Annual Report

2010/11

2

3

Table of Contents

President – Chris Dingle 4

Democracy and Policy 4

Governance 5

Finances 5

Commercial Services 6

Kat Kepa - Vice President Education 7

Learning, Teaching and Quality 7

Love your Degree, Love your Future 7

KUSU Student Support 8

Academic and University Advice 8

Citizens Advice Bureau 8

Vice President Activities – Lauren McCormack 9

Sports 9

Societies 10

Volunteering 11

Lucy Williams - Vice President Communications 12

The Website 12

Social Media 13

Twitter 14

FRESH 15

Executive Committee 16

What have we done for you? 17

What will we do for you this year? 17

4

“KUSU is continuing to fight on a range of issues across the

university for students and aims to improve the services we

offer in the coming year. I am confident that the Union is

organisationally capable to meet the challenges ahead and to

become even better at ‘Making Life Better for Kingston

Students’.”

President – Chris Dingle

Democracy and Policy

The last year in Higher Education has been one of turmoil, change and

protest. The government’s changes to Higher Education funding have

been far ranging and will have a huge impact post 2012. The last year has

seen KUSU engaging with government ministers and MPs alongside the

NUS in an attempt influence government policy. It has seen protest,

drama, scandal and intrigue. The vote passed by 12 votes and will likely

change Higher Education in the UK dramatically.

This now leaves us in a critical position. As Union, we are presented with

an opportunity to drive for huge improvements to the student experience

at Kingston and have a large influence over the new strategic plan of the

University. To that end I visited Universities and Students’ Associations in

New Zealand at my own expense during the summer. The trip aimed to

find areas of common interest in good practice between the two

countries who will now share very similar fee systems. A copy of my

report will be going to the University Board of Governors with several

recommendations as well as the Department for Business, Innovation and

Skills in Whitehall.

National protests and local action are bound to follow the new changes.

KUSU will face difficult choices on whether to focus on the national issue

or the host of issues we face locally at Kingston University. The following

year promises to be challenging but also offers opportunities to have

huge impacts on our students.

5

Governance

KUSU has in the last year reviewed nearly every part of the organisation

and we are beginning to make changes that will dramatically improve

your union. A new strategic plan looking forward over a longer period has

been developed and this will allow us to develop KUSU and your services

in a coordinated manner over a longer period of time, without impacting

on our core activity: representation.

We have also now become a charity as all students’ unions are now

required to under the Charities Act 2006. This has meant a new trustee

board with 6 new members, including another 3 student trustees. I am

also pleased to announce that in August the Trustee Board appointed 3

external trustees for the first time as part of our charity registration. The

new external Trustees are:

Mr David Miles

Mr John Azar

Ms Claudia Gough

All of our new Trustees have a wealth of experience in charity

management and will help the Union develop our services and structures

so that we can better fulfil our aim or ‘Making Life Better for Kingston

Students’. We also now have 3 elected student trustees:

Charles Haworth

Myriam Dijck

Ben Stupple

Finances

As you will see from the attached audited accounts, the Union continues

to be in a strong sustainable position. KUSU generated an overall surplus

of £66,133 in 2010/11 financial year. Whilst this represents a fall from a

£79,539 surplus in 2009/10, it is part of a longer term trend of generating

surpluses which has built our current level of reserves to £629,814. Whilst

the Union’s aim has never been to simply generate profits and build

reserves, such surpluses and strong reserve ensures that we are in a

strong position to continue representing students even in these difficult

uncertain times.

Affiliations for the year were £44 419 – this includes our affiliation fee to the NUS, The Union trustee board has begun scenario planning so that we continue

to monitor external risks and mitigate any risks before they arise. We are

budgeting for a small surplus again for coming financial year.

6

Commercial Services

2011 has again been a difficult year in the licenced trade and for small

businesses, however I am pleased to say that KUSU is bucking the trend

and trading continues to be generally positive. We continue to run our

three bars and our two shops

Hannafords

Knights Park

The Space

Penrhyn Road Shop

Kingston Hill Shop

The Space Bar finds itself under a new management team this year and

we have re-focussed our delivery into creating an expanded and more

diverse events programme. This has included the launch of successful

comedy and club nights as well as a hugely popular sports night and an

increased number of society events.

An ongoing concern is regarding the status of Kingston Hill shop and we

would hope to be able to upgrade the facility, should KUSU win the

tender for the new shop in the University’s Campus Development Plan.

As the spending power of the student market continues to diminish, we

are beginning to face increasingly aggressive competition from clubs and

bars in town; however we are confident that a longer-term, more

responsible approach towards our customers (which resulted us in

winning 5 awards last year for our responsible management of the bars)

is the correct approach in ensuring our bars will still be here to serve you

after many bars in Kingston have closed. This extends to our management

of the relationship with the local community, which is sometimes

undermined by the behaviour of a handful of individuals late at night.

Trading made a net deficit of £8 687 deficit before recharges. This year

we have looked at the way recharges are made to trading outlets. We are

now budgeting for a surplus for the coming year from our commercial

services.

Additionally, we have received £15 000 from the University ring-fenced to

support Hannafords trading during the quiet weekends and holiday

periods to recognise the key social role that the bar plays on Kingston Hill

campus .

7

Kat Kepa - Vice President Education

Learning, Teaching and Quality

The last year has been a dynamic and difficult one. The external

environment has meant a new focus has been placed on improving

standards at higher education institutions and Kingston has been no

different. In the last year Kingston has undergone a review by the Quality

Assurance Agency which KUSU gave input into. KUSU has continued to

actively engage through the University Committee structures. KUSU has

also been involved with several committees on a national level

particularly within the QAA.

Love your Degree, Love your Future

Last year saw KUSU begin to run a campaign called Love your Degree,

Love your Future. The campaign aimed to make long term improvements

in the academic experience for students and the short term objectives are

all close to being achieved. From this campaign KUSU produced the

manifesto for change based on student consultation:

KUSU is now actively campaigning and lobbying the University to deliver

this manifesto and the route map is now forming the basis of the

University’s new student experience strategy.

Phase 2 of this campaign will be consulting students more widely on the

student experience to include non academic issues and help develop the

University’s new strategic plan as well as delivering a better experience

for students at Kingston.

8

KUSU Student Support

KUSU’s student support department continues to offer advice and

support to students in the following areas:

Housing

Academic Misconduct

Academic Appeals

Employment rights

Money advice

Complaints

Disciplinary issues and misconduct

Notice to Quit

Fitness to Practice

In the last year Student Support has seen 786 students and recovered

more than £30,000 for students.

Academic and University Advice

We continue to offer students advice on matter relating to their academic

study at the University on issues such as plagiarism through to disciplinary

hearings, through our in house advisors. During the last year they have

helped more than 275 students.

Citizens Advice Bureau

We continue to subcontract Kingston Citizens Advice Bureau to offer

generalist advice to our students in house. Last year this service saw over

500 students.

We have now extended this service to

include a CAB advisor 5 days a week

during term time who will be

coordinating further services at

Kingston Hill and Knight Park through

volunteer teams. This means that we

can offer help and support to more

students than before and beyond

Penrhyn Road campus.

9

Vice President Activities – Lauren

McCormack

Sports

2010/11 was a big year for Sports, not only did we continue to offer over

36 sports and compete and perform well at many levels but we also

welcomed a newcomer to the Sports team at KUSU Dave “Kingston”

Cougar is our new mascot and has been well received. The Kingston

Cougars brand has begun to take off and this has been seen as a positive

move by both staff and students at the University.

The annual Sports Awards were once again held at Twickenham and had

record 250 students attending and was opened by the new Vice

Chancellor Prof Julius Weinberg. The black-tie event is the pinnacle of the

University’s sporting calendar. University Full and Half Colours were given

to individual students that had make an exceptional contribution to their

club over the year and the highly prized Sports Personality of the Year

was awarded to the student that had contributed significantly and

encapsulated the spirit of university sport.

The annual Varsity against local rivals the

University of Surrey returned to Surrey

Sports Park for another year of

competition between the 22 sports that

were played. Sadly it was Surrey’s year

however Kingston did bring home the

trophy for winning the Tug of War!

The sports tour to Rimini was also a

success with 150 students from Kingston taking part in the tournament in

the sunny Italian city.

To top it all KUSU engaged 1276 students in Sports last year.

10

Societies

KUSU’s Societies have enjoyed another successful year with more than 75

societies now active at Kingston and have engaged 2721 students in

societies. That was an increase of 21 new societies from the previous year

and the list continues to grow.

The Annual Society Awards were once again well attended at the Surbiton

Assembly Rooms and students from across the breadth of societies were

presented awards from guest including the Pro-Vice Chancellor.

The Societies Trip to Amsterdam was also well attended as students took

to the stunning Dutch city for short break with KUSU.

Improved training was offered to society officers this year which has

resulted in greater consistency and competency in student officers and

continues to be an ongoing project. In the coming year it is hoped we will

train and support even more of our society officers.

11

Volunteering

Over the course of the 2010-11 academic year KUSU registered 155 new

volunteers and had 309 students actively participating in our voluntary

activities. Kingston University students gave 3725 hours across 99

voluntary opportunities in 50 organisations throughout the Royal

Borough of Kingston and neighbouring boroughs.

One off Volunteering continues to be incredibly popular with a wide

range of students taking part. KUSU supported 60 one-off voluntary

events in 2010/2011 lasting from an hour to a full day, providing students

with a flexible programme of voluntary activities to engage with.

External one-offs this year included several with local children’s cancer

charity Momentum, stewarding at the Bloomsbury and Wandsworth Arts

Festivals and Kingston Reader’s Festival. Volunteers also assisted at the

Kingston Christmas Light Switch on and many more local events and

charity collections.

Staff led one off projects are predominantly organised as part of London

Student Volunteering Fortnight and Student Volunteering Week. Student

Volunteering Week this February saw 53 people volunteering across the

week on a number of different events.

There have been 4 Student-led voluntary projects this year with 10

students in leadership roles.

‘Community Volunteering’ (previously referred to as ‘The Community

Bureau’) involves the placing of volunteers in mid-long term volunteering

positions across Royal Borough Kingston and some areas of Greater

London and Surrey. Students provide support to a range of local

organisations and charities in a wide range of roles on a regular basis,

generally once a week or once a fortnight.

Our school volunteer programme has spent the year recovering from a

number of challenges caused by several schools withdrawing from the

scheme (temporarily or otherwise). However, Kingston students have

continued to support pupils both in the classroom and through specialist

sports support at King Athelstan Primary and Southborough High Schools.

They have also worked one-to-one with pupils through a learning mentor

scheme at Tolworth Junior School and Reading Partner Project at

Southborough High, helping to raise confidence and levels of academic

achievement.

12

Lucy Williams - Vice President

Communications

Communication is one of the most important areas of the work of the

students’ union. In the last year much work has been put into this area

and we will be bringing forward proposals during the next to restructure

the union and our delivery of this important aspect of our work.

FRESH magazine is now operating more successfully than before with a

hard working team of student designers and writers taking a much more

central role than previously. We also have long term plans to launch

FRESH Radio and FRESH TV. A pilot of FRESH radio through podcasting is

currently being operated.

The Website

We have long recognised the importance of having an effective website

so that students can access the students’ union. In the past we have

undertaken redesigns and changed the way the website works but over

time have become increasingly dissatisfied with our website provider. To

that end we are currently attempting to end our contractual relationship

with that provider and have now identified a provider that we feel can

deliver what students need and want from KUSU.

The new provider only provides websites and membership management

systems to students’ unions. Their current clients include:

13

University of Kent Students’ Union

University of Greenwich Students’ Union

University of Reading Students’ Union

University of Exeter Students’ Guild

University of Wolverhampton Students’ Union

LSE Students’ Union

St George UL, Students’ Union

University of Edinburgh Students’ Association

Royal Holloway UL, Students’ Union

The system will allow us to have a website offering:

Club and Societies Management (including online sign up)

Barcoded Fresher’s Fair

Tills Intergration

Job Shop

Volunteering Database

Email / SMS

Venue Management System

Entertainments Listings and What’s On Calendars

Social Networking – Photos, blogs, comments, polls, surveys

E-Voting

A fully functioning attractive website

It continues to be disappointing for us that we are still unable to contract

this system due to legal issues with our former provider but we will

continue to use our current site to the best of our ability until we are in a

position to contract the new system.

Social Media

KUSU continues in its commitment to engage as much as possible with

social media. The Facebook group (‘Official Kingston University

Students' Union (KUSU)’) at present has over 1200 members. We also

have a new Facebook fan page which has received over 200 ‘likes’ in just

a few weeks (at the time of going to press), as fan pages are more

accessible and Facebook seems to be phasing groups out. Facebook as a

whole is emerging as a vital tool for communicating with our membership

as it allows us to communicate with students at their convenience, as well

as creating ‘event’ pages to circulate all KUSU goings-on. Facebook offers

the students’ union a more direct channel of communication as we can

14

message those in our group with information we feel may be relevant to

them. To that end all our departments make use of Facebook for

advertising and this is proving to be increasingly successful in engaging

with our members. This year we used Facebook to promote our Bye-

Elections with an online form and received a record 27 nominations and

filled every position on our two largest committees through this method.

We continue however to realise that Facebook and Social Media is a

supplementary form of communication and we should not solely rely

upon it.

Twitter

The union has also taken steps to increase its presence on Twitter. The

students’ union’s Twitter account (@kingston_su) has attracted almost

400 followers. Twitter provides another way for us to directly interact

with students in another way that is convenient for them. It also allows

students to keep up with what the sabbatical team is doing by following

them on Twitter. It is also linked with our Facebook pages to keep time

updating various social media outlets to a minimum.

Various KUSU departments have and control their own social media

outlets also, so students can choose which parts of KUSU to engage with

online. For example, a student can ‘like’ KUSU Volunteering without

having to get constant sports updates through the Kingston Sport page.

This way it keeps users engaged with their interests rather than creating a

blindness by anything KUSU-related as it doesn’t appeal to their specific

interest.

Blogging

Blogging is also continues to be an integral part of how the union

disseminates information amongst the student body.

President Chris Dingle maintains his own word press blog:

http://chrisdingle.wordpress.com/).

Blogging is emerging as a great way for the sabbaticals to outline their

views on certain issues. In the future we hope that the blogs will be read

more widely and be a spring board for student debate.

15

FRESH

At the moment, Fresh exists mostly as a magazine. This year we hope to

move in a big way online. The regular contributors will be able to use this

as a space to continue to submit their writing between print issues of the

magazine, and it also opens the door to students who would like to get

involved and submit articles an an ad hoc basis – much like the One-Off

Project system in the Volunteering Department. We also hope to

produce two magazines a term, designed in-house to save on Indigo

designing costs.

Radio

Last year saw efforts begin to launch FRESH Radio which resulted in a

sucessful bid to the University Opportunities Fund for equipment. The

equipment necessary to launch into radio (beginning with podcasts and

growing henceforth from the popularity of these) has been purchased,

tried and testedand is now being used by students in a podcasting pilot.

As the podcasts will be part of the Fresh brand, they will in turn advertise

the magazine (and TV channel at a later date). As it stands, we do not

need a licence for podcasting, meaning no extra annual costs at present.

This continues to be an exciting project and opportunity for students.

FRESH TV

Our ultimate ambition is to also launch FRESH TV. A TV project is

something that would provide invaluable experience and opporunities to

students on an even larger scale of courses, for students with a specific

interest in television. It is a fantastic chance to get involved with KUSU for

those students who have not engaged through volunteering, sports and

societies, or through visiting our bars, as it is such a different and exciting

project.

16

Executive Committee

This year we have been able to fill all of our Executive Committee posts. The Executive Committee’s role has changed slightly with the new trustee board

taking responsibility for Finance, Strategy and Governance and the Executive Committee retaining responsibility for student representation and politics. The

executive committee this year is:

President – Chris Dingle

Vice President Education – Kat Kepa

Vice President Activities – Lauren McCormack

Vice President Communications – Lucy Williams

Disabled Students’ Officer – Jamie Pipkin

Mature Students’ Officer – Sheila Leatherdale

LGBT Students’ Officer – Tinna Gunnarsdottir

Unity Officer – Lyndon Mukasa

International Students’ Officer – Sulaimon Awodeji

Women’s Officer – Clare Keogh

Postgraduate Students’ Officer – Eric Smith

Students in Professional Practice Officer – Sibel Cahir

Ethical and Environmental Officer – Will Scott-Barrett

Partner College Officer – Shreya Roy

Part Time Students Officer – Douglas Tham

Non Portfolio Officer – Ricky Lewis

Non Portfolio Officer – Stefan Mattison

Members of the executive committee continue to sit on all University Committees from the Board of Governors through to Disability Action

Group and International and European Committee. Union staff also sit on committees that deal with operational issues and support officers in their

representative functions.

What have we done for you?

Over the last year we have undertaken the following actions for you, to

make life better...

We introduced monthly Sports Nights

Had our first Alumni Fun Day

Gave a home to Dave Cougar, now the official mascot of Kingston

Cougars and had our biggest and best Sports Awards night ever

Liaised with the University, police and the local council to launch

a Student NightBus back to halls of residence

Lobbied the local council for an improvement to river safety in

Kingston

Improved our Student Support team to ensure you get the best

advice possible

Ran the Love your degree, love your future campaign to improve

the academic experience

Got a fairer deal for students through the University Committee

structure

Lobbied the government on student funding

Registered as a charity

Reformed our governance and representation structures

Worked with the University to develop a student experience

strategy

Inputted into the new University Strategic Plan

Filled every position on the Executive Committee

...and we won the Tug of War against the University of Surrey in

Varsity 2011!

What will we do for you this year?

KUSU aims for the next year are:

Launch FreshTV and Fresh radio station

Give you a more interactive website and improve engagement

through social media

Widen participation within our sports clubs through intramural

events

Lobby the University for a Student Centre at Kingston Hill campus

Let you shape the way your University is run through the and get

involved with Union activity through the “Be Part of It!” campaign

Continue the “Love your Degree, Love your Future” campaign to

improve the student experience at KU

Lobby the University for longer opening hours at the library and

in workshops at Knights Park campus

Focus on creating a better experience and wider participation for

International students

Improve our relationship with the community through events and

volunteering

Celebrate YOUR successes and achievements as a Kingston

student

Launch the “What is KUSU doing 4U?” campaign to let you know

how we’re doing with all of the above!

Improve access to KUSU across sites by opening up some services

on other sites

Deliver a new website and membership platform to make

accessing the Union’s services easier for students

Kingston University Students Union 2011