One of the less discussed impacts of the rise of mental health issues amongst students and graduates is the impact this is starting to have on our staff teams in SUs. In particular we have identified resilience in the face of setbacks as a key concerns for us across our staff and the need to develop […]
If by the end of the election students haven’t been discussing issues, their interests and the way their interests have to be negotiated with others collectively, what was the point?
In students’ unions, General Meetings and Union Councils have been the staple of policy making for decades; and before mass electronic communication became common place, these meetings were the easiest way of gathering opinion, debating topics, and voting on policies. In this piece a former MMU sabb argues that Q26 and technology may mean that […]
After all, as we all know locally- it’s not an either/or, and when satisfaction metrics and elected reps combine we know that magic happens and the student experience gets better.
I can promise that getting ourselves out of the lazy idea that researchers or elected officers are the ones that should be talking to students and gathering data can improve culture and tool our officers up with rapid insights that can set the agenda on the student experience.
Too much enforcement in colleges will not teach, but police students—destroying the educational mission we are trying to protect
The process of incorporation can take some months and will take up valuable staff time, particularly the due diligence process. However the benefits, particularly the protection from liability for trustees, usually makes it worthwhile in the long run.
Here NUS Development Consultant and Governance Expert Al Powell explains why he thinks that career staff in students’ unions should be charity trustees. Trusteeship and governance are talked about a lot in the student movement- and for all the right reasons. Students’ unions set an excellent example of how to run charities, but we don’t […]
Look. Compared to the “real world”, working in Students’ Unions seems rewarding and fun. It always has, but more so as we enter 2017. There are after all real reasons to be cheerful. Block grants are up. Finances have stablilised. Just twelve months ago the Government had aligned SUs with Trade Unions and challenged us […]
With greater funding, unions were more autonomous in the SU-Uni relationship; it found that smaller unions, or those with smaller grants/uni funds, were particularly inhibited and had a far higher proportion of restrictions attached to funding
