Presidents Report to Executive Board

1
Presidents Report to Executive Board

• 22 April 2008
• Alex Collins
• Union President

2
How did we get here?

• Council
• Clear issues
• Direction / action
• Exec Board

3
Success

• Communication
• Elections
• Community Relations
• University relations
• Financially robust
• NSS feedback rate

4
Communications

• Website
• Sept 07 100k
• Now Over 850k hits per month
• Face to face
• Over 2500 students in first month
• Marketing
• New design and media coordinator
• Personal approach

5
GU2 Radio
6
Elections
7
University relations

• Great working relations
• Well represented in committee structure
• Bookshop

8
USSU Financial Performance

• Solid
• Bookshop and Oriental food Shop
• ButSome big capital expenditure planned
• Chancellors - 200k
• HRB - 150k

9
National Student Survey

• Surrey University Students' Union say "...the key
  thing at Surrey is the 100 collaboration between
  the University and the Students' Union.
• After 6 weeks they introduced an incentive based
  around graduation, which would apply to students
  in the final year, who the survey is aimed at.

• National Coverage (NUS)
• NSS High flyers Top three unions share their
  secrets... 1.      University of Surrey! -  A
  massive 73 of students have completed the NSS
  this year at the University of Surrey, with a
  higher percentage of students completing the
  survey than at any other UK university.

10
Challenges

• University relations
• Teaching and Learning
• Assessment and Feedback
• Commercial operations
• Academic year
• Growth

11
University relations

• Formal vs informal
• Historical actions affect the future
• Miss out on planning / strategy
• No commercial tie-up
• Estates and Facilities
• Timescales
• Cost
• communication

12
Progress
We have started discussions regarding the future
of the Students Union DVC and President put
together a paper for May Exec Board.
13
T L

• Assessment and Feedback
• Engaging academic community
• Buy-in
• Promoting best practice
• Further standardisation required
• Feedback on work
• SCEQ

• Contact Time
• Accessibility

14
Feedback?On work / From Students
1
15
Trading/Commercial Operations

• Complementary or Competition?
• 1 pot or unlimited?
• Ahead or behind?

16
Academic Year

• Mixed reviews from student body
• Change resistant?
• Best fit model.
• The PTY Implication
• What will the effect on Jobs be?

17
Growth

• Accomodation
• Library
• Teaching facilities
• Social Space
• Sports
• Union

18
Feedback

• Not enough resources.
• I think the University should invest more in the
  relationship with the students.
• Tutors should at least pretend that they care
  about their students, that they are available,
  and that they can help. Whenever I need an
  appointment, it is always hard to get them, and
  when I do, I am only given 10 minutes - if I have
  a very big problem, it is impossible to solve it
  in 10 minutes. Generally, the way I was treated
  by teachers and tutors was not very pleasant, and
  left a bad feeling/memory for me about the
  University.
• Lack of space
• It would be better if we got our completed work
  back sooner
• Would prefer if I had more feedback on exam
  answers and coursework.
• The negative attitude and disinterest of some of
  the key staff within the University
• Assignments could have been marked with comments
  explaining positives and negatives. This would
  avoid similar mistakes in following assignments.
• Timetable clashes can be left for weeks without
  being resolved.
• The same problems resurface every year and
  nothing is done to rectify them. It is my feeling
  that the individuals involved in this process, at
  best, lack foresight and at worst, have complete
  disregard for students' concerns, welfare and
  development.
• the lecturers are mostly unavailable in person.
• Student's feedback with regard to satisfaction
  with lecturers was often ignored.

19
Future

• Continued growth challenges
• Expectation management
• Union Building
• Unfit for purpose
• Negative S.E
• Tackle TL head on
• Timetabling
• Culture

Quality Professionalism
20
What the union/students needs

• New Building / suitable facilities
• Commercial cohesion / understanding
• Clearer future / trust
• Standardisation / A F (2)
• University wide understanding of representative
  structure