Nottingham Trent University Students’ Union
Nottingham Trent Students’ Union pick up the Higher Education Award
Winner - Higher Education Students’ Union Award
1. How has the union ensured that it meets the needs of its members?
In September NTSU embarked upon the first year of our strategic plan, having consulted with over 2500 members in the process of creating our vision for the next three years, identifying student groups requiring further focus from the organisation. At the end of this first year, we have secured funding for development of our facilities at our third campus and have embarked upon an institution-wide survey to assess our progress from the student perspective.
On the strength of our strategic research, we were invited by the new Vice-Chancellor to contribute to the University’s “Creating a 21st Century University” project. The Union’s final report – incorporating views from around 6,000 members gathered through surveys, focus groups, workshops and interactive polls – has been held up as an example to other stakeholders. The issues highlighted by students now form the backbone of the University’s new strategic vision.
In the run up to GE2015, NTSU was keen to ensure that the needs of Nottingham students – 1 in 7 of the Nottingham population – were heard and reflected in the work of local politicians. Joining with two other Nottingham students’ unions, with a combined representative force of over 85,000 students across Further and Higher Education, we embarked on creating the “Notts Student Manifesto”. With support from the NUS Community Organising Innovation Fund, members from all three institutions engaged hundreds of their peers in listening activities to draw up a list of student asks that the Unions have been campaigning around since.
2. How have the activities of the union resulted in a positive impact for students and the community?
The Notts Student Manifesto, developed to support our work around GE2015, has prompted a range of campaign actions around local student issues. Most notably, the “Light the Way to Brackenhurst” campaign around pedestrian safety on the route to our rural campus has initiated productive dialogue between local elected representatives, students, the University, and the local community. Improvements to this route now seem certain.
NTSU has achieved a number of tangible positive outcomes for students: lobbied the University’s accommodation department to hold a binding Union Cloud referendum on replacing the unreliable charter bus service to outlying Halls with a local bus pass; confronted widespread deposit deductions imposed on hundreds of students by the University’s preferred accommodation provider, recovering an estimated £30,000 for members; fought for the University to provide two free graduation tickets per student, previously priced at £25 each; challenged cuts to library opening hours that had been implemented without consultation, which significantly disadvantaged members who study outside of standard term time and weekday hours to better cater for postgraduate and part-time students.
In the recent Higher Education Review the QAA noted as good practice “the partnership between the University and the Students’ Union which effectively responds to the diverse and complex needs of the student body to ensure students are engaged individually and collectively”. We are particularly proud of the research undertaken for the “21st Century University” project that has resulted in student feedback forming the core of the body of research for the University’s new strategic plan.
3. What steps has the union taken over the last year to ensure that the democratic processes that are used to make decisions are open and inclusive?
This year for the first time, NTSU held all of our elections online through Union Cloud. This was an important move for us, ensuring that all elected positions – whether they be full-time sabbatical officers or club/society committee position holders – are accountable to their members and demystifying our democratic procedures for thousands of students. In our 2015 elections period, over 800 positions were elected online, resulting in another record-breaking turnout at NTSU, and notably a massive increase in the number of students and range of backgrounds running for the position of NUS Delegate. In addition we have used our expertise to promote such open and inclusive democratic processes in other unions through the secondment of our Membership Engagement Manager to NUS. He has provided intensive support to a number of other unions to assist them in their own elections.
Using the digital platform’s Student Voice module, we have also opened up the “Big Ideas” that students submit to our democratic forums to peer review, with one idea receiving a massive 640 interactions in just one month. We have also utilised the digital platform to stream all of our Union meetings which has caught the imagination of our student led media outlets, leading to the most student-led executive election coverage in Trent’s history. We have even utilised the online referendum to inform our campaigning work, evidencing the strength of feeling in specific areas in which we are representing students here at Nottingham Trent.
4. How is the union perceived by its members, stakeholders, officers and staff, and what is it doing to improve its perception?
In 2014 we increased our National Student Survey Q23 score by eleven percentage points, placing us 10th in the 2014 league table. We were also recently ranked 3rd best Students’ Union in the WhatUni Student Choice Awards 2015. Our new strategic plan focuses on ensuring that we are a confident voice for all our members and as such we hope to see this score increase in the future.
As mentioned above, the University has praised the quality of input of the Union to their new strategic plan. The QAA have also commented upon the success of this partnership for student engagement in the recent Higher Education Review. Now embedded in the University’s new strategic plan, this partnership and the resultant positive impacts for our members can only continue to grow.
Having been recognised as Officer Team of the Year in 2014, this year saw our part-time student officer roles filled for first time in years. Our Officers also submitted policy ratified by the membership to NUS Conference with a view to defending student representation in the areas of sports and Halls of Residence where increasingly predatory commercial contracts can jeopardise this function.
We are equally well regarded by our own staff: NTSU scored 98% staff satisfaction in the NUS Staff Engagement Survey 2014, the first year that we engaged in the survey. In 2015 we opened this out to our 200+ student staff, returning a satisfaction rate of 90% from this larger sample, twelve percentage points higher than the average.
Nominated by Amy McLaughlan, Students’ Union Staff
What the judges said…
“Real evidence of success. From campaign outcomes on specific issues to QAA and rankings. Engaged, relevant, valued.” Andy Westwood