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

Strategic plan and amendments to the constitution

We are currently working on a new strategic plan for the SU, determining the direction in which the Union should head towards in the next few years. Some of you might be aware of this and have helped us by filling out the Outreach Survey. We are also working towards improving our constitution, which unfortunately has a few black holes, and should hopefully be finished by the end of this academic year.

Faculty Re-structure and its affect on our Rep system

As most of you may have heard by now, the faculties are going down in numbers, from 10 to 5. This in turn affects how the rep system works and ensures student representation on committees' faculty and university wide. We are currently consulting with current reps and the Academic Registrar on what changes are required to achieve an affective and adequate rep system.

The Buzz words

One of the four things guaranteed to be mentioned in any meeting; Student Experience, Knowledge exchange, Research and UWE Federation. This is the frame work being used to implement all changes within the university. The Student Experience being the priority at the moment. This basically is looking at ways in which students' benefit from and enjoy the time they spend at UWE. Things such as the round table module, the employability group, welcome weekend are examples of what is being done to achieve this. We are involved in these discussions and decisions being made.

Employability

This is a group which is discussing ways in which employment prospects can be improved. Along with various people from the University and me the group also includes some students and Alan, the SU member of staff who runs our Jobshop. So far there have been some interesting developments. We have developed a 'straw person' who would be an ideal graduate and discussed ways in which we can ensure that all students get the support to achieve this. There are interviews being held with various employers on what they are looking for when interviewing and considering people for employment. We are also looking at ways by which there are placement prospects for students in all courses, as well as providing information to all students about what opportunities they have after finishing their degree. This is to help them plan their next step towards their future.

Library

The library is piloting an eating and drinking policy, basically students will be allowed to eat and drink in certain areas of the library at Frenchay. If it is unmanageable then it will discontinue but if students are considerate, and clean up after themselves, they will think about making it permanent and possibly doing the same at other libraries. Also, there has been several complaints about the fact that the bar codes on certain University cards have worn out and that student's cant swipe in. The Head of Library services is in talks to see whether the library could look into replacing cards with such damage. If cards are lost or broken they will definitely not be replaced as the card is not the libraries responsibility, the only thing that they need is the bar code on it.

National Student Survey

The Union is working with the university to come up with ways to promote the NSS, this is a survey sent out to every student in the country who are in their final year of university. This is an important survey which will help the university find out what they are doing right and what needs changing. You'll hear more on that next term.

Site surgeries

Going to all the other campuses and speaking to students has been really good. It not only helps us understand what is going on it also gets us out of meetings and Frenchay. I look forward to site visits next term.

Reports for next term

I am working on two reports to be submitted to the Learning, Teaching and Assessment Committee next term. One is on printing cost; having had numerous complaints on the money people spend on printing, it has been decided that a report needs to be submitted. The other one is on learning skills for people with dyslexia, its which could even benefit majority of students, including helping international students with their English.

If you want to contact me please email me at src.vicepresident@uwe.ac.uk , or you can call me on 0117 32 82555.