Deck The Halls December

Deck The Halls December

Campus Realignment      

I wrote up all the questions asked at the last Q and A sessions and forwarded them to the realignment group to note. We've had more meetings in relation to campus realignment.  My request to have an analysis of what it would cost to keep students on campus has been considered and we have won the fight to have students currently studying on a set Campus to remain there until 2016. This allows us to continue our campaign for equal or better provision at the campuses students will be moving to/enrolling onto in 2016.

Community Partnership 

I’ve been working hard with the community in relation to the promotion of the upcoming general

elections. I’ve had meeting with constituents in the Gwent and Pontypridd areas and am awaiting a

response from the Cardiff region representative. Together we've put notices up around the community and put them up around the University.

Distance online Delivery 

I have been working with the University on delivery of online courses and inputting into how these

processes would work. It’s still in it’s early stages but an exciting project to be a part of.

Fundraising and Volunteering

We’ve launched this year’s USW challenges through Challenges Abroad. There are spaces for students to volunteer and fundraise for the Machu Picchu Challenge, Kilimanjaro Challenge and the Thailand Experience. I’ve also been looking at how we can oversee fundraising done across our regions and monitor them to know how much we have raised both as a unit, regionally and as individuals. We raised around £100 for children in need last month, an estimated £40 for the Future Sense Foundation and over £1000 for Movember.

National BACS Conference

I’ve been working with the Chiropractic students to arrange and manage the National BACS conference that will take place next year. The conference will play host to Universities across the UK and will include 8 guest speakers from the Chiropractic and Research industry.

NUS Partnership and Lobbying/The Welsh Language

I’ve been lobbying NUS  to provide  a server that allows for Welsh translation. I’ve had a meeting with NUS Wales President Beth Button to voice my concerns and am in the process of drafting a complaint to NUS. I’ve also been in touch with BBC Wales regarding it. I’ve also been promoting  the feedback forum produced by the government which is gathering feedback on giving 16 year olds the opportunity to vote.

Partner Colleges

We’ve had a lot of problems with one of our partner colleges in terms of disparity of course and equipment provision in comparison to courses taught on the USW campus. I’ve been assessing the situation and drafting a report to feedback to the Universities Partnership forum. I’ve also had a meeting with the link officer in USW to voice the concerns of these students and am in regular communication with the course Representative to communicate these findings.  I will be creating a feedback form to gather individual responses from the affected classes to feed back to the University.

SMook’s

I’ve been testing the Universities new free online courses and giving feedback on them. sMooks’s are short courses that develop your skills. You can complete them in your own time by logging onto an online platform. I’ve been feeding back on the Welsh translation portion of the website and inputting specific SU data to improve their content.

SU Governance

I’ve taken a number of items to Trustee Board to discuss including amendments to the Standing Orders and questions on decisions relating to the current budget. These can be seen in the Trustee Board report.

The QAA

We held a focus group with one of our partner colleges  and we are attempting  to  outreach to more collaborative partner colleges through the USW link officers. We have had a number of meetings with the University and we’ve began work on writing up the student statement.

Union structure and Understanding

I have found that students are unaware of the processes in place and where they can go with different issues and so I’ve  started designing some posters that explain where students can go. I’ve forwarded these to our SVR’s to put up around campus in hope that it will aid students. I’m also trying to get hold of someone to work on an animation video to explain where students need to go for help or information. Once I've found someone, I’ll be looking at making these bilingual.

Welfare and Academic Advice

I’ve had a number of cases relating to academic infringements or hearings. I’ve been offering these students advice and guidance in relation to their individual cases. This month alone I have helped over 10 students with academic discrepancies.

#USWonTour

We’ve been pushing Tour massively this year and have more students registered than we had in the first USW tour year. Next Easter we will be touring over to Saloufest for a week of fun and sport.