Southampton students, Joseph Lim and Sean Gilbody have been voted through to the semi-finals of the Chortle Student Comedy Awards 2017.

The students performed at the Southampton heat of the acclaimed awards in held at The Bridge on the 02 March.

President of our Comedy Society and Politics and Economics student, Sean Gilbody, won the heat, with Joseph Lim achieving the People’s Choice Award, securing them both places in the Awards semi-finals, held in London in May. The semi-finalists will battle it out at the finals at Pleasance One at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this August in a bid to … Read the rest

Staff from our Learning and Development team have been invited to present their successful launch of the Union’s ‘A To B’ Project Management programme to the Charity Learning Consortium (CLC) at their annual national conference.

The conference, which will be held on Thursday 22 June in London, will host non-profit organisations from across the UK to network and share best practice.

CLC approached the Union to ask if our Learning and Development team could present a section of the conference to explain how they used the software to engage with staff on the course.

The team have been using the … Read the rest

Our very own Paintballing Society has come first in the ‘Student Cup’ National Paintball Competition on 25-26 February.

The sixth annual tournament, organised by the UK Student Paintball Network and run by the team at the Central Premier Paintball Series (CPPS) paintball site, was held in Penkridge, Staffordshire, featuring 19 teams across two divisions, making it the biggest competition yet.

We provided the group with £265 to go towards the subsidised travel and the tournament entry free.

The team travelled to the competition on Saturday 25 to prepare with a training session against the other competing teams, before the main … Read the rest

The student group, Southampton Hub, launches Bio-Cycle, Southampton’s first ever student-led food waste recycling scheme in a bid to benefit the local community by recycling and repurposing otherwise wasted food.

The scheme works by providing you with a five litre food waste caddy, filters and a roll of compostable bin liners at the cost of £10, which includes automatic registration for the regular weekly food waste pickup service.

Up to 160 students are already benefitting from the project, with waste collections organised at 33 households across Southampton, equating to approximately 200kg of recycled food waste every month.

All collected … Read the rest

Our annual Academic Awards ceremony returns on Thursday 11 May to The Cube, where we will be donning our best finery in preparation to celebrate the academic achievements of University staff and our Academic Reps.

Who do you think deserves an award?

If you have been inspired by a lecturer or perhaps one of our Academic Reps has gone above and beyond to represent you on your course – we want to hear from  you!

You can now nominate the people that you think deserves to be recognised for their contribution to academia before midnight on Wednesday 15 March at: … Read the rest

Bhangra Society joined fourteen other University of Southampton dance societies to enter the KCL Just Dance It 2017 competition at the Greenwood Theatre in Central London.

Seven University of Southampton dance squads entered the dance competition, including Novice Ballet, Novice Tap, Novice Jazz, Novice Contemporary, Novice Street, Salsa and Bhangra, dancing in six different categories: Ballet, Jazz, Contemporary, Tap, Street and Wildcard divided into novice and advanced levels.

The competition, attended by ten universities, was a triumph for our student groups, with Novice Tap and Novice Ballet winning their category, Novice Contemporary placing 2nd, Bhangra Society coming 4th and Salsa … Read the rest

LGBT+ Society are on the Concourse in Building 42, Highfield campus, today creating a rainbow banner of handprints in support for LGBT History Month.

The student group have rallied students to use their handprints to celebrate equal opportunities for LGBT+ rights.

LGBT+ Society President, Jonathon St Clair-Smith says, “We’re making the banner to show unity within the community”.

Pop down to the Concourse before 15:00 today to show your support with a rainbow handprint and look out for the finished banner, which is due to be displayed at the Union Reception.

Find out more about LGBT_ Society by going … Read the rest

Five members of our Performing Arts societies were nominated for the Daily Echo’s Curtain Call Awards in January. The Academy Award-style ceremony took place at Southampton’s Grand Harbour Hotel on Friday 27 January with more than 400 actors and theatre lovers in attendance to celebrate the achievements of youth amateur dramatics groups in the South.

The nominations are as follows:

• Darius Timmerman (Theatre group) for his role as Moses in Animal Farm. Applauded for realising “his inner holy roller perfectly as this preaching crow”.
• Charlie Randall (Showstoppers) received two nominations for his roles as Paul Muddle in Freelancers and Stephano

Postgraduate Research students from Optics and Photonics Society (OPSoc) took part in the Winchester Cathedral Primary Science Festival on 08 and 09 November.

The festival, now in its second year, helps pupils to explore science in the spectacular medieval building, working with scientists to carry out practical experiments.

Supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, the festival is organised to help Year 6 pupils gain an understanding of science in the working world including sound, geology and light as part of their Key Stage 2 Science National Curriculum studies.

The festival was a success with 120 primary school pupils and their … Read the rest

Our very own Southampton RAG team have raised a jaw-dropping £10,352.30 for charity at Saturday’s Megaraid in London.

The student-run fundraising group took to the streets of London in various locations to see how much money they could raise for Breast Cancer Now. They braved the cold weather and early start and shook red buckets to encourage the general public to donate.

The Union’s Vice-President Engagement, Dan Varley says “This year’s total is the most that any RAG team have raised at the London Megaraid. It’s quite amazing for a day’s work and just shows how students’ involvement can really … Read the rest