OUR IMPACTCOVENTRY UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ UNION IMPACT REPORT 2010/11

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Welcome to the impact report for Coventry University Students’ Union (CUSU). The following pages outline the impact we have made to the lives of students at Coventry University, the benefits we have brought to the University and the partners we have worked with to help make Coventry a better city for everyone.

The strategic plan for CUSU focuses on representation and partnership, empowerment, engagement and employability and the impact report has been laid out to reflect our core areas of focus.

To our members – thank you for your continued support, we will continue to represent you in the year ahead and strive to make Coventry University better for students year on year. To our partners – thank you for helping us to grow and we look forward to continuing our relationship. To everyone, please read on and feel free to get in touch if you would like to work with us in the future.”

WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE DO

CUSU represents the voice of students at Coventry University. It is also a place for students to make new friends, discover new ideas and find new passions in order to develop as individuals and members of society. On top of the sports, volunteering and employability opportunities, social clubs, sports teams and entertainment, CUSU is there to offer students advice, representation and the chance to campaign on issues they feel strongly about.

As an independent charity, CUSU is separate from the University, but does receive funding from Coventry University in the form of a block grant. CUSU is proud to be democratic in nature, with four elected student officers (sabbaticals); four faculty chairs and a larger elected body, called the Student Council, representing students.

CUSU is now located in The Hub, a building at the heart of Coventry’s campus. It is a place to meet, relax and unwind as well as to access the University and Students’ Union services. The impact report covers the period up to the organisation’s move into the new building.

WELCOME...

2010/11 SABBATICAL TEAM

Liah MaccallamVP Welfare

Rob WilsonPresident

David BrewisVP Student Activities

Andy O’Shaughnessy VP Academic Affairs

Dez CutcheyVP Communications

Andy O’ShaughnessyVice President Democracy and Finance 2011/12

Future: Stop Education Cuts” aimed to protest about the cuts in higher education. Six coaches was the largest contingent of student demonstrators CUSU had sent to a demonstration in a generation. Joining up to 52,000 others, students from Coventry marched peacefully from Horse Guards Parade and rallied outside Tate Britain to listen to speakers, including NUS President Aaron Porter and Sally Hunt, General Secretary of the University and College Union. Back in Coventry but outside of the University, three students represented CUSU at Coventry City Council’s Safer Neighbourhood Group for the first time and a member of CUSU’s Executive Committee was appointed, as an ambassador, to the National Student Survey.

Stronger links were also formed with local authority departments, by CUSU’s Advice Centre, to help students with disrepair in their privately rented proper-ties. CUSU has established a referral system so that student issues can be dealt with directly when property owners refuse to respond to phone calls, and/or emails from the Advice Centre team.

Within the national student movement, CUSU had representatives at the NUS black students, women students and disabled students conferences.

Finally, the All Student Meeting (CUSU’s AGM) was held in November 2010 with attendees filling the venue’s capacity of 680 students. Sadly several hundred students, had to be turned away because of the fire regulations limiting the capacity in the sports hall but plans were put in place to find a larger venue for the next All Student Meeting.

2010/2011 was a revolutionary year for CUSU with representation at the forefront of that change. A new course representation system was introduced in order to give all students a voice within Coventry University. In its first year 120 senior reps were signed up, overseeing 700 course reps throughout the University. The number of course reps has since been reduced to 600 based on the feedback we received last year.

Sharepoint, the online election system for course representatives, was also developed. The first senior course reps were appointed in March 2010 using this system. Following on from the successes gained through course reps a halls of residence representation system was developed and, after negotiations, this was accepted by three private sector providers as well as Coventry University.

A review of the sabbatical team roles and responsibilities was undertaken prior to the elections for 2011/12. Student Council membership was also reviewed and training for council members enhanced.

Memberships of the CUSU steering committees, which are chaired by students or sabbatical officers, were revised and the committees now report directly to CUSU’s Student Council. CUSU negotiated with Coventry University to increase the number of student representatives on the University’s Teaching and Learning Committee and on their Equality and Diversity Committee in order to more accurately represent the diverse student profile.

As part of the wider students’ union movement, CUSU sent six coaches full of students to NUS’ National Demonstration on 10th November 2010. “Fund Our

REPRESENTATION

REPRESENTATIONDuring this year, CUSU’s Executive decided to remove the role of president and to create four equal vice presidents, with this change in structure taking effect from September 2011.

6 coaches of demonstrators were sent from Coventry to NUS “Fund Our Future: Stop Education Cuts” demonstration in November 2010.

1

4

2 3

5 6

FUND OUR FUTURE:STOP EDUCATION CUTS

NUS DEMONSTRATION

=

THAT’S ONE COURSE REP FOR EVERY 32 STUDENTS, BASED ON THE LATEST HEFCE DATA

603 COURSE REPS

STUDENTS5,247 ADVICE CENTRECUSU’s Advice Centre represented 514 students at a variety of enquiries including examination investigation panels, disciplinary hearings, professional suitability meetings and police panels.

VISITED CUSU’S

WITH THE SERVICE THEY RECEIVED FROM CUSU’S ADVICE CENTRE98.2%‘VERY SATISFIED’ OR ‘SATISFIED’OF STUDENTS WERE EITHER

Business, Environment and Society: 239 - Health and Life Sciences: 151 - Engineering and Computing: 136 - Art and Design: 77

239 + 151 + 136 + 77 = 603 REPS:THE NUMBER OF REPS IN EACH FACULTY IS A REFLECTION OF THE SIZE AND NUMBER OF STUDENTS IN EACH AREA.

FACULTY BY FACULTY

WITH THE SERVICE THEY RECEIVED FROM CUSU’S ADVICE CENTRE‘VERY SATISFIED’ OR ‘SATISFIED’

239 + 151 + 136 + 77 = 603

With the experience gained from the NUS Internationalisation Agenda, CUSU submitted, and was successful in receiving, a bid from Coventry University to fund further support for international students. £140,000 has now been given to CUSU to support this activity in partnership with the International Office of Coventry University.

The African Caribbean (AC) Society was recognised as one of the top 20 societies of its kind in the UK, at the national 2011 ACS Leadership Summit, as a result of its work in developing a democratic African Caribbean presence at Coventry University. CUSU also had its work acknowledged, jointly winning the Black Students’ Union of the Year award, along with Manchester Met, from the National Union of Students’ (NUS) Black Students’ campaign.

CUSU likes to celebrate its diversity by promoting, and maintaining, an inclusive work and study environment that enables everyone to reach their full potential. We recognises that everyone is unique.

CUSU continues to monitor all of its services for diversity of gender, ethnicity and nationality and is keen to match the actual student profile in all areas. CUSU has put in place action plans where there is some difference between actual participation and the overall student profile.

There were 176 Libyan nationals studying at Coventry University and they were affected by the freezing of funds coming into the UK from Libya. Nearly all those involved were mature students with families and they were in desperate need of help with food and housing. The CUSU Advice Centre put together a rescue package, in partnership with Coventry City Council, the Citizens Advice Bureau and Coventry University’s International Office to provide food and housing support.

CUSU joined the second intake of students’ unions in the NUS Internationalisa-tion Agenda, alongside nine others, and carried out the NUS quality assessment audit of the organisation’s support of international students. Following this, CUSU identified and prioritised three areas for improvement: staff training on understanding the international student profile and its importance to CUSU and Coventry University, networking within the University and with other students’ unions in the NUS Internationalisation Agenda scheme, for collaboration and partnership working, and communicating with international students.

Coventry University’s student population is also diverse in its religious, as well as cultural, makeup and this means that many students, whether home or international, do not take part in events with alcohol. CUSU has increased the number alcohol-free events to six per year.

DIVERSITY

DIVERSITY£140,000HELP FURTHER DEVELOP COVENTRY UNIVERSITY’S OFFER TO INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

CUSU WAS SUCCESSFUL IN BIDDING FOR FUNDING TO

WE HAD TO PRESENT OUR IDEAS TO ADRAGONS DEN STYLE PANEL

WE WOULD LIKE TO MAKE YOU AN OFFER

176LIBYANWERE STUDYING AT COVENTRY UNIVERSITY IN 2011 AND CUSU HELPED SUPPORT THEM WHILST EVENTS IN THEIR HOME COUNTRY DEVELOPED.

1 OF THE 20 BEST AFRICAN CARIBBEAN SOCIETIES IN THE UK IS BASED AT

COVENTRY UNIVERSITY

STUDENTS

Whilst working for the Healthy Living Network Madeeha managed the catering and the finances – providing healthy eating advice and keeping a check on the accounts.

At the Refugee Centre she provided clients with emotional and moral support as well as teaching them creative activities such as henna painting, Asian cookery and helped them with their written and spoken English. This shows the breadth of employability skills volunteers can use and develop whilst volunteering.

Sports club members were offered the chance to gain coaching qualifications through their activities in their clubs and some of the students that took it up gained coaching experience in schools.

Sports Sciences and Physiotherapy students were given placements with several of CUSU’s sports clubs. There were 16 placements in all, two for each Team Phoenix designated sports club. This formed part of a broader strategy to improve competition performance for Team Phoenix.

EMPLOYABILITYCUSU employed students in the non-commercial areas of the Students’ Union for the first time in the areas of Representation, Sports and Societies and Administration.

Building on the success of 2009/10, CUSU continued to deliver 10 Add+vantage modules. Horizon Volunteering changed its name to Volunteering & Employability (V&E) to better describe the service it offers to students. V&E began to carry out structured skills analysis for potential volunteers to help them find appropriate volunteering opportunities. V&E offers students and staff the opportunity to make a difference to something they care about and experience which can make them more employable.

Volunteers also had the opportunity to share their own skills and experience with a range of community organisations, teaching local people new skills and enriching their lives. One of those volunteers, Madeeha Bakali, won a Volunteer England Gold award for her Leadership, Dedication and Achievement skills with her outstanding contribution to supporting a number of internal, local and international voluntary organisations and initiatives. These included Coventry Refugee Centre, a local school and she was President of the UNICEF Society.

EMPLOYABILITY

16 PLACEMENTS WERE CREATED FOR PHYSIOTHERAPY AND SPORTS SCIENCES STUDENTS TO WORK WITH

TEAM PHOENIX

VOLUNTEERING AND EMPLOYABILITY

1,241 STUDENTSREGISTERED AS VOLUNTEERS WITH

65THE NUMBER OF PRIMARY, SECONDARY AND SPECIAL NEEDS SCHOOLS THAT CUSU WORKED WITH THIS YEAR.

SCHOOLS School

VOLUNTARY ORGANISATIONSWORKEDWITH CUSU IN2010 11/128

Student Money Week was held in February with a significant contribution being made by students volunteering through the Money Doctors programme.

CUSU organised a number of awareness campaigns throughout the year – black history month, sexual health, plagiarism and cheating, and new for this year, was LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans) month. The campaigns improved their reach to students as a result of a new campaigns team being formed by more than 30 students.

The number of talks about CUSU, given by sabbatical officers to new students, in Freshers’ Week doubled to more than 100 in the first two weeks of the academic year. The sabbatical officers began to use twitter and blogs for the first time to engage students.

In order to reach students who had enrolled late or were starting in January (the latter mostly postgraduate and international students), CUSU held it’s first Refreshers’ Week at the end of January 2011. Students could join clubs and societies, find out how to get involved in volunteering, join the student media services and find out what CUSU could do for them.

In 2010/11 CUSU made great strides in the engagement of students. Real changes were delivered across the University improving the quality of education.

Visits to CUSU’s website nearly doubled from the previous year with 165,432 visits throughout 2010/11 compared to 83,269 the year before, with 8th March being the most viewed day (2,075 hits in one day). Unique visits, calculated by Google Analytics, also nearly doubled from 44,081 to 81,250 unique visitors.

Engagement with the University developed further with the appointment, by Coventry University, of a new pro vice chancellor. CUSU now has regular meetings with Ian Dunn, Pro Vice Chancellor for Student Empowerment, on student representation, academic development as well as other areas that affect the student experience at Coventry University.

Students were consulted on a new academic misconduct procedure, as the University looked at replacing the existing system of how suspected cases of plagiarism and cheating would be investigated. CUSU’s Advice Centre was involved in the University’s working group and ensured that the proposals were reviewed by students and that those views were fed back to the University.

The number of members of sports clubs remained stable and but overall number of societies increased, with 11 new academic-based societies forming in 2010/11.

The Advice Centre developed an outreach service into faculties and Coventry University’s Graduate Centre.

Varsity, the sporting competition between Coventry University and The University of Warwick, saw a doubling of the number of spectators and increased the income generated from the competition by changing from a one-day event into a Varsity series over two months.

Sports clubs and individuals continued to improve in competitions against other universities and achieved our highest position yet with an overall position of 50th in the British Universities Competitions league table.

ENGAGEMENT

ENGAGEMENT

COMPARED TO THE YEAR BEFORE

2 X THE NUMBER OF SPECTATORS WATCHED

VARSITY TO PROMOTE CHANGE AND AWARENESS ON A NUMBER OF ISSUES ACROSS COVENTRY UNIVERSITY’S MAIN CAMPUS.

30 JOINED THE CUSU STUDENTS

CUSU CAMPAIGN TEAM

100 FRESHERS TALKSWERE GIVEN BY THE SABBATICAL TEAMTO NEW STUDENTS DURING FRESHERS’ WEEK

March

8 IN 2,075SAW THE BIGGEST NUMBER OF HITS ON THE WEBSITE

HIT

S

AROUND DOUBLE THE AVERAGE DAILY HITSONE DAY

WWW.CUSU.ORG

81,250UNIQUE VISITORS IN IN 2010/11 BROWSED THROUGH

ENGAGEMENT

CUSU HELD ITS ANNUAL AWARD CEREMONY AT COVENTRY TRANSPORT MUSEUM IN 5 MAY 2011

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION CUSU

26 THE COMBINED NUMBER OF STUDENTS AND STAFF WHO WON A

PRESTIGIOUSAWARDON THE NIGHT

Union and University - Outstanding contribution to CUSUJoe Paxton

Outstanding contribution to learner supportBrian Clough

Most innovative use of technology in learningPete Woodbridge and Jonathan Worth

Greatest commitment to improving student experienceGeoff Willcocks

Most inspirational lecturerNigel Denton

Campaigns and Democracy - Campaigner of the yearAfrican Caribbean Society (ACS)

Most active council memberEmma Whitehead-Turford

Deputy faculty chair of the yearFrances Dunn

Representation - Halls rep of the yearToby Morrison

Course rep of the year Md Farhad Rahman

Senior Course Rep of the yearSascha Peter

Volunteer of the year (staff)Liah Maccallam

Volunteering - Volunteering England gold award winnersMadeeha Bakali, Dean O’Brien, Sylvia Stenhouse

Volunteer of the year (student)Oludolapo Taiwo Fakuade

Student media - Source journalist of the yearKelly Higgins

Source broadcast of the yearTarquin Roflcopters for “House of LOLs”

Sports and Societies - Best male (sport)Mohamed Khan

Best female (sport)Helen Dermody

Best sports teamCricket

Best male (society)Olumide Owolabi

Best female (society)Michelle Bailey

Best societyEast Asian Film

Most improved (sports team or society)Men’s Football

Outstanding contributionMatt Abbott

CUSU HELD ITS ANNUAL AWARD CEREMONY AT COVENTRY TRANSPORT MUSEUM IN 5 MAY 2011

AWARD

CUSU seeks to be sustainable and this comes in many shapes and forms. The organisation seeks to be environmentally sustainable and, during 2010/11, the organisation received a silver Green Impact Award recognising its efforts in this area. CUSU is also looking to be democratically and structurally sustainable and the organisation has started work with PQASSO, a quality assurance system, to develop an accredited process in this area. Finally, the organisation seeks to be financially sustainable – seeking a profitable outcome, from the newly formed CUSU Commercial Services, that can be put back into the organisation in order to provide better services to students as well as working closely with Coventry University to develop a mutually beneficial working relationship and long-term plan for the block grant.

SUSTAINABILITYINCOME 2010/11 2010/11 2009/10

Block grant from Coventry UniversityProject grants from Coventry UniversityBar and shop incomeTicket salesInter-company incomeOther incomeInvestment income

Total Income

(000’s)1243

5220170

143379

7

2095

(000’s)74838

25874

191260

8

1577

EXPENDITURE 2010/11 2010/11 2009/10

Staff costsOther operating expensesDepreciation

Total expenditure

Profit on disposal of tangible fixed assets

(000’s)871

112420

2015

(000’s)91762125

1563

SURPLUS 80 15

0 1

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400

Investment income

Other income

Inter - company income

Ticket sales

Bar and shop income

Project grants from Coventry University

Block grant from Coventry University

Charity no. / Company no: 07366779

Coventry University Students’ Union, Coventry University, The Hub, 4 Jordan Well, Coventry, CV1 5QTTelephone: 024 7765 5200 Web: www.cusu.org Facebook: www.facebook.com/CoventrySU

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