Emma Brown, Union President
It’s great to be back in the fortnightly update! I hope you all got through the exam season as smoothly as possible and are excited for everything SUSU has to offer throughout Semester 2.
What have I been up to? Meetings with interesting people:
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Last month, I met with the office of our local MP, Satvir Kaur (MP for Southampton Test) to lobby against the government’s decision to implement a levy for international students and to make recommendations for student safety. Ultimately, I felt really optimistic about our collaboration, as our MP’s office is keen to listen to students, and I look forward to where this goes.
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Met with the Unilink manager to talk through what is possible with changes to bus routes and services, including looking into possible improvements to the U7, U1, and night bus fares. I’ve also been working with the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities to look into WSA routes and timetabling.
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I met with the Vice Chancellor of our University to discuss how we can improve student safety across the city. This is something I know many of you care deeply about, so if you have suggestions, whether that’s lighting, transport, support services, or anything else, please do email me as this directly feeds into the top-level conversations at the university.
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I’m part of the conversation in the early stages of recruiting a new Vice-Chancellor, as our current VC, Mark E Smith, will be leaving in early May. This is an incredibly important moment for the University, and I will ensure that students are involved throughout the process.
Other exciting things happening:
I’ve been leading the LGBTQ+ History Month (February) and Women’s History Month (March) campaigns. If you’re interested in getting involved, I’d love to hear from you. Keep an eye out for: brand new pronoun and pride pins to be featured in the B42 reception, lobbying for period products across campus, and a lot of charity fundraising!
Last week, I visited Leeds Students’ Union for the Russell Group Students Union (RGSU) conference, where I met sabbatical officers from across the country to share ideas and collaborate on national lobbying projects.
Some RGSU highlights:
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A Q&A session with the Leeds MP on how to effectively lobby the government, including on issues such as the international student levy.
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I’ve built strong connections with sabbatical officers nationwide so we can work together on bigger, more impactful projects. I’m part of a wider discussion on rights for international students.
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Tour around the Leeds student union, operating at a much larger scale than Southampton, with 40,000 students. It’s given me plenty of ideas to bring back to SUSU.
Do you see any cool ideas from other students’ unions? Why not submit them via You Make Change – our dedicated platform for making suggestions, whether that be from water fountains, to buses, to meal deals, and everything in between. While not everything will be possible, your sabbatical officers will read and write a custom response to every suggestion and see what can be done to make that change happen.
Finally, it would be great if you could follow us on Instagram – @sususabbs – to see what we’re up to. Don’t worry, I don’t film videos during meetings, so it’s just the fun (and hopefully useful) stuff on our socials!
As always, feel free to email me, president@soton.ac.uk, if you have any questions, ideas, or concerns. I’m more than happy to hear from you, whether that be via a meeting, email or Teams message.
Joshie Christian, VP Education
This fortnight I’ve been chatting to loads of other students as we handle various exam season issues. I’ve also been to Leeds for the Russel Group Students’ Unions conference; I’m part of the Russel Group’s campaign work around Student Finance! See Emma’s update above to read more about the conference!
I’ve also been reporting around the feedback collected from 100+ Course Reps around Assessment Briefs and Examination Rubrics. I presented to the Advancing Assessments project board, more news to come later! Our big suggestion is that we should implement consistent and clear assessment brief templates!
Final chance to submit a response: The PAT Project Consultation
The PAT Project is a big University effort to improve everyone’s experience of Personal Academic Tutors. This is my final call to every student who feels they have something to say about their experience with Personal Academic Tutors; complete the consultation below by the end of the 31st of January!
The consultation consists of a PAT Framework; a description of the responsibilities of a PAT. Read through this (especially parts 8 and 9, the Roles and Responsibilities of Students and Tutors), then use the form on the SharePoint Page to give feedback and any additional comments about tutoring at Southampton!
The consultation takes between 5 and 10 minutes to complete, depending on how much you have to say, but all the questions are optional! Give your feedback now to reshape the tutoring experience at Southampton – as early as next year!
What does the duck say?
I was chatting to the Rubber Duck on my desk, and here’s one for you to ponder:
If a duck stands on a stage and quacks, you’ll hear the sounds she makes echo as it bounces of the wall behind you.
If it’s a pigeon up on the stage, you don’t hear the echo. None of the sounds he makes will bounce off the wall, because a coo sticks!
All the best from me,
Joshie Christian – VP Education
Travis Arthur, VP Sports
As always, I’m running weekly drop-ins every Thursday from 2–3pm at Stag’s. Come by for a chat, to ask questions, or to share any ideas you have. If you’ve got thoughts about sport, physical activity, or anything SUSU-related definitely come along.
On the funding side, the Round 2 Sports Grant had ~£50,000 to allocate. However, the clubs had submitted approximately ~£170,000 in requests, so unfortunately, we couldn’t meet everything. With decisions now finalised, I’ll be contacting each club soon with the outcome of their grant.
For the Team Southampton Awards, following student consultation, we have chosen the most popular venue and event format. In addition, I have looked into the current awards and adapted them to ensure every category of achievement can be recognised. Nominate now before Friday 6th March, 16:00, to ensure students, teams, and sports clubs who have achieved excellence, shown commitment, and embodied the spirit of Team Southampton throughout the year are celebrated. The awards ceremony will take place on Friday 1st May at St Mary’s Stadium, keep a look out for tickets!
Although Varsity this year will be in Portsmouth, there’s still a lot to plan from SUSU’s end. So far, I have been involved with helping plan media coverage, ticket options and the after-party. I can’t wait for this year’s Varsity, and hopefully we will walk away with another win! In addition, I have started to go around many clubs to get some filming with them for this year’s varsity video, showing how all of Team Southampton works together!
Moving forward, I will be working a lot on the SUSU Safe initiative, aiming to inform students about the different forms of safety provisions SUSU, the university and the wider community offer. To start this, I have already created a guide that collates all the current guidance and initiatives that are already in place.
The badge scheme, which was introduced last year, allows recognition to clubs who deserve it by awarding them badges: community, inclusivity, engagement, sustainability and wellbeing. I am now working with the activity coordinators to ensure this recognition is noticed, ensuring students are being made aware of these achievements.
You can also reach me anytime via the @team_soton Instagram, on Teams or by email at vpsports@soton.ac.uk. Alternatively, you can book a meeting with me via my bookings page.
Ge 'Sparkle' Gao, VP Communities
I’m really pleased to share that this fortnight we’ve made meaningful progress across several key areas of work 💪
Firstly, I’m very happy to say that our anti-scam awareness project has moved forward in a tangible way 🎥✨ We’ve now completed filming our anti-scam video, which marks an important milestone for the project. We’re aiming to release this in March, and I’m looking forward to sharing it more widely to support international students with clear and accessible guidance.
Following the Christmas break and a busy exam period 📚, we’re also preparing to continue with the Exploring Societies video series. A huge thank you to the societies who have already responded — your enthusiasm is greatly appreciated 🙌
If any other society presidents see this update and would like to be involved, please feel free to DM me on Instagram 📩. If you’re interested in promoting your society and would like support from SUSU’s perspective, I’d love to hear from you.
Overall, it’s been really encouraging to see these projects moving from planning into delivery, and I’m excited about the momentum we’re building over the coming weeks ✨
Inclusion Update
This fortnight, your inclusion update is being written by Joshie, your VP Education.
Equity & Assessments – Research about assessment and feedback practices.
Your VP Education regularly works with the Widening Participation and Social Mobility team and the Advancing Assessment Project; they are sharing a research project about assessment and feedback practices; how they impact grades, degree awarding, and academic confidence.
This research is for undergraduate UK students, but particularly Black Heritage, White Heritage, IMDQ1 and IMDQ5 students (IMDQ = Indices of Multiple Deprivation Quotient). You can use this IMDQ checker to check your eligibility.
Student survey – This will take between 8 and 10 minutes to complete, and you will be entered into a prize draw to win 1 of 3 £20 SUSU Shop Vouchers.
Focus Groups and Interviews – The Focus Groups will be 45 minutes each and the Interviews will be 30 minutes; you will receive a £20 SUSU Shop Voucher for taking part! Email A.H.G.Manley@soton.ac.uk to sign up!
Find out more about each of these three opportunities through the info sheets below:
You Make Change Updates
You Make Change update: Thank you as always for your ideas and queries. We look forward to receiving more submissions in the next two weeks!
