Assembly Meeting – 5^th of April

We hosted our third Assembly Meeting of the year last Wednesday 5^th of April. Current and elected Assembly Members had the chance to meet each other and work together on setting the new priorities for next academic year.

Through consensus building and active listening to each other, Assembly Members agreed the new priorities for next academic year would focus on:

1. Assessment Support and Timetabling
2. Student Communities and Events
3. Careers and Employability
4. Cost of Living Support

During the summer, the Students’ Union Officers will be working with our Micro-Placement students to create a well-research action plan to ensure we collectively achieves all the objectives for each priority.

Assembly Speaker Election

The role of the Assembly Speaker is to be the lead member of the Assembly and ensure that the Assembly Members and Officers fulfil its responsibilities. You’ll also be leading the monitoring of Sabbatical Officer performance and a key asset to managing the discussions at the meetings. Four Assembly Members have submitted their nomination:

• Ashley Collins
  • Assembly Member for the School of Communications and Creativity studying MFA Creative Writing)
• Dylan Moody
  • Assembly Member for City Law School studying Graduate Diploma Law)
• Richard Graham
  • Assembly Member for the School of Policy and Global Affairs studying BSc Economics (Economics and Econometrics).
• Zhalia Alizada
  • Assembly Member for the School of Science and Technology studying BSc Mathematics with Finance and Economics.

Elections for the role of Assembly Speaker will take place online.

City Students’ Union Preliminary Financial results 2022-23 & List of Affiliations

Assembly Members received a presentation about the Union’s preliminary financial results for the Students’ Union, including changes in income and expenditure across different areas of the Union between 2022-23 and 2023-24 as well as a list of Affiliations.

Officers: Update & Questions

Assembly Members received an update from the full-time Students’ Union officers on everything they have been working on for the past eight months. Updates can be read here for Yavuz, Deputy President and Fortune, Deputy President.

Update on the Current Priorities

The updates on the Union Priorities are as follows:

• Assessment Guidance and Support

Policy Assistants at the Union have been consulting with students and Assembly members across the six schools as well as looking at the data already provided from NSS and Your Voice surveys. Through focus group discussions during the February Assembly meeting, it was found that majority of the students believe that mock exams for courses with exams and examples on coursework will help them perform better. Students stressed on having the tutorials recorded (currently only lectures are recorded) and to make it more interactive within the 1-hour duration.

• Student Fees and Cost of Living

The Union has been liaising with the University to push forward several support measures for students during this difficult period. Following the recommendations from the previous Assembly Meeting, the University have prioritised the additional support we provide and these mitigations have been shared with student representatives. Furthermore, the Union has collected student views on these support during the meeting, and incorporated students’ recommendations into the Cost of Living Paper which will be published soon. A Cost of Living hub on the Students’ Union’s website is also in progress, so students can access to see all the support and progress on the priority or be signposted to the right support provider.

• Personal Tutoring Support

The Union has been liaising with the multiple schools to understand the student engagement in the Personal Tutor support system. Furthermore, the Policy Assistants have collected student views from across the six schools including both undergraduate and postgraduate students. Feedback collected so far shows a lack of standardisation in student experience, where some say the level of support received was superb whilst others disengaged due to poor experiences.

• Academic and Career Development

The Union is working with the Careers department as well as each individual school to increase engagement in networking and career events. Through the work with the Careers department particularly, the Union was able to identify important aspects where students’ feedback is needed to further improve their services. This feedback was collected at the second Assembly meeting and will be incorporated in the final Review Paper. The Union will also launch a survey to further collect student views on what other support and events they would like to see in each school, looking at undergraduate and postgraduate as well as home, EU and international students.

Next Meeting

The next Assembly Meeting is taking place on 17^th of May and will focus on the Mental Health Charter and how the students can work together with the University to deliver a holistic approach to student wellbeing.