Ravensbourne Students’ Union (RSU) is based in North Greenwich, London. Ravensbourne has approximately 1800 students studying courses ranging from Architecture and Fashion to Broadcasting and Design. As of last year RSU gained its first full-time sabbatical President and part-time Administrator - but this was not easy to achieve.

The First Sabbatical

My name is Bryony Acketts, and I’m RSU’s first full-time President. With my time at RSU almost over, I’m proud to say my team and I have achieved some great things over the last year.

Ravensbourne was founded in 1962 and originally located in Chislehurst, Kent. In 2010 Ravensbourne relocated to the Greenwich Peninsula, footsteps away from the O2 arena. Although the move was beneficial in profound ways, some students felt unsettled and reminiscent; which made reforming a student union very challenging.

In 2012 Ravensbourne’s Student Parliament voted for a sabbatical President for this academic year in order to cater to the growing needs and numbers of students, and in doing so hoping to make Ravensbourne a better place for everyone. I believe this year we have not only made Ravensbourne a better place but we have finally established a sustainable small and specialist students’ union (SSU).

60% Increase in RSU’s Block Grant

Until this academic year the block grant given to RSU was never more than £55k, however despite this we worked together to create a strategic plan for a new sustainable RSU with direction and vision for the coming years. In this plan we budgeted for everything we would need to achieve this, and then I met with Ravensbourne’s Board of Governors at the beginning of this academic year. I put forward my budget proposal, strategic plan and presentation formulated from much hard work and research, some of which was compiled from fellow SSU’s and NUS. The new block grant of £116,545 and strategic plan was approved by the Governors unanimously and as a result not only were the following successes possible but our RSU was finally in a position to lay down some foundations.

Admin & RSU HQ

This year one of our objectives was to create a functioning RSU HQ. Between 2010 and 2012 the RSU area was an empty space with a table in the corner, but we have now furnished the area and provided student support materials, including a ‘student essentials’ vending machine! From the feedback we received from Student Parliament in the previous year we knew it wouldn’t be enough to simply have a full-time President. In our strategic plan we included the appointment of a part-time Administrator and a desk for the SU, someone who could work 3 days a week in a student-facing role. The governors approved this and our admin has been working beside us to ensure students are getting the support they need when they visit the SU.

Gold Green Impact Award & Ben and Jerry’s

This year Sustainability Officer Rumil Shah set an objective in our strategic plan to carry on the good work of the previous officer and improve our sustainability with a gold green impact award.

Rumil had to carefully plan and monitor the student union’s carbon footprint. We bought plants for the office and kept travel logs that helped Rumil to reach his objective and win the award. He also managed to gain us Fairtrade status! We believe that in doing this Rumil has inspired many students to be more sustainable.

Rumil recently advertised a competition by Ben and Jerry’s to sign their petition against animal cruelty – which our university won.

EU Reps

This year we received feedback through Student Liaison Committees (SLCs) and parliament from international students, particularly those from the EU, who felt they didn’t have enough support from Ravensbourne. In response to this our Welfare Officer, Lily Ly, conducted interviews and selected 2 EU reps to represent our international students.

Student Charter

The SU and Head of Student Experience at Ravensbourne worked together to organise weekly meetings with students and staff to construct a student charter. Once it was completed, our Scriptwriting course developed it so that it could be shot and edited by students on our Production course. Students from a wide range of disciplines at Ravensbourne collaborated on this visual version of the student charter, which will be remade each year into further visual pieces whether they are motion graphics or animation, in-turn engaging students in the promises made; creating something that can be widely understood.

Student Representative Support and Training

The new RSU team will be trained themselves to train student representatives for next year, whilst the team and I are also creating a podcast and video series for next year’s induction.

Societies & Events

We influenced an increase in societies and their members, and secured bigger venues and bigger acts for RSU events. Even with the loss of our Events Officer before the start of the year, Freshers was a huge success.

NSS Awareness

We arranged for our institution’s Governors to come and visit our students to discuss 2012’s NSS results. The students were thrilled to see their comments were taken on board and this year, thanks to the NSS Awareness sessions and Vlogs hosted by my team, we have had more students participate in the survey than the year before!

Revised RSU Roles, Online Voting and Handover Pack

The team and I responded to student feedback and as a result we are beginning to establish student social events, which we have created an officer role for, whilst we have also created a Fundraising and Charities Officer. The voting was carried out online for the first time at Ravensbourne and we had over 15% of our student body vote; a new record! We are now in the process of creating an RSU Handbook for the first time – so my team and I can leave our roles knowing we have done all we can this year to create a sustainable future for RSU, and winning this award will give my team the recognition they deserve.