Anglia Ruskin Students' Union

 Check out the video below

 

 

How are we putting you first?

 

We have improved the branding of the Students’ Union so you know how and where to find us

 

The Union’s logo, including the tag line ‘putting you first’, is placed onto every piece of publicity

 

All student staff, sabbatical officers and part-time officers now wear blue hoodies or t-shirts so they are easily identified

 

We bought rollup banners and tablecloths so you could pick us out at the fresher’s fairs and for future campaigns

 

The SU offices have been painted in the students’ union colours (red & blue) so you can spot them from afar!

 

We are becoming nationally recognised through the training and support of our student reps

 

At the National Zone Conference Nick Berg presented on our Quality Monitoring process

 

Quality Assurance Agency (the Ofsted for universities) and the National Union of Students regards our Student Written Submission as an area of best practice in the country

 

University of East Anglia SU and University of Leicester SU, amongst others, have visited us in the past year to discuss how we run and support representation and a number of others have sought advice on representation via email.

 

Liverpool Guild of Students are visiting us to discuss our Quality Monitoring

 

The National Union of Students’ regards our National Student Survey analysis as best practice and shares this with other Unions all over the UK

 

Lucy Davidson, a student rep from Chelmsford, was nominated for the NUS Student of the Year Award 2009

 

By representing you on university committees the sabbatical officer have defended your right to a hearing and ensured you don’t pay for re-sits

 

Sabbatical Officers spent 673 hours in over 30 different University committees in 2008/09 on a number of different topics, including the Cambridge campus redevelopment and timetabling, ensuring the student voice was, and always is, put first

 

Through these committees we were able to ensure that students have the right to a hearing if they appeal

 

The University also suggested that students should pay to take re-sits. Because the Students’ Union had representatives on the committees at which this topic was raised we were able to fight for your right to free re-sits.

 

We have become nationally recognised for campaigning on your behalf

 

The success of last years ‘Students in the red: day of action’ campaign against an increase in Higher Education funding led to national days of action on this issue in the form of ‘Town Takeovers’ organised by the National Union of Students

 

Due to the Students’ Union campaign in 2009 more students, including a record number from the Health and Social Care Faculty filled out the National Student Survey. The holiday themed campaign won the Ipsosmori award for NSS campaign of the year

 

The union was awarded with the National Union of Students’ campaign of the year 2009 title after judges described our campaigns as ‘student led’ and ‘innovative & creative’

 

We are recognising the importance of student staff through the annual student staff survey, regular meetings and one2one appraisals

 

We have introduced a new ‘one2one’ staff form and all student staff will receive a minimum of two ‘one2one’ meetings a year.

 

Departments now hold regular meetings and all student staff are invited to two annual meetings held by the President and the GM to discuss the Union, and any issues arising form the Annual Student Staff Survey. 

 

As a result of the annual student staff survey we have changed student wages back from monthly to weekly, introduced the ‘one2one’s’ and opportunities to feedback through the meetings.

 

We now organise two annual Student Staff social events on each campus for staff to attend and socialise.

 

More students are participating in clubs and societies, campaigns, elections and representation then ever before

 

In 2009 votes in the elections increased by 100%

 

Since September we have more then doubled the amount of sports federation cards being sold in Cambridge, which shows more students are taking part in sports

 

The number of student reps and student reps attending training has increased on all four campuses

 

Over 1000 students voted in the 2009 opinion poll to decide the priority campaign for the year ahead. This a 100% increase on the amount of students that voted in the opinion poll in 2008.

 

We have improved the way we inform and listen to you through GOATing, a more interactive website, the opinion poll and the annual student survey

 

The sabbatical and part-time officers set fortnightly timetables to go out and talk to students

 

Last year, the officers spent 687 hours out of the office and talking to students

 

Key performance indicators have been set to ensure that all officers are talking to high amounts of students with specific questions in mind to gain good quality feedback

 

The website has been redesigned and it now allows you to submit direct comments or questions to the students’ union online

 

The opinion poll is now written into policy and it must be undertaken in the first four weeks of term in the first semester to allow students to choose the priority campaign

 

The annual student survey was started in 2008 and it allows students to give anonymous, honest feedback about the union and its services

 

We employed staff at Peterborough and Fulbourn to give students representation

 

Chrissie Smith (Fulbourn) and Alison Sutton (Peterborough), both employed in October 2008, support students on their specific campus

 

Chrissie and Alison are also responsible for the administration of the student representative structures on both campuses

 

The SU offices are now open on both campuses to be the first port of call for any student studying in Peterborough or Fulbourn

 

We are focussing on our core services to provide you with better representation, student activities and advice

 

We have created an Advice Service in Chelmsford that is more easily accessible for all students

 

The Advice Service in Chelmsford is now open longer because we campaigned to the university for funding to extend the hours of one of our advisers

 

In Cambridge we have built a bigger and better gym which is used by more students than ever before

 

Students’ Union staff have been restructured to ensure support is given to students in the areas they need it most. We have employed a part-time student activities coordinator in Chelmsford to support clubs, societies and any other student activities. We have also employed a communications coordinator to ensure we are communicating with you as effectively as we can be.

 

Representation is one of the most fundamental reasons to the union’s existence so we have reviewed our rep structures, condensed the training and made it more interesting, as well as setting service standards with the university and spent more time recruiting students to be representatives.

 

We are putting Anglia Ruskin University on the map

 

Winner of NUS Higher Education Campaign of the year

 

Winner of the National Student Survey Campaign of the Year

 

Runners up Students’ Union of the year 2009,