Purpose and outcome Reviewing the officer team structure to ensure that we are still a representative body of an ever-evolving student body. Following a team consultation with David Fletcher, the team now aim to engage with the student body to improve and endorse the proposed change. Activity Employability and enterprise committee Purpose and outcome Following a recent meeting, I have been invited to join a big project board which works in colouration across the three local universities with the view of being involved with the government's industrial strategy as a stronger voice. After attending the first meeting, I am excited to explore any working synergies DSU can be involved with. Activity NUS conference Purpose and outcome As President of the Students’ union, I lead the recently elected delegation to Glasgow to presents DMUs Voice in the national picture. After three eventful days, the DMU delegation participated officer elections and policy a voting. Activity Micropub Purpose and outcome Over the past few months, I have been working senior management of both Union and university to establish a micropub on campus as apart of project Metis ( a council rejuvenation project). The exciting project will give rise to a micropub on campus which will create an employment opportunity for our students. Activity HEA collab review Purpose and outcome To better understand the student decision-making process of applications, a few students and I met with a representative from the Higher Education Agency to further explore these areas. Decioisosn was focused on the key value of university and how the university experience can be further improved. Activity Emergency Council Purpose and outcome With a referendum being triggered after the recent elections, as Chair of the Trustee Board and President, I was tasked to chair the emergency council. The meeting was unpredictable but was managed in a manner which drove us to a defined outcome to progress from.
workplace experience and to become ‘work Academic Societies meeting Meet with members of Voice and Activities to go over the possibility to expand academic societies throughout the university. Beginning to put things in place for my successor to pick up next year with regards to developing societies and filling in the gaps. Research Degrees Committee Act as a student representative on the Research Degrees Panel. Discussed many different areas such as Student Voice, Retention and going global… Ask the Expert Course Reps and School Reps were invited to a question time event of a variety of different staff members across DMU (each faculty, library, estates, DSU etc). ** It didn’t technically happen at the time I wrote this but I’m sure it went well! ** Other Issues or Events Issue What Happened The Result Yummy Sunday Started a campaign producing meals that students can make… videos set to be released on a Sunday with a blog post including the recipe on the website. All 5 FTO’s recorded another round of videos, however 4/5 were lost which is such a shame! We will be rerecording these when things calm down and the one surviving one is soon to be published. NUS Women’s Conference Attended NUS Women’s Conference in Solihull, it was a great couple of days meeting women from across the country – a very inspiring conference! We went through the policies in record time, discussed potential campaigns we can run in our unions and also how we can together to get voices heard. Elections… (I do not have enough space in this little box) The Student Voice was heard and called for an emergency council in which our new officer team has been now fully confirmed. I wish them all the luck next year Department of Education – Post 18 Education review Department of Education has asked institutions to answer some questions surrounding the post 18 Education review. We have written our responses as a union as well as sending them over to the University for their response. Meeting Nicola Dandridge (OfS) Mike, VP Media and Comms, produced a video to show where Student’s tuition fees were being spent. I attended a meeting with him with Nicola Dandridge. Nicola Dandridge met with students and asked us all our experiences surrounding our education and what we see as ‘value for money’. Very interesting!
Student Written Submission With the help of the Voice team, writing a Student Written Submission to go to Academic board at the end of the year. From all the feedback we have gained from students this year, we have come up with recommendations to be published. Proventure training Recruiters from Proventure came to help prepare us for employment and to articulate the skills we have developed throughout this job. I really useful day in which my CV was torn apart, but thankfully I was given advise to put it back together. Tips from this day also helped shape my conference. NUCCAT conference – Leeds Attended a conference in Leeds with Sophie, a member of Academic Quality at the university. “Is Student Involvement in Quality Providing Value for Students and Institutions Alike?” Universities and Unions across ‘the north’ discussed many different areas such as student engagement, student voice and representation – a really beneficial trip!
Progress to date (summary) Review meeting established Demon Media’s perceived purpose from the perspective of DMU, DSU and Student leaders within Demon. Meeting established Demon’s Vision, Mission and Values The above then fed into the creation of new articles of association and which were approved by the DemonFM board. Worked provisionally in accordance with Demon’s new Constitution to recruit Demon Board members in accordance with new structure and governance. Latest Progress Demon Media AGM was held on the 11th April where a new constitution & demon board membership was approved by the membership of Demon. Demon Board meeting to be arranged with VP Media and Comms elect invited for handover purposes. Provisional meetings with members have been held and the discussions there will help inform the agenda of the first board meeting. Time Scale until students see results From now onwards. board meeting to take place in May where we will begin talking strategy & addressing some more pressing concerns for the coming year such as resourcing & FM license renewal. Make printing cheaper on campus Context (summary) Students, when asked, frequently cite the cost of printing to be a major burden to their academic experience at DMU. At a time when students are paying more than ever for university, students should be able to enjoy a cheaper print solution on campus Progress to date (summary) Worked with the university to establish the Student Print Project group which then confirmed that the university would capitalise the installation of a new print fleet across campus which would result in much cheaper printing – just covering the costs of consumables (paper, ink, toner etc). fleet has been installed across campus & the cost of printing has gone down significantly for the student body. Latest Progress Been monitoring and working with the print project board. Ensured student-favourable outcomes to specific situations around acetate printing and others. ‘Lessons Learned’ wrap up meeting scheduled for 7th Feb. Time Scale until students see results Immediate Be more transparent about tuition fee spending Context (summary) In an age of high student fees, university funding is becoming more of a debate in current political context. I believe that students, who can be seen as consumers of the university, deserve to know more about precisely how their fees are spent