Giving our students a voice
At Cardiff University Students’ Union, we have a dedicated Student Voice team made up of three staff members who are responsible for facilitating student democracy and academic representation. Due to the hard work of this team, democracy and representation isn’t just the remit of three people, it’s become embedded across the organisation.
The Student Voice team work on a feedback campaign each year called Speak Week. The campaign has grown in force, notably in the last few years, and has become a recognised source of student feedback by the University.
Specific objectives around this campaign included:
- To gain more than 2,000 feedback cards during Speak Week 2017
- To successfully lobby the University to make changes based on student feedback from Speak Week 2016.
- To supply data reports to service areas within the University to encourage action based on student feedback.
See our #SpeakWeekCSU engagement on Twitter.
Overcoming challenges
When identifying areas of change, we are committed to student engagement. Students enjoy the energy of our Speak Week campaign which is launched to coincide with the release of the NSS each year. This involves our sabbatical officers, volunteers, and staff members asking students to give their feedback, explaining what they would do if they ran the university and why. The aim of this is to give students an additional outlet to talk about their academic experience. This year, feedback channels have been expanded to include social media, an online form, and even the opportunity to submit feedback through our app.
It was identified that getting service heads within the University to support the campaign would have a positive impact on student engagement. The Student Voice team have built relationships with service heads and now sends a data report to each one, featuring feedback that specifically relates to their area. Sharing this data helps to improve the service areas, and thanks to this sharing, the service heads now help promote the campaign around campus.
Instigating a change
Since 2015, feedback gathered on postcards has increased each year, with 800 being completed in 2015, just over 2,000 completed in 2016, and a record 3020 received in 2017 (more than the combined total of the previous two years!). On top of this we received more free-text comments than the NSS for our institution.
Due to the large number of student comments, we have now employed a student research intern to increase the integrity of the data and providing employment opportunities for our students. Each year, the data received from this campaign has a direct impact on the University. It guides our Elected Officer teams on what they should be lobbying for. The University respect the feedback gathered from Speak Week and make real changes from this, including opening one of their libraries 24 hours a day, changing the way they supply exam feedback and expanding common room space at our Heath Park Campus.
The University were so impressed with student engagement with this campaign that in 2016, they approached the Students’ Union to suggest expanding the remit to include Staff Speak Week that would run at the same time and give University staff a chance to feedback on their own experiences.
The feedback that students give during Speak Week is transformed into real change on campus.
- Following discussions we have managed to convince the University to implement a much better system for library fines where books auto-renew themselves unless requested, eliminating unnecessary fines and saving students money.
- For the first time ever, we have acquired a 24 hour bookable Union space for students on our Heath Park campus, making it the only Union space available there out of hours. This is a great win for our Healthcare students as their study hours are so varied compared to other students due to the nature of their courses.
- Following extensive lobbying of the University, exam feedback has now become policy at Cardiff University thanks to the ground work of our predecessors.
- The Arts and Social Studies Library now opens 24 hours a day during term time as a result of feedback obtained during Speak Week 2016, and a lot of lobbying from our Sabbatical Officer team that followed.
- Students at our Heath Park Campus fed back that the cost of food is high in refectories and cafes there. In response to this and in an effort to increase accessibility, the Students’ Union has provided microwaves around the campus to allow students to bring their own food and heat it up rather than buying ready-made food on site.
