Achieving great things for our student members

It’s been a year of achievement at Cardiff University Students’ Union. Here’s some of the things we’ve worked on:

• We achieved the NUS Quality Students’ Union accreditation and following a rigorous verifying process, achieved the ranking of ‘Excellent’. We became only the second SU in the UK to achieve the ‘Excellent’ level and were the first SU in Wales to achieve the quality mark.

Find out more about the awards and accreditation we have achieved.

• Cardiff is a great place to live, but as with any city, personal safety is something that needs to be considered. In response to fears from students around their safety in the city at night, we worked with the Police and Crime Commissioners Office and DrinkAware to introduce DrinkAware Crew to our weekly club nights. Following a comprehensive training programme, these students are employed during nightclub events to provide support to students in a vulnerable state. This includes introducing themselves to students in the queue on the way in to the club, assisting students in areas such as the toilets that are not naturally covered by our security team, signposting students to advice and support services, and assisting students to access our Safe Taxi Scheme and Safety Bus.

Find out more about our DrinkAware Crew in our night club.

• We have supported one of our students in introducing a Safety Walk Scheme to our Cardiff Volunteering Service as another safety initiative. Developed by students and delivered by a team of student volunteers, this service walks lone students home on nights out to help them get there safely.

Find out more about our Safety Walk Scheme .

• Following a successful motion at our Annual General Meeting, we are now in the process of electing our first Mental Health Officer. Mental health is an issue that deserves more focus and support so we are pleased to be addressing this by adding this role to our Campaign Officer team for 2017-18.

Meet our new Elected Officer team and our first ever Mental Health Officer.

• Over the last 12 months, a lot of work has gone into improving our relationship and engagement with our Welsh language student community. From creating a Welsh Language Steering Group that brings staff and students together to discuss Welsh language issues, to employing our first Welsh Language Coordinator, our commitment to improving has been evident. We are excited that in June 2016, a new Welsh Language Policy for the Students’ Union was ratified by the Board of Trustees and are now in the process of making the changes necessary to be fully compliant with this policy.

Read our new Welsh Language Policy.

Taking action and overcoming challenges

Challenges faced around new safety initiatives were more logistical in nature. The ideas and innovation were present, but it was important to show restraint and get all the right partners on board to ensure that student workers and volunteers were not putting themselves or other students in danger. This involved creating training opportunities and seeking advice from the right organisations. Our Safety Walk Scheme volunteers were also DBS checked before the scheme was launched in September last year. It was also important to ensure that students were allowed to lead the initiatives as much as possible. The right measures needed to be in place while still empowering the students involved so they felt like owners of the schemes.

The biggest challenge we faced through the work we undertook around Welsh language was to change attitudes both of staff and students. Relationships had become strained following a referendum that took place in 2015, so work was needed to repair this. We were also aware that it was very important to get all the right people involved, bringing together Welsh speaking students, Sabbatical Officers, Campaign Officers, Students’ Union staff, University staff and external partners. We also wanted to empower the student population to get involved in the creation of the policy. In order to do this, we published a draft version of the policy and invited students to send feedback and suggestions before we finalised the document.

In the past year we’ve seen a huge increase in students participating in one-off engagement activities, with more students from diverse backgrounds engaging. Our volunteer-led ‘give it a go’ scheme engaged with over 5,000 students last year, meaning that over two thirds – 0r 22,000 students – engage in at least one activity of service organised by the Union. We have also put diversity at the heart of our strategy and have embedded diversity leadership as a key part of student leadership roles.

Achieving real change

Our Student Safety Scheme is now fully operational and has helped over 200 students to date. The founding student, Alastair Babington, has now clocked more than 200 hours of volunteering this academic year alone and we have 38 dedicated students who are registered safety walk volunteers.

The Welsh Language Policy was successfully ratified by the Board of Trustees and an official launch event took place in November to raise awareness of the changes that have been made. The event, led by our Welsh Language Officer and Welsh Language Coordinator, was very well received. We did our first Facebook Live Broadcast from the event, which enabled us to reach a much bigger group of students. Most importantly, there has been a noticeable, tangible change in the organisation’s commitment and the commitment from staff to the Welsh Language. While all clauses of the policy cannot be complied with immediately, the action plan that accompanies the policy has set realistic goals so we can continue to progress towards our main aim, to be a fully bilingual and inclusive Students’ Union. Strong relationships have formed between students and staff, and students are more positive about steps the Students’ Union has taken. This has been evidenced by 0 customer feedback complaints regarding Welsh language being received in the first 4 months since the policy was passed by the Board.

Over many years students have been dissatisfied with the University’s student support services. After years of lobbying, we partnered with the University to develop the concept of the new Centre for Student Life building that has recently been granted planning permission. This new facility addresses the issues raised by our students in internal surveys and our annual ‘speak week’, will sit physically connect to the Students’ Union building and will put student welfare at the heart of the student experience.