End of Term 1 Report by SRC President - 2006-07

University

UWE is currently experiencing a massive operational and cultural shift that is lead by the new Vice-Chancellor, Sir Howard Newby. The main focus the University is driving towards is 'Student Experience'. This has come very clear in many changes that are already implemented, and to ensure that this goal is achieved a new role has been assigned; the Dean of Students will coordinate projects that are under the Student Experience programme.

In all the following projects, the SRC-President is involved to ensure that student representation is within every committee and programme, and that they all receive support from the University.

Round Table

This is the first University meeting/committee that I was part of when I first took office. The Round Table is a new programme the University is piloting for this year on level one, within some faculties. The aims of this programme are to facilitate students from the day they arrive as Freshers to throughout their degree, to ensure that they meet their goals, and help them build the tools they need during their employment experience.
For the academic year 2007-2008, it is planned to introduce this programme to all faculties and build on that for the other levels. It has not been decided yet whether it will be recognised as a separate module or embedded within an existing module that has a similar make-up.

Faculty Restructure

This is part of the University's strategic planning and some students could worry how this might affect them. The restructure has been mainly designed to ensure students are served with less complicated administration processes. The merge of faculties means we will have 4 faculties instead of 9 and this is aimed to take place from September 2007.

Student Charter

This is what is called the 'Student Contract' - another new development from the University. Students will be asked to sign a contract when they enrol which will highlight the University's expectation of the student and the student's expectation of the University.
This could be viewed as a positive thing, as the Charter can not only be used to hold students to account, it could also be used to build up the reputation of the University, which hopefully will ensure an increase in the standard of teaching and quality services.
SRC aims to ensure there is an agreement that has a balance in its expectation from both sides.

Student Handbook

The current design of the existing Student Handbook takes forever to go through so the University is working on a process to produce an effective student guide. One of the ideas that has been thrown on the table is for the Student Handbook to be available only electronically. I DO NOT support this idea considering the diverse range of students we have. There was also a suggestion of the Student Handbook given to students at different stages during the year i.e. when they need it.
The work on this is still in progress so I will keep you updated.

Site Surgery

You might have seen me already visiting some of the other campuses and asking some students on issues that they might be facing. The site surgery is aimed to reach out to our membership and have a one-to-one consultation.
We have managed to pick up quite a lot of issues from the numbers of students we have approached so far and we are in the process of dealing with the information. If you see me around please feel free to stop and ask your question.

Welcome Weekend/Week

This is a follow up on the Welcome Weekend the University hosted at the beginning of the academic year to welcome new arrivals.
Now the University is looking into expanding the Welcome Weekend to a Welcome Week, which will include all campuses. The Students' Union is working into embedding their induction week and Freshers' Week as an extended welcome to all new arrival and returning students.

Students' Union

Strategic Planning

The Students' Union is currently undergoing a Strategic Plan that looks into the visions and values we operate under. This involves students' consultation to get their opinions and views on board. A draft of the report will be ready by February 2007. If you wish to take part in this process we are more than happy to involve the membership.

Constitution Review

This is part of the Strategic Plan I have just mentioned. Unfortunately the current constitution is not student friendly and overcomplicates the processes the Union should operate by. The aim is to establish a constitution that is student focused and a clear guide for the Union to operate professionally.

Students' Representative Council (SRC)

So far the SRC committee have had two meetings, and I am pleased with the turn out. All the issues that have been discussed in Faculty Students Councils have been brought to SRC and actions were made.

Issues that were reported at the 5th Oct 06 meeting included:

• Reading Week
  Not all courses are entitled to reading weeks. Some of them have longer hours in lectures than some of the courses that that have reading week. The questions that were put forward are what is the purpose of a reading week and why is there inconsistency between faculties and in some cases within the faculty?

• Transportation
  UWE Shuttle: It gets packed and students end up missing their lectures as a result of that.
  First: it is not reliable, the routes are not adequate and it is very expensive.

• Car Parking
  I don't think I need to tell you what the problem is with the parking at UWE.

Issues that were reported on the 7th Dec 06 meeting included:

• Timetabling
  Mature students and students with childcare responsibilities or part jobs.

• Minimum Entitlement on Assessment Feedback
  Course feedback, personal feedback during the year and exam feedback.

• Lecture Consultation
  Some Faculties have this practice and we are trying to introduce it across all faculties.

• UWEOnline
  The system is operating well apart from delays sometimes, which are being looked into. The issue is students are still not registered on some modules and some lectures are not making the most of Blackboard by not posting the lecture materials early enough or not posting at all.

• Examination Timetables
  International students in particular are struggling when it comes to booking their flights home early enough for a cheap price.

• Faculty Merge
  Students have concerns as to how this would this affect them, considering that we are moving from large faculties to super faculties, which might cause confusion.

Representation

Records show that Reps recruited and Reps attending meeting have increased dramatically. I would like to encourage the need for representation and getting students involved.

The Union's Financial Situation

Unfortunately when all new officers took office the Students' Union was already in the red financially. With some of the bars and events not performing as well as expected, the Union started to sink deeper into the red.
This has led us into re-considering the structure of the Union. After long discussions and calculations, the decision made was that the Union is over staffed, which meant that we had to make some positions redundant.
Personally I believe that some of these positions need to come back at some point in the future and possibly as a student or student officer position.

Term 2 Projects

General Annual Meeting (AGM)

This is the yearly meeting where Student Officers and the membership gather to vote for motions submitted and answer any questions students might have. The AGM will take place on 22nd February 2007 @ 13:00 to 15:00 and lectures will be cancelled during that time. The meeting needs to be quorum for any vote on motions to be passed or decisions to be made. We plan to invite the Vice-Chancellor or a member of the senior management team to give a quick update of the University's position and answer questions put forward by students. I would like to invite you all in advance to attend this meeting; I also would like to highlight the importance of having a quorum meeting to ensure decisions are made.

Campaigns

The second term will involve many campaigns that are run by the Students' Union. These campaigns include:

• Transport
• Cultural Explosion/Awareness Campaign
• Safe Drinking and Safe Sex Campaign
• Crime and Safety

I hope you all had a good holiday and good luck with all the deadlines and exams you might have during January.