Impact Report 2014-15

ImpactReport

2014-15

How we have made a positive impact to the lives of students at GCU.

Who’s Who?

Trustees

The Trustee Board is responsible for maintaining the legal, financial and reputational integrity of the organisation and for setting our strategic direction. The Board is made up of the four elected Full Time Officers, four appointed Student Trustees and four appointed External Trustees. Our Trustees were Michael Stephenson, Neil Clark (resigned 18.07.14), John Gaughan (appointed 19.07.14), Jack Johnston, Lee Goodfellow, Jonathan Tomnay, Pei Ling Choo, Kirsty McCallum, Sian Mary Hughes, Lynn Tennent, Stuart McCallum (appointed 27.10.14), Sheetal Revis (resigned 23.12.14) and Ashley Milroy (resigned 05.05.15).

Senior Management Team

The Chief Executive (David Carse) is responsible for the strategic implementation and operational management of the Students’ Association, reporting to the Trustee Board. The Chief Executive is supported by the Activities Manager (Gordon McTweed), Representation and Advice Manager (Caroline Miller) and the Finance Manager (Melissa Cairney) in meeting our strategic plan.

Staff

We have a team of 23 staff who work to meet the needs of our members.

Full Time Officers

The Full Time Officers were the Student President (Michael Stephenson), Vice President Education (John Gaughan), Vice President Wellbeing (Jack Johnston) and Vice President Activities (Lee Goodfellow).The Full Time Officers are elected annually in a cross campus ballot to represent GCU students and are accountable to our members for their work.

GCU Students’ Association Impact Report 2014-15

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About UsOur Vision is that GCU students will have an outstanding experience that will live with them forever and we have written our Big Plan (our strategic plan) to help us achieve this Vision. This Impact Report will tell you how we have progressed in meeting our strategic plan and how we have made a positive impact to the lives of students at GCU.

We are a charity with charitable purposes and are a separate and independent organisation from GCU. We are located in the Students’ Association Building on the Glasgow Campus and have a base at GCU London. All GCU students are automatically members of the Students’ Association. We are a membership-led organisation.

Our Mission is to represent and enable GCU students to enhance all aspects of their student experience. This is what we do on a day to day basis and is our main activity.

Our Values

Diversity, Community, Participation, Fun, Support and Leadership.

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www.GCUstudents.co.uk www.twitter.com/GCUstudents www.facebook.com/GCUstudents

70% satisfaction in the National Student

Survey*

94% satisfaction in the

International Student Barometer

*A 3% higher than Scottish and 1% higher than UK average scores


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Effectively Representing our Members

2,684 members voted in our Full Time

Officer elections. Our highest turnout ever!

33 delegates sent to NUS conferences

8School Officers and

3 Post Graduate Research Experience

Reps appointed to liaise between Class Reps,

academic schools and the Students’ Association.

70%of our members

knew who our Full Time Officers were.

541 registered Class

Reps.

221members supported

in university academic representation cases.

218 trained Class Reps. Overall number of Class Reps trained

is 333.

Full Time Officers

engaged with 19,292 students in lecture shouts, 1,617 students

through coffee on campus, 10 radio shows and 17 video blogs.

65%of members feel we are effectively

representing students (our

mission).

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Campaigns

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We ran a campaign to encourage students to register to vote in the General Election. This involved Electoral Registration Stalls and a Hustings Event for candidates in the Glasgow Central constituency.

The Womens Group participated in the NUS UK Womens Campaign “I heart Consent” that aims to facilitate positive, informed and inclusive conversations and campaigns about consent in universities and colleges across the UK. The Womens Group also ran the “I am a Leader” campaign that included Women in Leadership talks.

We successfully lobbied the GCU ARC Gym to extend its opening hours from 10am-4pm at weekends to 8.30am-6pm

We achieved a change in GCU Library Policy to remove students’ belongs from computers left unattended for a long time so other students can use the computer to prevent desk hogging.

Working with GCU we were successful in the GCU Library having extended opening hours during exam periods.

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General Election Hustings Event


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We achieved an increase in the number of student representatives on the Senate Disciplinary Committee and Honorary Degrees Committees.

We secured £5,000 from GCU to recruit an Articulation Intern to better support students transition from college to university.

We sucessfully lobbied GCU to commit £20,000 worth of funding to introduce smoking shelters where smokers can smoke on campus to limit the adverse effect of smoking on fellow staff and students.

We successfully campaigned to delay the planned update of GCU Learn to another time when students are not resitting exams.

We participated in the NUS Scotland #studentvote campaign to encourage students to cast their vote in the independence referendum.

Working with GCU we secured the installation of an outside gym located beside the Students’ Association Building.

We campaigned for improvements to student timetabling that achieved a commitment to the earlier publication of timetables for the full academic year.

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Award WinningWe are proud to have recently won two awards at the Student Partnerships in Quality Scotland (sparqs) Student Engagement Awards 2015. We won an award for our partnership working with GCU to form a student-led Student Action Group for Engagement (SAGE). This group will play a similar function to the GCU Learning, Teaching and Quality Enhancement Network (LTQEN) and Student Experience Forum and provide student input into the development of GCU learning, teaching and quality enhancement policy. Our second award was for working with GCU on the creation of academic school conferences.

We are an award winning Students’ Association. We have successfully maintained the NUS Green Impact Award at Gold Level for four years, the NHS Healthy Working Lives Award at Gold Level for four years and the NUS/SSS Healthy Body Healthy Minds Awards at Five Stars for two years. This year we are delighted to have been accredited as a Living Wage Employer.

The Students’ Association has continued to maintain our NUS Good Quality Students Union Award, formerly known as the Student Union Evaluation Initiative. We were the first modern university in Scotland to achieve this award.


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New Full Time Officer ModelWe have changed the roles of our Full Time Officers and the way in which they are elected. We are excited about the changes and feel it frees up our Officers to better represent students at a local level. The changes to the system are summarised as follows:

The changes outlined above have been driven by the need to change our system to improve the way in which our elections are run to give students a better choice and to encourage an increase in the diversity of the people who stand and are successful in our elections.

Rather than having four separate elections for our Full Time Officers, we will have one election with four candidates being elected using the Single Transferable Vote method.

The candidate who comes first in the election will be offered the role of Student President.

The other three successful candidates will each become a Vice President with responsibility for representing students in one of GCU’s three academic schools.

The Student President will have responsibility for representing students at GCU London and GCU New York.

All officers will be responsible for promoting student representation alongside our activities and services in their schools.

The existing remits of Education, Wellbeing, Activities and some of the current Student President remit will be broken down and the winning candidates will then assemble their own remits after the election in agreement with each other.

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Communicating Effectively with our Members

Launched an Instagram, LinkedIn,

Google+ accounts and GCU New York Facebook page.

68% of members

find our emails informative.

67%of our members find our website informative and

up to date.

The Edit (student magazine)

6 editions of The Edit magazine produced.

Radio Caley had 138 radio

shows.

Radio Caley broadcasted live from Glasgow

Taxis Cup at the Emirates Arena, NUS UK Conference

and across Glasgow on the vote for the Scottish

Referendum.New Impact

emails4 emails sent over Trimester 1

and 2 demonstrating the impact we make.


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Social Media and Website

1,674 new followers www.twitter.com/GCUstudents

1,140 new fans www.facebook.com/GCUstudents

1.6 million facebook impressions

375,118 page viewson our website

20 email newsletters

sent to all GCU Students

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Developing a Fun and Supportive Community for all our Members

20 Wellbeing Volunteers

running health promotion

campaigns.

1,094 one-off enquiries

in the Advice Centre and

419 condoms enquires.

Healthy Competitionagainst Strathclyde and Glasgow

University in the 11th Glasgow Taxis Cup held in Emirates Arena with over 800 students involved.

Sports Day

organised between the Students’ Association

and School of Engineering and Built

Environment.

44 Nightline Volunteers

offering information and a listening ear to 171

interactions.

37 sports clubs with 727 sports club members.

86%of students surveyed

have been in the Students’ Association

Building, with members being most satisfied with our 24 Hour Computer Lab.

63 societies with 2,033

society members. This is the highest number

of societies ever.

1,874 students attending

82 Students’ Association events.

Students’ Association

Buildingsaw an upgrade of computers within our 24 Hour Computer, a refreshed Social

Learning Space and the installation of a window into the Radio Station studio.


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We recognise the contribution that our members made through our awards ceremonies: The Big Ball and Sports Ball.

Awards and RecognitionGCU Student of the Year Goodness Wondah

GCU Lindsay Leadership Award Louisa Power

GCU Allister Boyd Award Mark Welsh

Representative of the Year Stephanie Noble

Wellbeing Volunteer of the Year Stephanie Rodger

The Edit: Best Overall Article “#Gamergate Is A #Problem” by Gino Maurri

The Edit: Best Overall Contribution Ivaylo Andreev

Radio Caley: Best Behind the Mic Phoebe Inglis-Holmes

Radio Caley: Best Overall Contribution Jamie Loggie

Society Volunteer of the Year Phil Wheatley

Best New Society Gaming Society

Society of the Year GCU Optics

Ross Baillie Award Craig Girvan - Volleyball

Sports Person of The Year James Bowness - Athletics

Alex Goodman Trophy Skye Farmer - Trampolining

Coach of the Year Dylan Wallace - Boxing

Club of the Year Basketball Womens

Team of the Year Volleyball Womens

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Miller Primary SchoolThree Full Time Officers delivered a one and a half hour workshop for pupils at Miller Primary School on 30th April 2015. Twenty-seven pupils from Miller Primary School visited GCU Students’ Association on 14th May 2015, the pupils participated in a radio broadcast activity, drama workshop and campus tour. The pupils were split into three groups, each led by a Full Time Officer, the activities were supported and co-ordinated by GCU student volunteers.

Foodbank StartedThe Full Time Officers started the GCU Foodbank, now a student-run society. The launch attracted over £500 worth of donations, engaging with over 100 students and featured guest speakers Denis Curran (Loaves & Fishes) and Douglas Chalmers (GCU UCU) as well as two acoustic acts from Radio Caley.

Community EngagementAllister Boyd LegacyMore than £13,722 was raised by the Allister Boyd Ball held in December 2014 in memory of GCU student Allister Boyd, who passed away in 2009 following a three-year battle with cancer. Now in its sixth year, the Allister Boyd Ball was held in the Refectory with 300 in attendance. Attendees also had the opportunity to text a donation of £3 on the night by texting a special number. The group also raised £6,500 through bucket collections at Dirty Dancing Shows at the King’s Theatre and spurred on by this success, the Santander bank staff took to GCU’s campus during Freshers’ Week to match an additional fund of £3,500. Members of the group also climbed Mount Kilmanjaro, to raise money for the cancer charities this group supports, raising over £70,000, bringing the grand total to £93,722.

Soup KitchenThe Soup Kitchen society continues to provide hot drinks at the weekly soup kitchen on Cadogan Street in Glasgow. Students work in conjunction with volunteers from local community groups to deliver this service.

Community CouncilsThe Full Time Officers have regularly been attending the Townhead and Ladywell Community Council and Merchant City Community Council meetings to ensure that GCU students are represented within the local community. 12 meetings were attended during Trimester 1 and 2.Foodbank launched


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“The 24 Hours Computer Lab at the Students’

Association is very helpful for people like me who have no internet access in their

house.“

“The Students’ Association has allowed me to make so many friends and I have had a chance to have my own radio show on Radio Caley, to be

part of the GCU Jets cheerleading team, to be Head of Marketing of GCU TV productions, to be a member of the GCU Business Society and the Allister Boyd Legacy Group. I have also completed the Advance Level of the

Student Leaders Programme, which has allowed me to improve my employability propsects and

communications skills.”

“The Students’ Association has also allowed me to take on non-academic ventures such as, student leaders,

International Business Society and the Film Club.”

“There are many clubs and societies which are all easy to join and allow people with all different skills and interests to

be part of something.”“My experience has mainly been

enhanced by the great sports opportunities at

the university.”

“The social side of my time at university has been fantastic. Our society put a lot of effort into organising events that

all years can attend and as a result, we have a very friendly,

close-knit course.”

“Students’ Association is great; they have very

friendly staff, always available to help.”

Membership Feedback

“I feel okay now, but last week was a rather draining week. I am rather happy that the ‘hard part’ seems

to be over with now, so hopefully it won’t be too difficult. Thanks for all

your help and support.”

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Developing our Members Employability

27 nominations submitted for GCU Student of the

Year Award.

GCU Student of the Year Goodness Wondah

229 members completed the Student Leaders Programme, 164 at Development Level and 65 at Advanced

Level.

504 members

registered onto the Student Leaders

Programme.

€500,000 sucessful ERASMUS+

Funding Bid Working with the GCU European Office we

successfully achieved Erasmus+ Funding. This project is to establish a formalised transnational

training programme to prepare students for carrying out effective social innovation projects in the local community. This will be a three year project working with other European institutions.


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Teaching Awards 2015

The winners were...

Excellent Explanation Val Howatson (School for Health and Life Sciences)

Inspiring Individual David Gordon (School of Engineering and Built Environment)

Super Support Anne Weir (School for Health and Life Sciences)

Fantastic Feedback David Edgar (Glasgow School for Business and Society)

A total of

289 nominations

were received for

the Teaching Awards.

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GCU London

London

GCU London Rep

had 45% of all GCU London students voting in this election.

4 Societies at GCU London with 86

members.

51 Events held for students to

integrate and have fun.

179 enquiriesfrom students seeking

support and advice and 72 academic

representation cases.

18 Class Reps

representing 10 programmes.


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Next Strategic PlanDuring the academic year 2014/15 we consulted with our stakeholders, in particular our members, on our next strategic plan. This involved many focus groups with students and an online survey. We worked hard to ensure that all student demographics were represented. We will be consulting in Trimester 1 (2015/16) on the themes we have identified for our next plan.

www.GCUstudents.co.uk/strategicplan

Two interesting aspects worth sharing right now is on students views with belongingness at GCU and on involvement with the Students’ Association.

30% of students want to be more involved in the Students’ Association.

60% of students feel a sense of belonging to their course and 16% to the university.

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Scottish Charity No. SC022887

GCU Students’ Association70 Cowcaddens Road Glasgow G4 0BA

Documents

Impact Report 2014-15