The University will be making its first application for the Race Equality Charter in January 2021. As part of this, they will be creating an action plan, alongside SUSU, to improve the student experience for BAME and International students. We are asking for YOUR feedback to help create this!

The aim of the Student Diversity Survey is to find out how well our efforts are working to create a welcoming and inclusive environment for students to study and relax whilst they are enrolled at Southampton. We want to know what your motivations for coming to Southampton were, your experience now … Read the rest

The results are in for The National Student Survey 2018. We are excited to announce that the University of Southampton Students’ Union student satisfaction rate for academic representation has risen by over 7% to 50.9%.

This is great news and we are pleased to see our hard work during the 2017/18 academic year has had a positive impact on the overall student experience at Southampton.

This year we trained over 200 Academic Representatives and acted on over 270 student ideas and suggestions through our You Make Change platform, including improving services in the library and creating new study spaces at … Read the rest

Our recent blog posts gave you an insight into what each Full-Time Officer role involves, but there’s also a range of exciting, voluntary Part-Time roles (Student Leaders and Student Trustees) available for you to take on alongside your studies.

Taking on one of these roles will mean that you are responsible for representing a certain area of student life, including many of our sports clubs and societies, as well as the international and postgraduate communities. This is a fantastic way to gain valuable experience and help enhance the student experience for all of our members. University is much more than … Read the rest

Hello there! My name is Evie Reilly – the Vice-President Democracy & Creative Industries for 2017/18. The end of term may be fast approaching, but we at the Students’ Union have today launched our first All Student Vote of the year.

The University is entering a period of restructure led by the Vice-Chancellor. As part of this, a 7% reduction in staff costs has been announced, with 50 to 75 academic staff posts at risk from across six departments. The University have claimed this restructure will not negatively impact student experience. A shortened version of the report given to Union … Read the rest

Hi everyone, it’s Venny, the WSA Campus President for 2017/18.

As a member of the WSA Student Committee, I strive to represent you as best as possible. I’m here to listen to your concerns, help solve your problems, and enhance your student experience in any way I can, along with the rest of the Committee.

Based on feedback the Union has gathered over a multitude of years, and personal experience, we know first-hand that printing costs are a major issue for the vast majority of students at WSA. Many of you have requested to either have more affordable printing … Read the rest

The Vice Chancellor in a staff address has recently outlined the University ten year plan and some substantial changes to the structure of the University. It was announced that the University was intending to drop from eight to five faculties, push more professional services out into the faculties, and lower their staff costs by £20M through targeted voluntary redundancies in the first instance.

Five of our elected Officers were present at the University Senate when the plan was first announced, where they asked how this would affect the student experience.

Our Academic Reps will lead a consultation with all of … Read the rest

This year we have a brand new team of Full-Time Officers at the Union (and a couple of familiar faces, too). We asked a few questions to get to know them a little better…

As Welfare Officer, Sam’s role is to work alongside the University to ensure action on issues such as housing, mental health and finance to improve students’ rights, equality and wellbeing.

What advice would you give to your Fresher self?

I would say to get involved in as much as you can (without neglecting your degree!) because I wish I’d signed up to more societies.

What’s … Read the rest

This year we have a brand new team of Full-Time Officers at the Union (and a couple of familiar faces too). We asked a few questions to get to know them a little better…

Stephen is the lead Full- Time officer on sport and our Athletic Union (AU) & Intramural (IM) sports clubs. His role is to promote participation, support club committees and work with volunteers.

What advice would you give to your Fresher self?

I’d tell my fresher self to do exactly what I did, which was sign up to some societies and get to know as many people … Read the rest

This year we have a brand new team of Full-Time Officers at the Union (and a couple of familiar faces too). We asked a few questions to get to know them a little better…

Samuel works with Academic Presidents and Course Reps to represent you on educational matters like teaching quality, library provision and feedback.

What advice would you give to your Fresher self?

Don’t be afraid to get involved with Union Elections. They aren’t as scary as they seem, yet are so fundamentally important to all the work that the Union does. Needless to say I got the idea … Read the rest

The university currently has a number of key surveys out at the moment, designed to improve the student experience across a range of areas.

Whether you are a PGR, PGT or an undergrad, make sure you get your voice heard by completing one of the following surveys:

Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES)

The Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) is the only UK higher education sector-wide survey to gain insight from postgraduate research students about their learning and supervision experience. The feedback from this survey will help to improve the experience for our postgraduate research students.If you are a PGR … Read the rest