Communication Plan 2012 - 2017

Your words, our passion

Background Information

In the past,Beds SU (formally UBSU)

has been guilty of projectinga ‘Union know best’ mentality

to the student body. This has led to a degree of disengagement with some of you as you have felt your opinions

weren’t valued. Beds SU will beredirecting its communication toensure that student opinions are

placed at the entre of all that we do.

Beds SUmoved to the heart of

the campus in October 2010and this gave us a key opportunity

to reach more of you with the support and non commercial

aspects of what we do. As more students have come into the SU,

the way we listen to you and let you know what we are doing on your behalf has become much more of

a priority as we continue to widen ourparticipation.

Afternegotiations with

the University, we hav broadenedthe services we

offer by taking over themanagement of the popular

Volunteering Service from 2011. This has led to many more

students using Union services.It is a priority of the Union to

now promote these services

As identified in the Student Survey of 2012, students don’t always understand the Union’s abbreviation of UBSU. We sought more opinions and decided to rebrand and redesign our logo to fit in with the new brand of Beds SU.

We aredetermined to

reach as many of you as possible and to let you

know about what we aredoing on your behalf

and how we have listenedto what you

think.

It was also highlighted that it isimportant for students to know how the profits generated in the SU arebeing reinvested in student activities.

The rebranding of the balcony area in Luton and plans to redesign the SU in Bedford will help to make things clearer and tackle this misperception.

We know some of our space isn’t the best, and that you’d like to have a more fun and interactive SU.

We are going to put seating and social areas at the heart of our space.

We will be redesigning your SU to be much more student-friendly and a place you can relax after class. Our space will also be in-teractive to highlight what we are doing as a Union.

SO WHAT EXACTLY ARE YOU DOING FOR ME?....Well that’s a fair question.

We will be increasing our visibility across all of our sites and letting you know well in advance when we will be coming to see you and what we can offer when we’re there.

In 2012 29% of you knew who our sabbs were. We

will be looking to increase this by 3-5% every year

Our electedofficers will be more clearly

identifiable and will be out and about listening

to you more

THAT’S OK BUT..........We know that your needs change, and that sometimes we might not get it exactly right.

After all of our events and out-site visits, we will be asking you what you thought about what we’re doing and what we could do differently.

We are your Union and put your opinions at the heart of what we do.

We are aware that as a diverse student body you will want to hear from us in a variety of different ways. We will listen to what you have told us and we will work on bet-ter ways of listening and talking to you and our other partners.

We will ensure that you only receive theinformation you want, and in a format that suits you.

We will be constantly looking to new technologies to help us hear your views and experiences.

Beds SU offers a variety of volunteering opportunities to help you pick up those crucial work skills and experience to stand out from the crowd.

A significant number of you, especially mature and international students, rated employability as your top Union priority.

The Union will be redesigning our website and ensuring that there is increasedsignage on campus and electronicallyhighlighting how you can get involved.

A NICER SU WOULD BE A GOOD START

WE’RE BETTER.....CONNECTED

GETT ING A JOB WHEN I GRADUATE

At the moment 54% of you know who we are and what we do. We

will be trying to increase this by 3-5% every year

SO YOU LIKE TO HEAR ABOUT THINGS IN DIFFERENT WAYS, EH. We surveyed all of our students across our campuses in 2012 and found that there was a real difference in the waydifferent people liked to receive information

Only 15% of Aylesbury and

18% of Butterfield feel that the Union

has made a posi-tive

impact in their studies.

We want more students from

our hard to reach groups

saying that we have had apositive

contribution to their studies.

THAT’S OK BUT..........The major differences were age groups, so we will be refocussing our efforts to ensure that we keep all of you up to date with what we are doing and why we’re doing it.

You arethe group that feels we communicate

with you the best

The majority of our 18-21 year old students like to hear about events, entertainment and Beds SU

services via Facebook, email and the BREO.

We will be concentrating our resources toensure that we communicate with you via

these methods and continue to look atemerging technologies,including apps

and electronic communications.

BREO and Facbook are clearly the preference for communication, with

emails slightly behind in third.

There is no major differences to the figuresfor 18-21 year olds, but we will keep

checking with you to ensure that we are istening to you and giving you the relevant

information.

We will keep monitoring what we do to ensure that we don’t lose

touch with you.

BREO and email are clearcommunication preferences, with the

website and Facebook as lesser priorites.

We will ensure that we use official communication channels to get our

message across to you, and will workwith the University as they

develop new methodsof communicaton.

18-21YEAR OLDS

22-25YEAR OLDS

26AND ABOVE

I’VE CHANGED, SO MYPRIORITES HAVE CHANGEDWhen asked if the Union had made a positive contribution to your time atUni, 80% of you said yes or to some extent. We were pleased with this, but this differed depending on where you studied

Half of students surveyed said that the Union had ‘to some degree’ had a positive impact on their time

at Uni.

We want to move 3-5% every year into the ‘yes, the Union has had a positive im-pact on my time at

Uni’ category. THAT’S OK BUT..........

We will be ensuring that we reach more of you through a variety of different channels to ensure that you can allbenefit from the services we offer.

A key priority for 18-21 year olds ishearing about events, activities and

entertainment.

We will ensure you get to know about all events and ents and we will provide

information about clubs and societies andother Union activities.

We will monitor what we are sending outand ask you for feedback everyyear to check if your priorities

have changed.

22-30 year olds have said that help and advice and employability and volunteering

opportunities are their top Union service priority.

We will make sure you know how to access help and advice when you need it.

We will also ensure you know about all the exciting volunteering opportunities

On an occasional basis we will update youabout other Union activities.

Help and Advice and representation are thekey areas of priority for our mature students.

We will be looking at the structure of the Unionand look at increasing the number of staff in theseareas to ensure that we can meet your needs andcan communicate to you on these areas of Union

support and activity.

We will also look at the structure of ourcomms and marketing team so that we

can listen and respond to you ina way that suits.

18-21YEAR OLDS

22-30YEAR OLDS

31AND ABOVE

We know we offer a broad range of services and

that feedback has highlighted you like these. We need to let more of you know about

these so you can allbenefit from them.

I LOVE IT WHEN YOU CALL BUT YOU NEVER CALL AT ALL...Students have said they like to hear about what we’re doing more frequently than just during Freshers’ Week. At the beginning of term there is an overload of info so it’s hard to remember everything

Almost one in four of you felt that

improved communications

was a key priority, and that many of you (44%) felt that you didn’t know

what we we’re doing.

We will completely restructure the way we communicate to you, so

that fewer of you see this as an area of weakness at the next student survey 5% fewer of you will see

this as an area that needs improving.

IT’S T IME WE LISTENED, SO...We will make sure that, as well as events and activity specific info, we will write to you more regularly about what we are doing and how you can get involved.

We will provide feedback forms to all of you that attend SU events or interact with our services, asking what you like and what can be improved, and also how you heard about us so we can check

how effective our promos are.

We will then look at what you say andtake action to improve or keep doing it just the way you like

it!

We wtill think it is useful to keep youinformed about what is going on at the

Union.

We will write to all students at least twice a term to let you know about what the Union does and any changes that have happened

over the year.

We will also produce general flyers about what the Union offers and how to getinvolved and send them out to you in

January.

We will run regular out-site visits and also write to you regularly about how we are

representing you and thesuccessess or challenges we are facing.

Our officers work hard for you and it is important that you know what they are doing for you, so thatyou can tell us if you have other priorities, and also if we have

helped drive change in your course,accommodation or working

conditions

THOSE WHO ALREADYVISIT THE SU

THOSE WHO LIKE TO GO

ELSEWHERE

THOSE WHO ARE ELSEWHERE

WE’LL REPRESENT YOUR V IEWS TO THE UNI, LOCALLY AND NAT IONALLYWe believe there is strength in numbers. We’ll keep listening to you and will work with other Unions, the NUS and others in the charity sector to deliver effective campaigns that deliver change

You’ve asked us to be a powerful and

unified voice for you, and that’s just what

we’ll be!

We will be engaging with more of you at

our democratic meetings and

elections to ensure that your voice is

heard

BUT WE W ILL KEEP ASKING YOU WHAT YOU THINK.

We will also ask you throughout the year via our student councils , focus groups, surveys and Annual General Meeting (AGM) what issues you have so we can develop our priorities accordingly.

Our sabbatical officers and senior staff sit on all of the University’s major

decision-making committees. We will be putting forward informed anddetailed student opinions throughout the

committees we sit on to drive forward the changes you want to see.

We will also make sure that we communicate these successful changes to you through your desired method

of communication.

Beds SU will continue to work with other charities, local councils and community groups to ensure that you are represented outside of the

University. We will ensure that we are a keynegotiator when people in Bedfordshire and

beyond want to know what students are thinking.

We will also be seen as a powerful andprofessional voice that highlights thehard work and professionalism that

you put into your studies.

We will work with the NUS and other Unions to make sure that we are linked in to

national campaigns and the the voice ofBedfordshire is heard.

We will also continue to send democratically elected students to national conference and

will fight for what is important to you.

We will also ensure that we tell you aboutnational campaigns and policies that will

affect you and how you can get involved.

AT THE UNI

IN THE LOCAL COMMUNITY

NAT IONALLY

Contact Beds SU:Luton:Beds SUCampus CentreLutonLU1 3JU

Bedford:Beds SUPolhil AvenueBedfordMK41 9EA

To be the vibrant and

powerful voice of students; providing

opportunities to enrich student

life.

Beds SU is here to listen to, and represent, the

many voices of students at the University of Bedfordshire.

We enrich students’ lives through

opportunities to have fun, find help and advice, enhancing

employability and campaign for change....

The words of over 2000 students helped form the values, vision and mission of Beds SU and its strategy for the next 5 years.

Don’t forget to check out our Strategic Plan 2012-17. Beds SU’s first ever long term plan informed by the views and opions of over 2000 University of Bedfordshire Students - Available now online and from your Students’ Union!

Written by Jon StanleyDesign by Matthew McCaffery