ANNUAL REVIEW2011/2012

WE EXIST TO ENHANCE OUR STUDENTS’ EXPERIENCES AND HAVE A POSITIVE IMPACT ON THEIR LIVES

The Annual Review 2011/2012 is an opportunity to reflect on the Union’s activity throughout the year, assessing how it dealt with the challenges of a rapidly changing higher education sector and an ever-changing membership body. We will celebrate the accomplishments the Union has worked so hard to achieve and acknowledge any missteps that may have occurred, so to avoid these in the future. It has been a difficult year for the Union but this will not stop our dedication to positively impacting on and enhancing the lives of every Birmingham City University student.

The Higher Education White Paper has changed the way we look at education. The cuts to education have affected everyone, including the Union. During this time we elected to undergo a strategic review to guarantee the Union was ready for the future climate of the HE sector. The process involved a strategic survey across our whole membership body. Conducted by Redbrick Research, this gave us an insight and confirmation of new issues to tackle and problems we already faced. It was also an opportunity to praise our successes and see how relevant the Union really is when focused on the correct areas.

Every student at Birmingham City University, whether they are part time or full time, is automatically a member of Birmingham City Students’ Union.

The Union is a registered charity - this means that all the profit made from our outlets and other services is directly reinvested into students.

WELCOME

RELEVANT & ACCESSIBLE

Made it easier to create new Societies - 109% increase in Student Groups through simplifying the process and increasing campus presence.

STUDENT LED & STUDENT FOCUSED

One of the key goals we have always set out to achieve as a Union is to create a banquet of opportunities to enhance our member’s experiences as they study at University. This ranges from volunteering schemes, sports clubs, societies and anything extra curricular that comes our way. We aim to create a personal sense of belonging for the students who study with us, allowing them to maximize the chances of employment and make the most of their time with us.

This year has seen a 68% increase in student volunteers compared to last year.

We now have students registered with over 20 external organisations. Student-Led Volunteering has continued to grow with First Aid Africa once again being over subscribed

with applicants, with 20 students heading out to Africa in the summer. A new student-led volunteering project, ‘Kids Adventure’, will be looking after young social service referrals for an activity adventure week providing pastoral support and developing their confidence.

The Unions ‘Student Activities Department’ have fully participated in the NUS Be a Champion Scheme and have been awarded the Silver Olympic Accreditation Award for its work with the Be a Champion programme in the run up to London 2012. The award recognises the commitment shown by the Union to Olympic activities. These include Olympics Week and the visit of the official Olympic Torch in October last year, which attracted over 1000 people.

OPPORTUNITIES

Increase in Societies Membership - 59% increase in Society membership.

Demand for societies is increasing with 1544 members officially signed up and 35 new Student Groups. It is delightful to see so many students taking the initiative to set up new societies and for so many students to be active within them. Even more encouraging is that the number of Student groups based at other campuses has increased considerably, both at City South and City Centre.

150% increase in individual athletes competing in BUCS Championships including Athletics, Cross Country, Judo and Archery.

The Union successfully won funding from the RFU to run a community project involving increasing participation of rugby in local schools whilst at the same time coaching our rugby players to level 1 standard. This project achieved an Olympics Inspired Mark.

ALUMNI RELATIONSFor the second consecutive year the Union has held an alumni weekend with around 200 alumni returning to BCU to socialise, network and participate in sports including; hockey, cricket, football, rugby, basketball and netball. This is a fantastic opportunity for our current students to see what our alumni have done post University.

As one of the core departments within the Union, enabling R&D to go from strength to strength is of utmost importance. Within R&D, one of the key processes is electing the Sabbatical team who will go on to be the student leaders of the Union. This year saw a rise to 15 candidates in the elections, significantly more on previous years. 1485 individual students voted in the elections from a diverse range of our student body.

We have seen an increase in access with candidates being from a much wider demographic, proving that the Union really is accessible to all. With a continued focus on hard to reach groups, we have organised 5 separate events for student parents across the year, significantly increasing our engagement with

these students in comparison to previous years.

This year has seen the recruitment of a new student intern, looking into the Universities Student Partnership Agreement and Student Charter. Enabling us to see what both parties expect from each other and help to form a partnership agreement that benefits both students and the University going forward.

With the introduction of our new code of practice, we have trained and supported over 200 Student Course Representatives. This is a significant improvement on previous years. This allows us to truly represent student voice and tackle issues as they arise, putting students at the forefront of their own learning. Supporting this

REPRESENTATION & DEMOCRACY

FRIENDLY, WELCOMING & INCLUSIVE

has been the senior rep scheme, giving first year reps the opportunity to grow on their experience and increase their employment prospects.Last year saw the launch of our Academic Manifesto, a series of points raised from a survey on academia at the University. We have used this document, available online, to campaign on these issues at University Senate. We can happily say that most of the points on the manifesto have either been solved or are in the process of being changed at the University.

ADVICEAdvice is another core department at the Students’ Union. It acts as the autonomous, independent advice service on any issue students are having during their time at University.

This year we have dealt with nearly 1000 individual cases, 78% of these being academic issues such as exceptional circumstances, plagiarism and complaints. 12% of cases were money related, 8% housing cases and 2% around consumer and immigration.

The increase in academic issues has been a trend over a few years and we are preparing this to be the case with the introduction of increased fees in 2012. We believe increased fees will cause students to become more conscious of the service provided by the University, which may increase the number of complaints and enquiries around the issue. It will also inevitably increase the amount of support we offer around financial management, budgeting and access funds available.

SUPPORTIVE, REPRESENTATIVE

& RESPONSIVE

WE WILL POSITIVELY IMPACT ON AND ENHANCE THE LIVES OF EVERY BIRMINGHAM CITY UNIVERSITY STUDENT

Many students returning from summer and Christmas will have seen significant changes on their campus, regarding Union facilities. City North saw the refurbishment of Bar 42 into Lounge North. A highly appreciated contribution from the University gave us the opportunity to completely refit the bar, to make a more progressive and adaptable space. Lounge North now has full conferencing facilities and a function room available - free to students and university staff. We have also taken the opportunity to bring in additional revenue offering our conferencing facilities to external companies including the REP theatre and NUS. The refurbishment helped towards a 71% increase in hot food sales - which is fantastic for the Union.December saw the start of the refurbishment to the City South office space for the Union. Traditionally,

the Union did not have a space relative or flexible enough to allow staff to work effectively. As part of the redevelopment of Seacole Building, the Union office and shop were expanded to fall in line with the needs of the students on campus. Now the Union has a brand new, modern glass fronted office, which truly is accessible by all. This has allowed staff to be based on site more permanently, addressing student needs as they arise instead of when they reach the right desk. As a part of this a new, free-to-use, cashpoint was installed on campus. Even though this will lead to a loss of income to the Union, this was far outweighed by the request for one on campus. The Graduation Ball has gone from strength to strength, since the Union set out to rectify the lack of a Grad

SUPPORT & SERVICES

INNOVATIVE, PROGRESSIVE & ADAPTABLE

251% increase in total beds available to our students.

The rapid growth of Birmingham City Student Homes will see the Union as the primary provider of accommodation for students at Birmingham City University.

13,000 students at freshers events generating an income of £66,411.

ball at the University. This year has seen 50 more tickets added to accommodate for demand. The event almost immediately sold out.

This year’s Freshers’ Week followed the trend of being bigger than ever with 13,000 students at freshers events. The Union managed to increase ticket sales by £5k generating an impressive income of £66,411.

After only being in its second year of operation, Birmingham City Student Homes has grown considerably. It has seen a 156% increase in houses let to our students which contributes to a 251% increase in total beds let. 35 houses have already been re-let for next year covering a total of 121 beds. The overall capacity of Birmingham City Student Homes sits at 142 properties. This

covers approximately 370 beds. This gives us the opportunity to provide 370 students with the best accommodation service available to them whilst studying at Birmingham City University.

Birmingham City Student Homes now has a vast network of reliable, student-friendly landlords. It also has a great relationship with all the main private accommodation providers in Birmingham including, Unite, CRM, Opel1 and Evenbrook. These unique features allow our letting agency to be the first choice for students, providing safe, reliable, quality property allowing students to concentrate on their degrees and forget the worries housing can cause.Birmingham City Student Homes also saw the launch of their first Student Property Newspaper,

providing advice and information to students interested in housing during their studies. It also gives us the opportunity to advertise properties and accommodation at a premium rate to the owners, bringing in additional funding for the Union. The letting agency has also seen its presence increase to nearly every campus. Using innovative I.T equipment, the Union has managed to provide property search and enquiry at sites permanently. Such initiatives allow Union presence without a physical member of staff. This is fantastic for the broad range of campuses at the University.

To see a new service grow so rapidly really expresses the opportunities the Union has to launch new and relevant services that concentrate on student needs.

With the introduction of Question 23, the question on the National Student Survey about Students’ Unions, we have had to re-evaluate our engagement channels with our members. With significant investment in improving the visual presence of the Union on all campuses, the next step was to simplify as many of our processes to enable them to be as student friendly as possible.

Significant improvements to the website have seen an impressive 826,456 unique page views last year with 34,460 during April 2012. A restructure of our marketing department has allowed us to improve our efficiency by recruiting

more student staff specializing in key areas. They use knowledge they gain whilst studying to improve our work processes and allow us to be up to date with the industry demands they are being taught daily.

Our Social Media Officer has enabled the Union to vastly increase its online presence and seeing our social media activity double since their inclusion within the staffing team. It has seen post views on occasion increase as much as 919% with dramatic spikes of interaction around Freshers’ week. We will be using this to maintain a bank of users who regularly gain information via this channel.

ENGAGEMENT

This year we have been removing barriers to make it easier for students to engage with the Union.

Facebook Interactions

Facebook Interactions

This year we have seen a push to improve recognition of those both within the Union and also within the University. We received a grant from NUS and the HEA to launch the Extra Mile Awards. These give students the opportunity to recognise the members of staff (academic and support staff) who go ‘the extra mile’ in their efforts to provide students with a great student experience.

As well as providing the individual staff who are nominated with recognition, the awards allow us to promote good teaching practice across the University. We are including our annual Student Rep Awards alongside the staff awards. These are open for all staff and students to nominate a course or faculty Rep they feel has gone ‘the extra mile’ in their work for students.

The Extra Mile Awards are not a popularity contest - they will be given out not based on how many nominations an individual gets, but on what the nomination(s) say about them. We want to recognise the best staff no matter how many students they teach.

Students have been involved in developing the criteria for each award, and the judging panel was composed of students from across the faculties.

175 nominations were received from across the University, with good coverage from each Faculty.

The Awards have been organised into the following categories:

Student Rep AwardSupport Staff Member who goes the Extra MilePersonal / Placement Tutor who goes the Extra MileExtra Innovative Use of TechnologiesExtra Employment Oriented TeachingExtra Quality FeedbackExtra Creative and Engaging TeachingExtra Support for Students

ABOVE & BEYOND

After undergoing the process of strategic review, the Union now has a clear vision for what we wish to achieve in the future. The climate we work in is an unpredictable one, changing daily and unclear at the best of times. However, the Union is more than capable of staying afloat in such rough seas as it has done so well in previous years. The strategic review has presented a path to follow to allow us to deliver a Union that impacts on the lives of every student that passes through our membership, with ‘no’ only being an answer to the question ‘Is there anything you can’t help me with?’.

The future for the Union is a bright one, with clear vision and goals. It is one with students at the heart, whilst being relevant, accessible and forward thinking. It is one that every

student at Birmingham City University will want to be involved in, giving them the skills they need for the challenges in life and helping them prepare for their own futures. We aim high but we can always aim higher. As a constantly evolving Union, we actively encourage students to get involved in every aspect of the Union. This could range from being a course rep, being involved in ents crew, joining a sports team or just wearing one of our hoodies. We aim to be at the core of student life, helping every step of the way.

LOOKING AHEAD

‘NO’ IS THE ONLY ANSWER TO THE QUESTION ‘IS THERE ANYTHING YOU CAN’T HELP ME WITH?’

© 2011 Birmingham City Students’ Union Company: 3426445. Franchise Street Birmingham B42 2SU