: After attending the residential Change Academy in the summer of last year I am pleased to have been be part of a team that developed the ‘Students as Partners’ agenda. The Change Academy Team secured funding for many ‘Students as Partners Projects’. The key to the projects is that students and staff work on a small scale project to enhance the student experience in some way. The initiative provides opportunities for students to work along staff members who are experts in their field and also gain project management experience. Two of the projects include the support of the development of a law clinic which will provide students with genuine work experience opportunities and also the support of the creation of an extensive new element to the gallery shop in the Peninsula Arts Gallery. Other Change Academy achievements include revised guidance regarding involvement of students in recruitment and selection process for new academic staff and a YouGov style Student Opinion Panel, together these developments put students at the heart of important decision making at Plymouth University, this was a personal manifesto point which I very passionately wanted to deliver for our members.

DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW STUDENT LEADERSHIP COUIRSE: As the lead officer for this project, I have with university staff and external consultants launched the first ever ‘Student Leadership Course’ at Plymouth University.

My role in the planning team included generating ideas for content, the promotion and marketing of the course and securing funding for future courses so that the concept of student leadership can become fully embedded within the institution. I believe that I have benefitted from many opportunities of leadership in my role as a trustee and Sabbatical at UPSU and feel that more training and development of our students as leaders will set our students apart from others. At the first weekend training 40 students, including sport and society chairs, parliamentarians, course reps, PhD students and student ambassadors attended. The two day course focussed on coaching, giving feedback, project planning and presenting a business case or a project to potential stakeholders. The course received great feedback from students and it is hoped the course will be rolled out to many more students in the first term of the academic year.

Impact Report 2011 / 12

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VICE President education and welfare emma wilson

What was your biggest achievement this year?

SSTAR AWARDS Without doubt my biggest achievement this year was the continued embedding of the Student and Staff Teaching and Representation (SSTAR) Awards.

Determined to see the event become an annual celebration, I worked with several course reps to raise the profile of the awards ceremony and engage many more students than last year. We definitely succeeded as nominations grew from 46 in the inaugural year to over 300 this year. I also achieved my personal goal of effectively launching an awards ceremony which showcased and disseminated best practice in teaching, learning and representation within the institution. UPSU believe the number of nominations demonstrates that students view SSTAR as an important chance to express their thanks to staff who work so hard to ensure they receive the best student experience. The nominations for Course Rep and Parliamentarian of The Year trebled in number with nominations received from both staff and students; this illustrates just how valued these change effecting students are on our campus. New categories this year include the new ‘Most Useful Feedback ‘and ‘Excellence in Supporting Career Aspirations and Employability’ along with returning awards of Outstanding Personal Tutor, Most Dedicated Dissertation Project Supervisor, Outstanding Support Staff (Individual and Team) and Most Inspirational Teacher; this award alone received over 100 nominations from students. The Impact of the Awards on both staff and students has been clear, staff has been inspired to apply for prestigious recognition including Teaching Fellows and both student winners and student reps who helped present on the evening have fed back that their confidence in their ability both academically and organisationally has increased and they now have something extra to talk about with potential employers at interview. I have compiled a report outlining the outcomes and impact of SSTAR and have utilised both my creative and persuasive skills to appeal to internal and external sponsors to secure funding for next year’s awards ceremony.

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advice In the last academic year: The number of students that have received advice this academic year to 15/6/2012 has risen by 19% to 2070.

A total of 135 students have been referred/ signposted to other services for specialist advice such as legal service or personal counselling.

Student finance advice accounts for 25% of the total number of clients visiting upsu:advice and this has risen by 46% from 363 to 532 enquiries.

A total of 360 students have sought academic advice on a range of issues including, changing course, appeals and complaints procedures. We have attended disciplinary hearings and assisted sabbatical officers in preparing cases requiring representation.

The advice pages on upsu.com and the TV screen outside upsu:advice have been revamped and remain an on-going project to keep abreast of changes in legislation.

Case Study A student repeating the second year of her degree received a letter of deregistration from the University in April 2012. The student had compelling personal reasons for repeating year two but had failed to submit the evidence to Student Finance England resulting in non-payment of fees to the University. The student was very distressed as she had no way of paying the fees herself and thought that she would be unable to complete her degree. The Advice Centre was able to assist the student in submitting an appeal based on compelling personal reasons to Student Finance England to award a fee loan for this year. Advice liaised with the ‘deregistration team’ to prevent the student being denied access to university services and allowed to sit her exams while Student Finance England considered the appeal. The student made 18 visits to upsu:advice during this period of time and the adviser made repeated representations to Student Finance England and the University deregistration team to inform them of the progress of the appeal. The outcome of the appeal was finally received on 7th June when the student received written confirmation of the decision to award her a fee loan.

Our objectives for the 2012/2013 academic year are to: Continue to increase awareness of upsu:advice to UPC students. We intend to publicise an 0800 telephone no. primarily for UPC student.

We have installed a telephone in a discrete corner in upsu:advice that students can use to contact Student Finance England and Community Legal Service. Calls to SFE and CLS are often very long and result in interviews rooms being tied up for long periods of time.

We hope that this initiative will cut down waiting times in busy periods.

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Impact Report 2011 / 12

representation We have continued to keep records of the number of Course Reps throughout the University and the number of contacts we have had with them.

In the last academic year: We have trained 56% of the Course Reps that we hold details for, that is a 31% increase from the previous year.

We have also had a 43% increase in the number of Course Reps that have attended Network Meetings.

We have lost key members of staff throughout the University and also had staff absence within the SU, therefore the working relationship between UPSU staff and PU staff is not as fluid as it was a year ago.

Our objectives for the following year are: To maintain the level of reps being trained.

To make the training more interactive and provide further training opportunities for the Course Reps.

Alter the style of the Network Meetings to retain reps throughout the year.

Assist School Reps with their new role and help them to forge working relationships between the SU and UoP.

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Impact Report 2011 / 12

Communication and social enterprise Communication

Website statistics

This year has seen UPSU commit to its largest ever programme of research as we seek to gather opinion for our large and diverse range of stakeholders.

We did this through a significant investment in our research budget and by awarding this challenging task to an external market research agency.

Over the last 6 months the agency has gather a huge amount of data and the key points from this will be used to develop our new strategic plan.

Over the last 12 months 289,938 people visited our website generating over 1,000,000 page views

Our research clearly shows that combinations of communication channels are needed to deliver our messages. Social networks and our website are still seen as the most effective methods for communication and we continue to develop these areas.

The facts: • • • • • • • • • • • •

Facebook, Twitter & social media Our social media network is well established and has extremely high ‘follower’ rates within our sector.

12,732 followers on Facebook: facebook.com/upsunion 5,632 followers of our Freshers’ Group: facebook.com/plymouthfreshers11 3,922 followers on Twitter: twitter.com/upsu You tube 40,898 channel views 100+ videos uploaded youtube.com/UniversityPlymouthSU

Visitors from 174 different countries 24,645 visited the Events page 15,728 visited the Sports page 12,366 visited the Societies page 10,407 visited the Elections page 64% increase in loyal visitors to over 9,300 people with over 200+ visits to the site 40% of visitors come via Google 24% come direct to the site 20% are referred from Facebook 5% are referred from the University website Nearly 8,000,000 emails sent in communicating with members.

We have 77,224 registered users at UPSU.com

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Impact Report 2011 / 12

Communication and social enterprise Social enterprise UPSU’s commercial departments employed over 200 student staff during the academic year 11/12.

Our employment has seen over £430,000 re-invested back to students in wages and represents around 60,000 hours of employment.

Approximately, 50% of our students said we should be ‘value for money focussed’ and this plays a key factor in our pricing strategy where we benchmark our prices against the sector and with our competitors.

In the future our members have asked for us to keep considering value for money as our focus but an increasing number (33%) also want us to consider ‘quality’ as a value we offer.

In relation to our vision UPSU invests heavily in training, professional and personal development. UPSU provides real development opportunities through our Placement and Graduate Intern schemes. All of these help us provide the practical experience required for students’ transition from University into the work place as we help to develop the employability skills of our members.

This year our training offer has expanded to now include the Security Industry Authority (SIA) license.

Over 30 students attended these courses and successful attained their licences which now allows them to work in a large number of security roles, many of these are part-time and complement their study requirements. UPSU will be actively training and recruiting our own security team as numbers increase.

The bar has faced a tough financial year and is expected to see a drop in turnover of 8% on the previous year. This is despite an overall rise of 10% in attendance at our venue. There is a noticeable trend that our customers are coming out later than ever and have a limited budget. Over the year we changed the entry pricing strategy in an attempt to minimise or reverse this trend, with limited success and our predictions are that these trends are likely to continue.

The shop continues to grow in sales with a predicted 6% increase on last year’s sales. Our meal deals prove ever popular and at the start of the year we changed suppliers and move to Urban Eat. Their range of snacks, sandwiches and meals have proved exceptionally popular and their inclusion within the meal deal has play a contributory factor in increasing sales.

The Shop hours were extended in response to student demand and we are now open on Sundays but were tweaked slightly during the first term to match student demand, particularly in the evenings.

There has been a significant increase in events aimed at members who wouldn’t usually or regularly use our bars and social space such as post graduates, international students and those with families. We worked in partnership with Up:beat, our student DJ society to bring a number of live acts to the Students’ Union.

Our live music and personal appearances have gone from strength to strength and this year we had visits from a number of high profile acts. Highlights included; NERO, Kaiser Chiefs, McFly, Wheatus, Mr Scruff, Ben Howard, Rusko, Sub Focus, Miss Dynamite and Featurecast.

The campus market, started last year, is now an extremely popular with over 4,000 visitors attending each event. The number of stall holders wanting to attend has also increased so we introduced a Craft Fayre to complement the event, even with this initiative there is still a waiting list.

We now host dancing lessons, the popular Zumba fitness classes, day trips out to various south west attractions, mountain bike racing events, plays and performances, comedy shows, bingo, film shows and bring and buy sales.

We stage cultural festivals such Chinese New Year, Ramadan and Pride.

The end of the academic year saw our third on campus summer ball. Attendance rose from 3,750 to 4,200 with the footprint of the event being significantly enlarged to accommodate the increased numbers. Over £170k was invested into the production of the event and feedback showed that the event was very well received by our members.

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Impact Report 2011 / 12

Communication and social enterprise Representation The awareness of elected Officers is extremely high compared to other institutions with the accuracy of names and positions ranging between 20%-60%.

NUS sales Once again UPSU is one of the top sellers for NUS cards, achieving over 10,112 card sales up from 8,874 last year which was previously a record for UPSU.

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Impact Report 2011 / 12

CLOSING REMARKS

Over the past twelve months we have worked incredibly hard to continually deliver a first rate student experience that sets us apart as a Students’ Union of excellence in a rapidly changing HE environment.

We have continued to develop our services in a number of key areas including representation, the student voice and our commercial offer; and we are confidant that all of our efforts this year have been duly informed and driven by the opinions and expectations of our membership.

However, we cannot afford to rest on the outcomes of the past 12 months. In light of the impending changes to HE and due to significant changes within our own institution, we must make an even greater effort to hear the opinions of an increasingly informed and opinionated membership; not only when making decisions that will affect students in Plymouth but also those at our partner colleges across the South West.

Over the next year we will ensure that student welfare and the wider student experience are at the heart of any endeavour we undertake and will continue providing a first rate service to current and future students.