Representing Students and Campaigning to Achieve Change
Democracy
This year saw the recommendations of last year’s Democracy Review implemented. The biggest change was that, instead of being decided by a small group of students via Student Council, SU policy is now decided through an electronic vote which all students can participate in, known as an All Student Meeting. This proved very successful in engaging more students than ever before in SU democracy, giving students more flexibility by removing the need to attend physical meetings and having videos of the debates online, while also allowing a longer/more accessible online voting period – demonstrating that embracing the technology available to us has significant advantages in engaging students in the democratic process. The first ASM resulted in 1000 students voting on the issues submitted – a significant increase on previous numbers.
Following motions submitted to Student Council in Term 2, the SU also oversaw the creation of an Environment & Ethics Officer and a Lifelong Learning Officer post.
With 29 students running for Sabbatical Officer posts, our turnout in the 2013 Officer Elections totalled an impressive 6,699 (29% of the student population) – a tally made even more notable by the election of a female Sabbatical Officer majority (4 of the 7 Sabbs voted in were women, marking a reversal of recent years’ trends.)
Building on the success of last year, our Inspire programme saw 100 students attend sessions at local secondary schools in an attempt to further pupils’ understanding of the higher education experience and hopefully raise their future aspirations. Postgraduate Officer Anna Chowcat organised the Inspire outreach programme, liaising with TeachFirst with regard to training and ensuring the relevant Criminal Records Bureau checks for all students involved. She also helped to create the first Inspire and TeachFirst society, who will continue to work alongside the scheme and organise socials and fundraising activity.
In addition to the launch of our Love Community campaign, Sabbatical Officers and staff attended numerous community forums (particularly in Leamington) in a bid to represent students whilst successfully improving the reputation of students and the SU in the local area. Our relationship with the Community safety team is particularly strong, and we support initiatives around the safety and wellbeing of young people in the town.
Furthermore, we established an online RAG portal for the centralisation and consolidation of charity fundraising activity, allowing students to see how much had been raised both individually and in total throughout the year. This tied in with an overhaul of our fundraising guidance so that students and RAG meet the requirements of charity law while building a community ethos around fundraising.
Higher Education
In addition to our flagship society campaign weeks (including Pride Week, Women’s Week, Disability Awareness Week and Go Green Week), this year also saw us launch several new education-based initiatives designed to engage students in issues surrounding Higher Education:
-
Higher Education Network – first meeting 30th October 2012;
-
Education Convention in Term 1 - an opportunity to discuss issues and ideas in education with SU Sabbatical Officers, Faculty Reps, senior University staff members and fellow students;
-
Warwick Universities Summit in Term 2 - a free student-run summit featuring panels, discussions, individual speaker talks, seminars and fringe events on the future of Higher Education.
We also improved the training given to faculty representatives with more specific information regarding perennial issues which affect students, worked with the University on the abolishment of the 50% assessment rule and authored the guidance and information given to students on this issue.
In the area of tuition fees, we published an official SU statement on the issue while members of our Sabbatical Officer Team presented these views in person to the University’s Fees Working Group committee. We also took a coachload of 65 students to London for the NUS National Demo, which was attended by several members of the Sabbatical Officer team and included comprehensive plans for ensuring students’ safety in the light of the previous year’s events.
Anna Chowcat, SU Postgraduate Officer, negotiated with the University on the 15/16 Access Agreement and authored the SU response which was sent directly to OFFA, while representing the SU in the University’s widening participation strategy by contributing to discussions on student finance, contextual data and outreach.
Other notable campaigns throughout the year included:
Fees Working Group
Warwick SU compiled a paper containing proposals for the 2013-14 Fees Working Group, the body that makes the final proposals to the University and on which there was no student representation. Unfortunately, the four main proposals from the Students’ Union advocating a freeze in fee-prices were rejected without the opportunity to engage in discussions on these issues. However, we will continue to push for greater involvement in the Fees Working Group, and have begun making progress in this area in preparation for next year’s discussions.
Feedback and Assessment
As a result of widely-voiced disillusionment with the quality of feedback being offered by the University on assessed work, last year the SU launched its Hungry For Feedback campaign. As well as offering tips on how to get better feedback from tutors, our campaign collected anecdotal evidence together with hundreds of signatures in a bid to lobby the University into improving its record in this area.
The Officers successfully negotiated with the University on the Student Community Statement during 2012-13.
The initial agreement presented to us by the University was deemed unacceptable, with the SU’s academic representatives raising specific concerns with regard to the feedback and assessment commitment. We were therefore delighted to announce that, as a result of students’ and officers’ input and patience, the University ultimately set a 4-week timeframe on assessment feedback, pledging to supply “Relevant and meaningful feedback on your work in a variety of formats that will help your academic development within a reasonable timescale previously communicated to you, within the University’s guidance of four weeks or less, and within a timeframe that allows you to learn for subsequent assessment.”
Disciplinary Regulations
With staff support, Officers successfully negotiated with the University in the redrafting of Warwick’s regulations regarding its disciplinary policy to ensure that it was fairer and more consistently implemented.
We worked to increase the support and information provided to students who are going through this process, as well as ensuring that all those involved have the requisite training.
QAA - SWS
The QAA (Quality Assurance Agency) is an external body which audits the University on levels of quality in its education provision. As part of this process, SU Education Officer James Entwistle held a number of student focus groups to gauge satisfaction on a range of issues. This led to the preparation of a 26-page student-written submission (SWS) document which commented on the University’s progress on previous recommendations, provided valuable student feedback on key areas singled out for improvement and made recommendations for additional improvements going forward.
Improved Study Spaces
Following lobbying by successive Sabbatical Officer teams for more study space, we were pleased to see the opening of two new student spaces on and off-campus this year: a new Learning Grid based in the Rootes Social Building, plus a brand new extension of The Learning Grid in Leamington Spa. Both these announcements were met with unanimously positive feedback from students, though we will continue to put pressure on the University to expand its provision, particularly during peak study times.
Time’s Up! Campaign
In Term 2, we launched a campus-wide survey on contact time satisfaction – Time’s Up! The aim of this survey was to identify whether our members were satisfied with the amount of time they get to spend with the academics on their course. The data we collected was then broken down by year and course so that students’ elected SSLC representatives could make the case for improvements to their departments.
Food On Campus
A key focus of SU President Nick Swain’s election manifesto was to investigate the issue of late-night food provision on campus. This year, we ran a Late-Night Food survey via the SU website, the results of which led to the trialling of a 24-hour Bake & Bite service at Costcutter. Following positive student feedback on the initiative, this scheme was later expanded into 24-hour opening at Costcutter throughout term-time, ensuring that students no longer need to travel off-campus outside of traditional opening hours to buy food.
Transport
In addition to the introduction of an on-campus shuttle bus, our continued lobbying for improvements to the bus services running to and from campus led to the introduction of additional bus services provided by Travel de Courcey.