The students union plays a big part in your university experience. If you ever have any problems they are your first port of call, whether thats to do with university, your course, accommodation or home related problems they can help. The union offers advice and support and are there for students to use so make sure you take advantage of this if you have any concerns.
The unions main purposes include:
- To represent student views, concerns and aspirations
- To campaign, educate and advise on the issues that matter to students
- To ensure students have access to quality space, opportunities and services
- To enable and encourage students to interact through cultural, recreational and sporting activities
- To support the development of students skills, knowledge and experience through involvement with the Union
The union have a big part to play when it comes to activities in and around the university. All clubs and societies are overlooked by the union, they provide money and help with setting up a club or society. For example if the football team need to travel to a match at a different University they would have to get the funds for a rental car from the union as they hold the money that was made from membership fees, the union will organise the rental car and deal with the majority of the paperwork. I recently set up the bowling club and had to go to the union to get it started – I had paperwork to do which they helped me with and then once the club was accepted, it was put on the union website for people to sign up to.
Other activities the union help set up and promote include pop up shops, volunteering schemes and our on campus radio station. The union have shops on campus which are very convenient especially for course supplies such as pens, note pads and other stationary.
Each year the National Students’ Survey is carried out, this helps improve all areas of the university. It is mainly aimed at final year students to give their opinion about their experience at university. The survey helps prospective students as it can inform their decision and helps make improvements to the university. It contributes statistics that rank universities and provides information about course satisfaction which can be a big factor when prospective students choose a university.
