The Union exists to represent your academic interests, which includes anything and everything that affects your time at university. Through our Programme Reps, student forums, Part Time Officers, students using the online Ideas Forum and through our 5 Officers we have made some amazing changes from student feedback just in this term alone!
The Union exists to represent your academic interests, which includes anything and everything that affects your time at university. Through our Programme Reps, student forums, Part Time Officers, students using the online Ideas Forum and through our five Officers we have made some amazing changes from student feedback just in this term alone! Take a look, and this isn’t even everything:
- A 24hr library at Ked Road
- 8 more water fountains across the Derby sites
- Microwaves at ALL sites
- Anonymous marking of all assignments (where applicable)
- Parking prices frozen for this year (2018/19)
- Card payments at parking meters "is being considered vital as part of the parking review" in March
- A huge bus and parking review is taking place in March and all 36 students' suggestions from panel debate in November will be taken into consideration. Your Vice President for Education, Scarlet Moss, will also play a huge role in this review
Your Part Time Officers and Programme Reps have given your feedback at Programme Committee Meetings and have ensured these changes for specific cohorts:
- Wellbeing visits to Chesterfield site
- More laptops at Chesterfield site
- More parking spaces available soon at Chesterfield site for students who fit a specific criteria
- Refectory opening times extended in Chesterfield
- Microphones given to lecturers and stricter policy around talking in lectures
- Staff to send email invites for extra events and workshops, rather than just using the programme pages
- Students given definitive answers, regardless of which class they’re in
- LOTS of wonderful group chats have been created by reps to gather feedback. One rep also noted “this has broken the ice between a lot of the group, making conversation a lot easier and opening new friendships” – amazing!
- Fixing heating in a classroom
- Getting more practical and interactive work built in to lectures with positive feedback since
- A support session for a particularly tricky assignment
- An action plan to overcome technical support offering
- Programme Leaders now letting next year’s Level 4 students choose the order that a module is delivered in
- Changing colour contrast on lecture slides
- Providing key concepts on a clear Padlet and “excellent” summaries for students who struggle with Padlet.
…and these are only the changes that we know about! Are you a rep and have had a ‘Rep Win’ like this? Then please tell us by completing a rep journal entry, it only has to be brief. Log in to our website, then click on ‘change’ -> ‘academic rep resources’ -> ‘rep journal’ to submit your entry.
Do you have an idea for change? If you do we’re here to support you! If it concerns your programme, tell your Programme Rep if you don’t know already). If your idea concerns your wider university experience, pop it on the Ideas Forum, or upvote it if it’s on there already. If an idea gets 25 votes or more (the more the better!) it will be sent to Executive Committee and/or Student Summit which are meetings where Union staff and students discuss, vote on and potentially action your idea. So don't hold back, let us know what you want us to do! (You can even post anonymously if you prefer to).
The changes we have made this year have built on from feedback from last year and work from previous reps and officers. To have a look at all that we achieved in 2017/18 check out our Student Voice Report.
Well done everyone... let's see what we can achieve this term!