Your Education President's Semester 1 update!
Hi All,
Last semester was certainly a busy one for SMSU.
We started the year by visiting students in lectures. We did this to introduce ourselves, provide an outline of what we can offer in the SU and support with any questions or concerns. This year we managed to visit all but a handful of courses, including many delivered during the evenings or weekends which we hadn’t visited before.
In September we also welcomed over 250 new course reps and a new cohort of 7 subject chairs (one for each school). A record number of reps attended course rep training or completed our online rep training this year.
September also saw us launch our new SU pantry and cost-of-living hub. The SU pantry provides food, toiletries and sanitary products for students in financial hardship, and the hub provides a single point of access for cost-of-living advice and support.
We also published our 2023 cost of living report, using the survey responses of over 300 students. The findings of this report were stark and show the huge effect the current cost of living has had on St Mary’s students. After meeting with the Vice-Chancellor to discuss the report, we managed to secure hardship funding for international, masters and level 3 students. The report also led to a £25 increase in the maximum amount students can receive from the student engagement fund.
In October, we launched our “Transport Hardship fund”, which provides grants of up to £50 to students struggling with the cost of travel to University.
I was also involved in preparations for the new “St Mary’s Online” courses, ensuring that we have mechanisms in place to support student voice for what will be a very new type of course at St Mary’s.
Finally, I launched a survey for students on creative arts and communications courses to find out more about about their experiences using Adobe software. I’ll be using this data to write a policy proposal for the university to make it easier for students to access this software.
In November, we held our second ever SIMMIE safety week. We conducted our safety survey for the second year in a row, allowing us to track changes from last year. We also launched our “draw the line” pledge for students to sign. The pledge was designed to raise awareness of what sexual harassment might look like and encourage bystander intervention. “Draw the line” posters have now been placed across campus, raising awareness of the many forms sexual harassment can take and how to report it.
Later in the month, we travelled to Parliament to attend a meeting of the all-party group for students. We spoke to MPs about the impact the cost of living has had on students here at St Mary’s.
I also had the honour of laying a wreath for the university armistice day ceremony, alongside the vice-chancellor.
Finally, In December we attended the NUS “lead and change” event for small and specialist SUs. This was a great opportunity to share experiences and learn from other student unions at small universities.
As always, if you have any questions, concerns or ideas then do get in touch.
George,
educationpresident@stmarys.ac.uk
