Your Officer Team works hard to make change for you, and achieving 'wins', but what does that actually mean?
The number one question of all: What do your Union President and Vice Presidents actually do?
You may have heard things like ‘represent your academic interests’ and ‘lead the change’ but here’s what that actually means:
1. We helped change the Parking radius
When hearing all the frustrations over Car Parking from countless students, your Officer Team helped change the radius from 2 to 3 miles. Your Officer Team have also worked on incorporating NHS Hospitals with the Parking Permit application, so if you’re a health student, your parking permit will count when you’re on placement too.
2. The Blackheath Lane Minibus
There’s now a minibus from the Train station to the Centre of Excellence Blackheath Lane! This was long hard and fought for by your Vice President, to make sure that getting to and from your campus is free and accessible. Making sure that you can get to your lectures and seminars easily and on time.
3. Leading the way on sustainability
Regular conversations on sustainability are now happening with University’s Director of Finance meaning that Sustainability is well and truly on the agenda. The University Executive Team are difficult people to get time with and making sure that the issues that are key to you are being heard, is a top representative priority for officers.
4. Space not being lost in the library for students
With the recent renovations of the library, your Officer team worked hard to make sure that there was no lost computer space for students. The library has promised that space has been reallocated so that no students lose vital space needed to study both during term time and over the holidays.
5. More personal tutors for Postgraduate Researchers
After concerns were raised in the Graduate School Committee about Personal Tutors and PGR regulations, your Officer Team have worked with University staff to ensure that there are more personal tutors to represent postgraduate students in the Business School.
6. Opening of Cadman Gaming Studios/24 Hour Access
After collecting your feedback on the access of buildings across campus, your Officer Team have made sure that the Cadman Gaming Studios are open 24/7 and accessible for you to continue to excel at your studies, whenever you need to.
7. No more paper!
Your Officer Team have recognised that as a leading digitally connected University, the need for paper submissions almost seems a contradiction. They have been working hard with School leads and Academic Course Reps to make sure that all courses have digital submissions only, meaning there’s no need to waste paper.
8. Developing You – Learning a New Language Has Never Been Easier
In order to develop your skills whilst studying, the Vice-Chancellor has promised that you can learn a language for free alongside studying your core modules. This way, you can expand your learning and build on your CV at no extra cost!
9. Halls Experience
The Head of Student Services, Ian Munton, and the Head of Wellbeing, Paula Daziel, have confirmed that they will be spending one night in University Halls. The Officer Team shared your concerns with the Head of Student Services and Head of Wellbeing and wanted them to understand your concerns truly. The Officer Team feel that in order to understand the issues in accommodation, staff need to have a lived experience of halls and GreenPad accommodation so that these issues can be seen and dealt with effectively.
10. Meet Your Vice-Chancellor
Once upon a time, there was time allocated for students to ask questions to their Vice-Chancellor to hold them to account for the things that students were promised by their University. Unfortunately, this stopped. Your Officer Team has been working hard to maintain that your voice is heard, and you are able to question the progress of things you have asked for, and now contact time with the Vice-Chancellor is back!