trending impact report 2015 11 ways we made an impact in … · 2015 saw us host the university of...

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11 ways we made an impact in 2015

2015, wow what a year! Here at De Montfort Students’ Union (DSU) we had a cracker! We got more of you lot (DMU students) involved in more activities and events than ever before! We offered sports, societies, volunteering, student media, representation, support, shops and entertainment. We helped make DMU the best it can be, helped you build skills and gave you unforgettable experiences. We really made an impact in 2015, and here’s just a few ways how...

IMpaCT REpoRT 2015

‘15 ‘15IM

PACT

De Montfort Students’ UnionMaking Student Life Exceptional



1. You got involved in more sporting activities you love

You lot sure like making the most of your time at DMU and we’ve helped more of you get involved in sports, societies and other activities this year than ever before!

Take sports for example, over 1534 have bought Active Cards to become registered members of one or more DSU sports teams by December 2015 – that’s more than ever! We kept the price of active Cards super cheap at just £40 per card – registering you for as many different sports as you like! This money is then topped up by your SU to pay for equipment, training coaches and insurance. In September, the DMU Vice Chancellor invested thousands more into sport to help our teams grow and develop. The university also gifted new sports facilities to us this year – giving us more space to train and compete.

2015 saw us host the University of Leicester in the annual Varsity competition. 46 games were played across 25 sports as you lot represented DMU with pride. Many of our teams also took part in other inter-university, national and even European championships bringing home a range of awards and trophies.

a massive development in sports over 2015 has been Campus330 – our programme designed to provide informal and inclusive sports. over 820 of you signed up to this at Freshers this year and 2007 of you took part in RunDMU, circuits, boxing, wheelchair basketball and more. What’s more, this year we’ve even managed to make these sessions completely FREE for you to take part in! It’s all part of our mission of making sport accessible to everyone at DMU.

Cricket Varsity played at Leicestershire’s prestigious Grace Road ground this year preceding a T20 match – a great experience for players and spectators alike

Our very own Cheerleading squad won gold at British Open, University Nationals and European championships

DSU supported World Champion Karate champion Maddison Moore. She also represented DMU and won her BUCS league this year as did Niamh Bailey (Heptathlon) and Ricky Miller (Kayak)

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2. You got involved in even more societies and other activities you love

The growth of societies over the last few years has been incredible with the number of active societies peaking at 122 in May. By the end of the year, over 2600 students had purchased 3500 society memberships – a number we expect to continue to grow! With so many involved, we formed a societies panel, a student group chaired by the Vice president Student activities to discuss new society applications and funding bids plus organising the societies awards. Many of our societies have actively self-funded this year raising a further £13,762 through memberships alone to make their projects and adventures happen resulting in a range of fantastic society achievements.

particular increases in society participation over the last few years, peaking in 2015, are within academic and religious and cultural groups. This increase in demand saw DSU gain more funding from the university to create an additional Societies Coordinator post this year. This extra member of staff will enable us to give our ever-booming societies the high quality support they deserve.

2015 has also been a great year for non-alcohol based social activities run by your SU. Launched in January, over 800 of you got involved in trips to the bingo, Twycross Zoo, The Harry potter Studio Tour, laser tag, ten pin bowling, cinema nights, pub quizzes and loads more! a great way to socialise and try something new, we even put on a free vintage fun fair during #FreshFest15. We re-named this project Give it a Go in September to better describe what it’s all about.

DMU Game Society hosted their ‘Student Nationals’ event seeing over 700 attendees from universities across the UK

DMU Steppers, Indian and Tamil, DMU Student Choir, African Dance and ACS societies all got involved in Black History Month events

Games Development Society’s efforts have started to influence the academic curriculum

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3. We gave you the advice and support needed to grow and excel

Making sure all of our members are safe, well and happy is at the heart of everything we do. our professional and independent welfare team have been super busy making sure that happens, dealing with a whopping 6812 enquiries on a range of different subjects such as housing, academic queries, immigration, SFE issues as well as debt and consumer problems. We passed the Advice Quality Standard again (an award we’ve retained since 2008!) ensuring we give our students the best possible information, advice and guidance.

With our help, students saved £117,441, we represented students at 265 meetings and hearings plus prevented 51 students from being removed from their course. Massive achievements making a great impact on those who really needed our help.

Did you know that DSU is the only SU in the country that supports international students with their visa applications, completely free of charge? We processed 472 this year enabling more students to study at DMU.

We’ve launched new campaigns with real impact that have brought to life our key messages about mental health and stress. We’ve even brought guide dogs and a farm onto campus which has engaged hundreds of you lot.

This year we also recruited four DSU Ambassadors to work on welfare campaigns to increase awareness of key issues including mental health and wellbeing, alcohol awareness, seeking a new property for next year and what to do if personal issues affect coursework submissions and exams. We talked to over 300 of you with key information so you could make an informed choice.

our student-run SSH (Student Sexual Health) service has also had a successful year. Not only have the team become part of the C Card scheme (an NHS safer sex initiative), they’ve also partnered with Chlamydia Screening who have held lots of drop-in testing sessions on campus.

2015 has also seen our peer mentoring project, MyUnipal, go from strength to strength. In January, 50 mentors were mentoring over 160 mentees. MyUnipal was a key part of #FreshFest15 with activities running most days including a brand new event aimed specifically at parents and carers informing them of how MyUnipal could help their loved ones during this exciting yet sometimes scary time.

A new online system for MyUniPal has been developed allowing mentors and mentees to be matched more effectively

StampOutStigma campaign was launched with a mental health road show and booklets full of tips for staying healthy, around 300 students engaged in the project

Our National Association of Student Money Advisors (NASMA) money week campaign ran taste the difference tests and gave out fortune cookies with top money tips inside

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4. We amplified your student voice and made people listen!

We now have over 650 Course Reps with over 160 of them attending our 2015 Course Rep Conference in october, and over 230 attending training – that’s more than ever before! We’ve equipped them with the knowledge to represent and support their course mates. In the last 12 months our Course Reps have campaigned for and achieved a magnificent 140 wins at university committees to help improve your academic experience such as; working with lectures and university staff to lay on over 24 hours of additional lecture led teaching time, and negotiated with the university to save students over £23,000 in hidden course costs.

This year we also secured £30,000 funding from DMU for School Reps. In recognition of all the amazing work they do and attending committees to provide a student voice in key academic decisions that are made, your School Reps now receive a small financial thank you.

Your Students’ Union ran its largest ever Election and By-Elections in 2015, engaging and having more students having their say on the leadership of the SU with 3,846 and 591 votes respectively. We also held our largest aGM, the Big Meet where 170 students attended to hold the SU’s Trustees to account and ensure the SU continues to represent you.

DMU as a campus, and as a university, are in the midst of development. 2015 has therefore been a key year for us to recalibrate our relationship with the university. This year has seen the introduction of the University-Students’ Union Exec Committee to improve clarity and collaboration between DSU and DMU. Together we’ve worked super hard to make sure that your student voice is represented and heard in DMU decisions that will impact us all.

We sat on the panel with influence over the future of catering on campus. We ensured value-for-money and a student focus were key factors in the new contract in order to guarantee you’ll be offered great choice in great surroundings whilst also saving dosh when eating on campus. Your SU also provided a much needed student view as DMU plans it’s next generation of graduations taking place in the new TheVenue@DMU, ensuring our members’ last experience of DMU is the very best it can be.

Course Reps helped move or amend 70 deadlines, exams and assessments this academic year to make students’ learning less stressful

DSU spear-headed a campaign that prevented the closure of Leicester Central Fire Station, petitioned against Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) cuts and helped students have a voice on a national level by registering to vote

A total of 429 students at Education and Activities councils in 2015 debating and passing 16 policies for positive change

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5. We became clearer at communicating and your student-led media boomed!

So, it’s all well and good us providing all of this stuff, but if you don’t know about it then it’s not going to help, right?! That’s why 2015 has seen a particular focus on the way that DSU communicates with our members (you lovely people!)

This year we made sure we had a greater presence at DMU Open Days. DSU now has an official talk at the events given by your exec, to explain what we’re all about. We now give our own tours of the Students’ Union so we can show why it’s so important to us and our members, we’ve created our own ‘We are DSU’ introductory booklet and have also worked with DMU events to showcase more of our sports teams and societies than before. We like to think our involvement is one of the reasons why DMU is now one of the most popular University’s in the country.

In the run-up to #FreshFest15, we posted over 5000 freshers booklets to incoming students and delivered over 3000 ‘Welcome Home’ goody bags to halls crammed with freebies and information to welcome our freshers to DMU. We even had 72 volunteer Freshers Reps working to communicate with and help our newest members settle into their new surroundings.

2015 also saw our website transform to a fresh, easier-to-read design – helping you find the information you need quickly and easily. Launched on a Level results day, the new site saw 37,400 users over Freshers alone (that’s over 15% more than 2014). We’ve also improved our fortnightly e-mails to you, making them clearer and full of relevant information about news and events at your SU.

Social media has definitely been the key to communicating with you effectively. This year has seen a dramatic increase in the quantity and quality of posts from us across all social media platforms and our follower/like counts have increased dramatically too.

We’ve continued to support all strands of Demon Media with funding from DSU plus an additional £2500 in September from DMU. They’ve had a fantastic 2015. The Demon changed from a fortnightly newspaper to a monthly magazine this year. The quality of articles and design has drastically improved and has been well received. DemonTV produced more pieces both independently and via commissioned work with great feedback. DemonFM received 4 national nominations at the prestigious Student Radio awards and Demon Media also launched an update on their news website to increase the quality of their communications.

20% more DMU students consistently opened our emails this year compared to 2014

By November 2015 we were sharing an average of over 5 news stories about DSU a week – more than double than before

Our Twitter followers increased by over 3300 during 2015

By May this year the number of Demon Media members stood at 253

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6. We were the heart of campus, helping you feel good!

We want your DMU years to be the best experience ever! 2015 saw us host Zane Lowe’s last UK gig as a Radio1 DJ as part of the line up for the amazing DMU Winter ball. our InJUNCTIoN nights-out continued to be the place to be on a Wednesday night, with great value drinks and fantastic entertainment from funfairs, to fancy dress nights, to VIp guest appearances – we even had Game of Thrones’ Hodor!

We pulled out all the stops for #FreshFest15. our Freebie and ‘LoveLesta’ fairs were busier than EVER, we even had the Barclays premier League Trophy in attendance for you to pose with. 1850 bought freshers wristbands for a fortnight of top nights out, and loads more attended our action-packed calendar of over 40 events.

Your SU spread lots of cheer this year. Your exec hired an ice cream van during #FreshFest15 and gave 500 of you an ice cream at our Frozen Friday event. To help you concentrate and get the grades you deserved we dished out truck loads of fruit, veg and water (over 1000 items) in the library from 10pm to midnight during the busiest revision times. We’ve had rodeo bulls for you to try, given away Tigers tickets and other freebies and distributed over 3000 ‘Elfie’ Christmas cards and 80 festive gifts to DMU students. Why? Sometimes you don’t need a reason – we just want to make you smile!

This year we added over 50 new lines to the DSU Shop after our ‘Need it? Tell us to stock it!’ campaign, plus we regularly price checked all of our products with other stores across the campus and the city to ensure great value for money.

our binding service remains one of the most competitive in Leicester with minimum waiting times during busy periods and our DMU premium hoodies and clothing become ever more popular. 2015 saw us form a partnership with a local company to ensure that DSU Tech continues to provide a great service for students’ last minute IT needs. We also launched a brand new barrista style coffee range in our venue at super cheap prices. Every penny of profit from food, drink, our shop and tech partnership has been re-invested into your Students’ Union.

Sulets (our jointly owned lettings agency with Leicester SU) this year became the biggest students lettings company in Leicester with over 2400 bed spaces. With no set-up or registration fee for our members, not only can we guarantee excellent accommodation but we have saved £1000s for our members.

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DSU Shop revenue increased by £12,000 due to offering even better value for money

1666 Slushies sold during #FreshFest15 alone (numerous tongues turned blue!)

Our #DSUFestive10 Christmas video reached 10,412 people on Facebook alone

DJ Fresh and Blond headlined our #FreshFest15 events



7. We were the heart of campus, helping you do good!

We like to think that DSU is a great community right at the heart of DMU. This year, our weekly student-ran International Students’ Cafe has become increasingly popular – sometimes seeing more than 50 attendees!

over 27,000 hours of volunteering were logged with us in 2015 – incredible!! That’s over £200,000 (hours x living wage) put back into our local community by you lot – thank you and well done!

We’ve raised loads for charity this year. Loads of you got involved in RAG week in February, raising an incredible total of over £3600. our Islamic Society finished an incredible second in the entire Midlands by raising over £7000 during Charity Week 2015. In November, we held a record breaking Children in Need day, with hundreds of DSU volunteers raising over £1100 for the charity through activities both on and off campus. Then, to round off the year, our annual event for the Toys on the Table charity saw over 300 donations of gifts from DMU students and staff and loads of volunteers to help wrap them up.

Your 2014/15 Vice president Student activities Steve Burrell and 2014-16 Vice president Media and Communications adam Redfern went on an epic bike ride this year raising money for RaG. Their #TourDeSabb challenge saw them cycle to other Students’ Unions across the Midlands, clocking up 347 miles and raising over £1000.

DSU held 5 awards ceremonies in 2015 to celebrate your achievements: Colours (sports), Societies, Volunteering, Demon Media and Course Rep Awards

DMU Netball’s NetFest tournament raised £1750 for the Joe Humphries Trust and Myeloma UK

DSU Street Law Society’s Frozen based primary school mock trial workshop was adopted by a USA lawyer

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8. We helped you shape your future and be the greatest you can be

We aim to help equip you with a shed load of extra skills and experiences to help you in your post-DMU life and in the world of work. our volunteering opportunities have done just this, as well as contributing to the local community. 2015 saw the number of DSU volunteers swell from an already astonishing 1749 to over 2000. This year we’ve also formed new partnerships with 60 more local organisations offering even more choice to our volunteers.

as part of DMU enhancement week, we offered a series of training sessions as part of our ‘grow your potential’ training package helping society committee members better run their societies and gain key skills.

There’s also been a range of extra training opportunities for sports as well as societies, including first aid, SaDS, risk assessment and other courses.

We also act a hub for all Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and carried out 558 DBS checks this year for students working with children or vulnerable adults

Enhancing employability has also been a focus of 2015/16 Vice president Media and Communications adam Redfern. He ran #ShapeYourFuture roadshows, speaking to over 200 students about how they can increase their employability by taking up a range of opportunities offered by both your SU and the university.

We also gave internship opportunities to 9 Graduate Champions this year. We gave them the experience, encouragement and training to develop their employability skills plus took on 15 Frontrunners and 32 student staff.

We have introduced a new Learning Management System for our student staff that will enhance their professional development and offers formal accreditations which can be taken to future employers.

2015 also saw us maintain an exceptionally high employee engagement score of 87%. It shows how committed our staff are to supporting you all and the success of the Students’ Union. This score is comparable to our 2015 National Students Survey score which shows that happy DSU staff equals a better DSU student experience for you.

With 122 societies and 38 sports clubs, each with four members on their committees, that’s 640 students gaining skills in leadership, teamwork, resilience, communications and project management

Two DSU staff are undertaking an MBA, making sure our work with for students is sector leading

Students who have built skills at DSU have gone on to great careers, including DemonFM presenter Dave Murphy landing his dream job at Capital FM

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9. We continued to run with integrity so that you could trust your union

It’s important that your SU is student led and so, in case you didn’t know already, we hold annual elections for you to vote for who you want your team of full time executives and part time liberation reps to be.

Loads of you put yourselves forward this year to lead your DSU. In February, we launched the Heroes Academy to encourage more students to stand in the elections and to run more effective and engaging campaigns. There were female candidates for EVERY executive position in this year’s elections which more accurately represents the student population than in previous years. This hard work led to our highest election turnout EVER – a whopping 3846 of you voted!

our by-election for part-time liberation reps in october mirrored that success with more candidates than ever before and every position contested. The achievement of a full team has meant that we can fully represent our student body.

We improved and increased representation on our Trustee Board – over 65 students applied to be a student trustee and included new external and alumni trustees to help manage and administer the Union.

2015 has seen you continue to hold your executives to account in Education and activities councils, with officers presenting their work far more effectively plus our highest ever turn out at our 2015 annual general meeting (named The BIG Meet) shows just how much you lot really care!

Looking after and treating our staff is also extremely important to us. We’re proud to have achieved Investors in People Gold (a very rare award) and are committed to paying all of our staff at least the living wage.

So important is it to us that we’re a top SU, that we’re currently working on our submission for the Quality Students’ Union award (it’s a bit like doing a huge piece of final year course work!) We’ve already passed part a and will pass part B in 2016.

our Venue kitchen was awarded the highest award for Hygiene and the Bar achieved a NUS endorsed Best Bar None status.

Finally, at the end of their three years, DMU graduates said they thought we did a pretty job at being their SU – with a 78% satisfaction rating as part of the NSS, making us a top 20 SU in the country!

Your 2014/15 DSU Exec Team: Stephen, Amie, Adil, Rebecca, Adam

Your June-December 2015 DSU Exec Team: Adam, Amie, Adil, Keira, Dan

Your January-June 2016 DSU Exec Team: Adam, Amie, Keira, Dan

180 attended our 2015 annual general meeting – The BIG Meet

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10. The plans for your new social space got incredible!

2015 kicked off with the announcement of a £3million investment into the Campus Centre from DMU. Not only will the current DSU area be overhauled, but we’ll also have even more space, taking over the downstairs areas currently used as a food hall. all with the aim of giving you a better space for relaxing, socialising and making the most of your university life.

We started the year with our ‘#DSURevamp – what would you do?’ event, getting your views about what you want your new Students’ Union to look and feel like. We received 274 suggestions from that day alone and continued to build on it over the following months.

In the Summer, architects were briefed with your ideas and presented their concepts to a panel made up of DSU and DMU staff and members. CpMG were awarded the contract after presenting their fly-through video of what the new DSU could look like. You lot certainly got excited! When we posted the video on Facebook, it organically reached 15,153 people with 4,449 of you watching it, 164 liking it and 34 sharing it!

The plans show a central staircase, a modern yet comfy feel and lots of natural light. By the end of the year, CpMG were working on the final plans and we are looking forward to sharing them with you for your feedback at the beginning of 2016.

2015 also saw DSU sports clubs and societies gain access to more training facilities at the Watershed additional slots at the QEII Leisure Centre and more space in other buildings across campus to meet and socialise.

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CPMG were also the architects that designed the new Hugh Aston

The turf was laid at Beaumont Town football clubs and 4g pitch almost finished

Confirmation – there will be a Subway in the new DSU building



11. We spent the money to get the best results for youYou pay £9,000 per year to the University. The University turnover is around £150million per year and your fees make up around 80% of that.

of that £150million, in 2014/15 your Students’ Union received £1.25million (less than 1%) in the form of a block grant from the university. This was the biggest block grant we have received. We made around £100,000 from our commercial services, giving us a total budget of £1.35million.

Here is where the money went...

For our 2015/16 budget we received a slightly lower block grant from the university, in-line with efficiencies across campus. However, we are working super hard to continue to deliver the great quality service and opportunities as we did last year and more!

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£

6% People and Organisational Development

5% Societies

7% Central Costs

2% Student Media

3% Buildings and Cleaning

17% Welfare

9% Voice

17% Sports3% Helpdesk

8% Finance Management

13% Governance

6% Events, Marketing &

Communications

4% Volunteering and MyUniPal

trending impact report 2015 11 ways we made an impact in … · 2015 saw us host the university of...

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