I’m sure we can all agree on how challenging this year has been. We’ve almost reached the light at the end of the tunnel for term one which should give us all the opportunity to rest, even a little, and reflect on everything that’s happened since September. As your Students’ Union, we’ve worked hard to ensure every decision being made at City is one that best reflects your perspectives and preferences as Students. It’s been tough to say the least but we have added value to a number of key decisions made throughout this pandemic. The work never stops and we hope to continue growing and representing you. In order to do this we need you to continue talking to us, as partners, so that we can truly understand your experiences. We’ve listed some of our most recent developments as an officer team below. On behalf of the entire Students’ Union, we would like to wish you the best of luck with what remains of this term, with your exams and assignments, and are eager to continue listening, learning, and taking action. Our doors are always open. Until next time!

Here's what we've been working on over the past 4 weeks: 

1.     Continuing our campaign for a culturally competent mental health and counselling service. Students voted in favour of this approach through our motion at the recent Student Members Meeting.

2.     We’ve continued to lobby for a quality experience for students both on and off campus. Ongoing discussions with the University and Trade Unions have been underway to ensure the campus experience is safe for everybody.

3.     Students deserve better. We’re continuing to build our campaign around Tuition fees and Value for money. We hope to shape dialogue and decisions at both the local and national level.

4.     No detriment policy. We’re currently lobbying the University to reintroduce a no detriment policy as seen during the previous lockdown. Students will be benchmarked against prior attainment to ensure their grades are not affected by this pandemic.

5.     Student spaces, we’re continuing to represent students on the University Space Management committee. We will be lobbying for more Student spaces, that are better designed for accessibility and inclusiveness.

6.     Actions taken as a result of the work you did last month e.g. community forums

7.     We’ve successful collaborated with the Univrtsity in setting up paid Student Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) roles, these will play a key part in the University’s approach to EDI moving forward.

8.     Islamophobia Awareness Month is well underway, our VP Education, Ruqaiyah Javaid, went live with Samayya Afzal to talk about Islamaphobia in Higher Education. SU President spoke at an event for Queen Mary Students’ Union discussing Muslims in leadership.

9.     Presented our Sabbatical Officer Priorities at the latest University Executive Board Town Hall meeting. The forum was attended by more than 300 members of Staff.

10.  School Links Meeting/s. We’re continuing to establish formal touch points wich each of the five schools, with the relevant students, staff and officers in each room, to discuss and solve contemporary issues highlighted by students

11.  The SU President continues to represent the Students’ Union at the Business school naming committee, discussions around how to keep students at the heart of the name change are developing with ease.

12.  We’ve been presenting the data from our Student check-ins, in which we called around 2.500 Students to ask about the first few weeks of term and how they’re doing, to the deans of each school. We will be lobbying for them to act on the feedback and our recommendations.