test pages impact report

UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTERSTUDENTS’ UNIONIMPACT REPORT2010/2011

INTRODUCTIONwww.leicesterunion.com

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Welcome to the University of Leicester Students’ Union’s �rst Impact Report.

This report seeks to outline the Unions’ activities and celebrate the many achievements of the academic year 2010/11. Whilst it will include some analysis of the �nancial aspects of the Students’ Union, it will also give an overview of the progress made on the strategic direction and development of the organisation. Throughout the year and on an ongoing basis we are focused on a vision of delivering excellence to support the realisation of an exceptional student experience. We are committed to improving students‘ lives whilst at the University of Leicester through the provision of quality services and facilities and by providing critical support mechanisms in the areas of education and welfare.

We have worked hard to overcome di�cult �nancial conditions in a year which has seen tremendous change both structurally and operationally, to emerge with plans and forecasts that indicate a great 2011-2012 academic year for the Students’ Union is ahead of us.

2We opened the doors to our award winning new Percy Gee Building during 2010.

WHO WE AREwww.leicesterunion.com

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, what we do

The Students’ Union serves the student body of the University of Leicester currently representing

22,803 students, 48% of whom are at undergraduate level

52% are postgraduates (taught and research).

Approximately 9,000 are full-time home based and 8,500 are studing by distance learning.

The University attracts students from 67 countries outside of the EU with the largest cohorts being from China and India and Canada.

The Students’ Union is led by a Board of Trustees comprising, 5 current or graduating students elected annually by the student body to serve a sabbatical period on the Board. They are supported by four external Trustees who are prominent local �gures from the �elds of business and education.

OUR GOVERNANCE, STRUCTURE AND MANAGEMENT Our Union is served by a board of Trustees headed by the Academic A�airs O�cer

Academic A�airs O�cerALEX NUTT

Keith Julian Neville Reed Alison Shakespeare James Hunt Lily Davis Suzi Burtenshaw Thom French Fenian O'Dughaen

Chief ExecutiveTrevor Page

Sales & MarketingHelen Senior

FinanceSarah Jane Anderson

Central ServicesAmbalavanar Kumaran

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www.leicesterunion.com

OUR MISSIONwww.leicesterunion.com

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We work to achieve the advancement of education of students at the University of Leicester by:

Promoting the interests and welfare of students at the University of Leicester during their course of study

Representing, supporting and advising students;

Being the recognised representative channel between students and the University of Leicester and any other external bodies;

Providing social, cultural, sporting and recreational activities;

Providing forums for discussions and debate for the personal development of its students.’

OUR VISIONThe union will inspire all its members to achieve an Exceptional Student Experience

ENGAGEMENT - at a glance

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5,400Registered on www.leicesterunion.com

8,230Facebook likes

1,420Following @PercyGee

4,000responses to surveys in the academic yearAnd over

HIGHLIGHTSwww.leicesterunion.com

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‘I love my Academic’ campaignNUS SUEI Bronze Award

Get Fit for ExamsFreshers Week

Executive O�cer ElectionsNUS National Demonstration

Launch of Team Leicester19 place rise in BUCS league tablesIncrease in student clubs/societies

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Much of the Students’ Union’s main focus is centred on academic support and campaigns to improve the education experience at the University of Leicester. The Education Unit is crucial to providing students with support and advice and has

completed nearly 400 individual student pieces of casework over the last academic year.

The Education Unit is also a cam-paigning body aiming to improve the students academic experi-ence. Understandably the national tuition fees debate took up a great deal of time and e�ort and we were committed to �ght-ing the now implemented

£9000 fees here at Leicester.

.Using evidence from the National Student Survey regarding the general lack of comprehensive feedback for students regarding assignments and exams, we ran a successful feedback campaign with the aim of improving the time limit that students received feedback and so student could receive feedback through di�erent measures.

The Education Unit received national marketing recognition for our ‘I love my Academic’ campaign, which received the bronze HEIST award for best internal communications cam-paign. Acknowledging good teaching and support by tutors in this campaign is also gaining momentum and achieving signi�cant exposure which goes someway to ensuring academics provide the best support possible to Leicester students.

One other crucial campaign which occurred before both examination periods was the ‘Get Fit for Exams’ campaign. A joint Union and collaborative campaign with the University to provide support, space and resources for students to study, plus the knowledge about how to stay healthy and productive during exams.

The Education Unit also runs the course representative system with

380 students representing their peers on their courses to the Uni-versity. These provide excellent opportunities to obtain feedback and to develop student leaders. Course representatives receive training from our union sta� so that they can be e�ective.

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Developing student employability skills remains a priority for the Education Unit and the Students’ Union as a whole. We provide extensive training to allow students to take on leadership roles and we also run the Students’ Union Leicester Award in whichstudents take part in various activities to directly develop employability skills. We have three run by the Students’ Union, one designed for the course reps, and one each for the sports club presidents and society heads. This then ends up on the students’ degree transcript and in turn the HEAR which students receive when they graduate from the University.

The meetings are also chaired by the representatives, thus having a positive impact on developing student skills.

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REPRESENTATIONwww.leicesterunion.com

This past academic year has seen vast improvements and developments in the democratic governance and overall engagement of di�erent student demographics. One of the most signi�cant changes that the Students’ Union saw was the establishment of the new Union Constitution which was voted for in the latter stages of the 2009/2010 academic year. There was also the transformation of our Union council into now a Union Parliament and a restructuring of the representation aspect of it. There had been a nature of ine�ective councils in the past and so decided to restructure it to increase relevance by introducing proportional representation. This would increase legitimacy of the Union parliament and would take proportional account of all courses at the University of Leicester. In turn we have seen an increased e�ectiveness of Union parliament with a drastic increase in the number of strategic proposals and contributions by members of Parliament.

In order to achieve proportional representation each college receives an allocation of seats for parliament. We also elected academic members of parliament that were elected from the course representative system.

One of the signi�cant changes has been the removal of voting powers of the executive as it was thought they had too much in�uence on the voting process. Increased attendances and an improvement in

discussions and debates suggests that the overall restructuring has been successful so far. Evidence of increased representation includes the election of a distance learner to Union parliament and student

on their Erasmus year, and their contributions were received through e-mail and social media avenues.

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STUDENT WELFARE & COMMUNITYOne of the key aspects of the Students’ Union is to be able to provide welfare support to students, and throughout the last year we have continued to provide and facilitate support as and when students require it. To contribute to this we continue to provide free condoms to students to ensure students remain safe, and these are easily accessible to students. The entire Welfare department in the Students’ Union consists of members of University sta�, with added support from our Welfare and International sabbatical o�cer and campaigns are run in coordination with the department and to meet issues pro actively and importantly reactively as well, as issues may arise that need urgent attention.Rather than large campaigns last year, it was more important to specialise on certain activities and issues that have been a concern. For example, weekly times for students to visit

Signi�cant e�ort has been made to engage and involve the local community in the Union activity. For example, we helped to organise local events such as the Christmas fair in which we worked in collaboration with the city Council in closing o� roads etc. We were at the centre of the planning stages of the �rst ever Christmas fair in Leicester.

Regarding the wellbeing of our students living in accommodation in the local community, we went round visiting students in the local community to investigate problems that existed whilst they were living in the area to establish potential campaign ideas and to ensure that our students were living comfortably, safely and securely.


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ACTIVITIES: SPORTS, SOCIETIES & MEDIA

development of new branding which has opened us up to increased

sponsorship opportunities amongst other things.


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Last year saw the development of new sports branding:Team Leicester.

There were several aims for this, including increased uni�cation of the sports clubs to bring them together and develop a sense of team spirit around support with a uniformed approach to team kit.

The University in conjunction with the Students’ Union rose 19 places in the BUCS league tables last year which demonstrates that we are moving in the right direction with sport. The Students’ Union also played a signi�cant role in securing planning permission for the new sports facilities which will drastically improve the student experience in this area from 2012.

drastically increasing in their number to 212 We have also continued to implement our funding accreditation

system whereby we reward active societies with increased funding if they have taken part in various actions or

achieved various things over the year, to encourage societies to be even more active.

Societies have also improved

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drastically increasing in their number to 212 We have also continued to implement our funding accreditation

system whereby we reward active societies with increased funding if they have taken part in various actions or

achieved various things over the year, to encourage societies to be even more active.


We have three media groups, LUSH radio, LUST television and the Ripple, the Students Newspaper. Our e�orts last year were to try and get them

to work together close and to coordinate publications to improve quality. Part of this approach was to place them together within a Media Suite

so they could all work together. All media groups published more content than ever before last year, covering many events and reaching out to a

large number of students.

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We have three media groups, LUSH radio, LUST television and the Ripple, the Students Newspaper. Our e�orts last year were to try and get them

to work together close and to coordinate publications to improve quality. Part of this approach was to place them together within a Media Suite

so they could all work together. All media groups published more content than ever before last year, covering many events and reaching out to a

large number of students.

OUR SERVICES & FACILITIESwww.leicesterunion.com

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CONFERENCES&

EVENTS

PERCY GEE


The Union's trading subsidiary operates a number of trading operation including: a live music venue; two shops; a bar; a restaurant; Starbucks franchise and a conference trade. This was the �rst year of operation for most of these activities. A trading surplus of

£20,461was achieved through the year

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EXPENDITURE www.leicesterunion.com

IncomeBars & Live Music..........................Restaurant & Shops.....................External Sales.................................University Grants..........................Sports Grants & Societies..........Student Activities.........................

£1,463,644£1,182,648£230,562£1,315,655£81,892£214,284

Stock & live music costs.........................Student Wages..........................................

...................................Building Maintenance............................Campaigns & Communications..........Student Services.......................................Education & Representation................Trading Expenses.....................................Governance................................................Finance & Administration......................

£1,268,655£481,007£326,979£375,042£57,434£616,940£94,774£489,338£332,568£255,531

Expenditure


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5%

33%

26%

29%

5%

2%

30%

11%

8%9%

14%

11%

8%6%

2%

1%


LOOKING FORWARD

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