Isabella, VP Welfare and Lucy, SUSU Ethics and Environment Officer, helped plant 10 oak trees at Wide Lane Sports Centre as a result of the Sports & Wellbeing Centre’s pledge to work towards offsetting its carbon footprint.

Isabella and Lucy were invited to plant the trees to commemorate both their roles as Union Sustainability Officers. “I am really happy to see departments at the University making sustainable pledges like this,” says Isabella.

“Thank you Sport and Wellbeing and University Sustainability Manager for inviting SUSU Ethics and Environment officer and I to come along and help plant the trees, … Read the rest

Hello everyone! Samuel Dedman here, your returning VP Education for 2018/19. I wrote a blog post a few months ago about the new managed print service coming to the University of Southampton, and left it with a promise of a later update about pricing. I’m pleased to say that this is that update, and it is all good news!

I firmly believe that the cost of student printing at Southampton has been too high in previous years, putting increased pressure on the finances of many of our students. This is particularly true of our students at Winchester School … Read the rest

Hello everyone! Samuel Dedman here, your returning VP Education for 2018/19. Over the past year the Students’ Union have been working hard to improve the printing experience across the University of Southampton. As I mentioned previously the University recently went out to tender for a new Managed Print Service provider – a process which I have been involved in throughout the past 12 months. We’ve had to keep a lot of the good news under wraps for a few months now, but as of June 2018 Apogee (the new provider) are now underway with the roll-out of their service at … Read the rest

The University of Southampton has been awarded the Silver Teaching Excellence & Student Outcomes Framework (TEF) Panel Award. This is a fantastic achievement which recognises the University’s “priority and focus on delivering a transformative experience that enables and encourages students to excel during their time at the University and to continue their success as graduates throughout their lives.”

The Union would like to take this opportunity to thank our Academic Reps, as their hard work listening to ideas and feedback from students, and ensuring positive student-led changes are made at the University, has played an important part in the University receiving the Silver … Read the rest

The Union has recently invested in new equipment for some of our water sports teams, in collaboration with the University of Southampton. We have purchased new kayaks for the Canoe Polo Club and worked alongside the University in their purchase of new starting blocks for Jubilee swimming pool.

Our Athletic Union invested in a fleet of ten new kayaks for the Canoe Polo Club. As the sport is played 5-a-side, this means the club can now train together with new kayaks suitable for indoor use.

The Jubilee Swimming Pool will soon have new swimming start blocks thanks to investment from … Read the rest

Following a successful student petition, we conducted an All Student Vote between Monday 10 December and Friday 12 January to gather our members’ opinion on the current restructure of the University. The questions were created in conjunction with the students who submitted the petition, and results were as follows:

Do you believe that there has been full and clear consultation with students on this restructure?

Yes – 325 votes (15%)

No – 1,843 (85%)

Do you believe that the Vice-Chancellor’s pay should be cut as part of the restructure?

Yes – 2,035 votes (90.6%)

No – 211 votes (9.4%)… Read the rest

The second round of Sports Clubs Grant decisions have been released to close out 2017.

We allocated £22,000 to our sports clubs this round to help in continuing the delivery of opportunities to students to stay active and healthy, whilst representing Team Southampton and the University of Southampton both in the UK and internationally.

The good news to come out of this round is that the applications submitted by clubs have been more competitive than ever before. I can say that on the whole, the information submitted has been comprehensive and well-reasoned and the high majority of applications received were … 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

Hello everyone, Samuel Dedman here – VP Education for the 2017/18 year. My role encompasses everything to do with educational experience at the University, including a whole bunch of work on study spaces and facilities.

Quite a few of us have been asking about free hot water access – this is something which the Students’ Union’s Academic Reps have campaigned on for many years now, and I’m pleased to bring a series of updates on the issue.

You might not be aware but the Students’ Union outlets have never charged for hot water and provide this free of charge to … Read the rest

Hello everyone! For those who don’t know me, my name is Samuel Dedman and I’m VP Education at the Students’ Union. During my election campaign for this role I made a commitment to look into printing and printing costs across the University of Southampton, and with the start of term fast approaching I thought it was worth doing a bit of an update. In order to make things easier I’ve divided the project into two parts – free printing and printing costs. And so without any further ado…

Printing Costs

Alongside looking into free printing (below) it also seemed … Read the rest