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Union Review (Oct 09) Governance Structure V4
Union Review (Oct 09) Brighton SU Decision Making V2
Introduction
The University of Brighton Students' Union is an essential organisation that ensures there is representation and support for the students of the University of Brighton. The Union however appreciates that like all organisations it requires regular reviews to ensure that it is relevant to its current demographic of members. UBSU’s elected representatives therefore decided to undertake a review of the Union, with the support of its membership to ensure that it is ‘the modern day union for the modern day student’.
With the ever pending change of legislation making students’ unions register as charities it is important that we are meeting the requirements that will be set out for us. Advice from the National Union of Students, is that unions follow CC10 ‘The Hallmarks Of An Effective Charity’, which was published by the Charity Commission in July 2008. This outlines various things that the Union is currently not doing, including have a board of trustees with a mix of skills, knowledge and experience.
What we are presenting you below is the backbone of the NEW UNION. It includes a Board of Trustees, a Student Charter, more accessibility for students, a Referenda System, and most importantly the Union has now been split into 4 areas.
These 4 areas are: Activities, Campus, Academic and Society & Citizenship, these areas then feed into a committee where UBSU policy is made and can be implemented from.
Additionally to what we are presenting to you today over the summer we will be working on the structure of our officers, the rest of our constitution (our governing document – all the rules and regulations) and how this is to be implemented. This will all then be taken to the October 09 AGM, where the AGM will be asked to vote out the AGM forever.
Another finding from the Union Review is that people find it hard to distinguish what the Union is doing and what the University is doing. To make us a more visible recognisable organisation we have changed out logo from UBSU (which most people forgot the order of) to a much more relevant ‘Brighton SU’. This is also colour coded to represent our 4 main areas as set in the new constitution. This has been past at Union Council and will now be in place on all new materials for next academic year.
Why did we do this?
What do we know about our members and their wants, needs and expectations from us?
The data collected to inform the 2008 SWS illustrated a notable level of disengagement form UBSU amongst students that broadly corresponds with age, level of study, mode of study and fee status. While we may be maintaining relevance to younger, more traditional students and particularly those who play sports or participate through societies, for those who don’t we are of very little relevance or indeed, held in low regard. This is in contrast to these same students reporting a broadly positive view of their time at the University of Brighton.
View: The Students’ Union has had a positive effect on my time as a student (SWS 2007 Data)
How was the data reported
The data in this report indicated a weighted scale representing respondents answering positively to any given point in regard to the question they were addressing. Most questions were posed so that respondents could answer at one of 5 points using a Likert scale ranging from “No, not at all” to “Yes, agree completely”. For this analysis students responding at the midpoint are being regarded as ambivalent towards to proposition, holding no strong views either way. The strength of feeling is reported on a weighted scale of negative 10 to positive 10.
Surveys to inform this review show that students expect a level of service provision from UBSU through shops and offices but are have much stronger views that see UBSU as an organisation that should be engaged with and seeking to improve the academic areas of university life, actively campaigning on students behalf and is seen to effect change that benefits students both collectively and individually.
Students have quite a strong belief in the values of democracy and indicate quite high levels of willingness, at least theoretically to participate. However, their level of engagement and to a certain extent, trust, in current officers and representational systems is considerably lower showing ambivalence and negativity. This is most strongly felt by older, part time and postgraduate students .
Students do not suggest that UBSU is effective in enhancing their university experience. There is broad disinterest in most methods of accountability other than a clear statement of student rights an effective complaints system and more traditional means of electronic communication. The benefits that might be afforded through web 2.0 technologies, such as blogs, wikis and virtual forums are not perceived to be valuable to students at the moment. Student do suggest that they want officers with named responsibilities that reflect their own particular interests, their academic experience and take responsibility for UBSU’s communication with students.
Taking the information gained during the qualitative and quantitative stages of the Governance Review surveying and adapting aspects of the first proposed structure it is possible to recommend a number of key elements that should feature in any new UBSU governance structure.
Please use the menu bars on the left to navigate to all the key areas of the proposal.
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