THE SU BIG PLAN 2023-24
 
The next Big Plan is coming soon, while you wait why not see what last years' team worked on

 

Using student feedback gathered, your Sabbatical Officers have created The Big Plan, which directs the SU's focus over the year.

The Big Plan is at the heart of everything the SU does. The Big Plan has been formed to work on what matters to you right now.

This page outlines our priorities and progress, as well as other aims which you will help us decide upon during the year. If you have any queries about The Big Plan, please do not hesitate to email Marcus at vpinternational@essex.ac.uk.  

Cost of Living

 

Aims:

  • To provide students with easily accessible and up-to-date information around financial support available and physical help such as student hardship funds and the student pantry
  • To organise and hold in-year, practical money saving activities for students
  • To treat cost of living crisis as an emergency through forming a cost of Living Crisis Management group to achieves real wins for students

 

progress:

  • SU Basic stall has been launched in which essential foods are sold at cost price to students
  • Preparations for a warm welcome event in term 2 are already underway, which could have a significant impact on helping students have a warm space and a hot meal for free once a week
  • Daily £2 hot meals are available in all Essex Food venues 
  • The Student Hardship Fund was increased. We have already seen a rise in the number of students applying
  • SU Student Pantry has launched and is being restocked every few days

 

NEXT STEPS:

  1. Look further into more practical money saving activities for students
  2. A meeting is being held to explore the options for the Loughton campus and expanding support there
  3. SU Eat & Meet will launch in term 2

Teaching quality

 

aims:

  • To share feedback with departments to have a more agile and dynamic way to fix issues
  • To give students the chance to be heard more easily and often
  • To motivate lecturers to take the project seriously and add a positive through the SU awards
  • To encourage lecturers to adapt to their students’ needs

 

PROGRESS:

  • We’ve been in constant contact with the university on the lecture feedback system and we're expecting the University to roll out the system in term 2. Our understanding is that academic staff have pushed back on some of the features of the proposed system which is causing a delay as it is reworked.
  • The main concept the university have come up with is a project where students give anonymous feedback for the module leaders to view and act upon accordingly. The students will then be asked a couple of weeks later if their feedback has been acted on.
  • Its not a perfect mechanism and it is different to what we expected but the SU would be able to see the data
  • There has been an Education Excellence Award Ceremony where lecturers were recognised for going above and beyond for student education via student nominations. The SU President and VP Education handed out awards and spoke about the importance of teachers going above and beyond for students.
  • We are constantly pushing and probing for more ways for teaching quality to be improved in committees and meetings.

 

NEXT STEPS:

  1. Urging the university to get the feedback system out as soon as possible and helping them with the process
  2. Building on ongoing conversations around improving teaching quality
  3. Working on critical paths and a project plan for the priorities in Term 2 for improving Teaching Quality

 

These are the people working to deliver these changes :

 

VP Community & Engagement 

VP education

 

SU President 

 Food ON CAMPUS 

 

aims: 

  • To create a platform whereby we can consistently gather feedbacks from students on their food opinions on campus
  • To improve the quality and authenticity of the food on campus
  • Overall, to increase the students overall satisfaction for their student experience and sense of belongings through food.

 

PROGRESS:

  • A wider variety of food on campus was the main priority of this Big Plan. However, throughout this term and through proactively seeing a shift in what is needed of us we’ve decided to reprioritise to Food on Campus, with an emphasis on feedbacks such as quality, authenticity and pricing. This is still an ongoing problem and is important to make students feel at home through food
  • We are collaborating withEssex Food and launching a Social Media (Instagram) hour to promote their food venues on campuses which is split over two days. We have received lots of feedback from students responding to our stories of which has been shared with Essex Food. 
  • Meetings are ongoing with the Asian Officerand Essex Food to look at the authenticity and quality of the food options on campus.

 

NEXT STEPS:

  1. Surveying people in the Essex Food outlets to collect their customers feedback which will be given to Essex Food and we will collaboratively work on improving services
  2. We are also surveying people in the SU food outlets to also make changes. We hope to have our Services Officer involved in this process to have student input
  3. Look at items that are sold at the The Store to assess popularity. We will get feedback from students on what items they would like to see, including diversifying the options for different cultures

 

These are the people  working to deliver these changes:

VP INTERNATIONAL

VP Welfare 

VP Student Expereince 

Breaking Barriers for Students with Disabilities

 

AIMS: 

  • To improve the experience of students with disabilities at the uni
  • Make meaningful change through the working group
  • To input in relevant uni work relating to students with disabilities
  • Make students feel supported and that their voices are heard
  • Improving accessibility on the university’s website around support for students with disabilities

 

PROGRESS:

  • The Disability Awareness Blog is out highlighting the support for students during their time at the university
  • We have signed up to the Hidden Disabilities scheme and we're running a promotion campaign around this (more details in the blog)
  • We have purchased Sunflower lanyards available on all our campuses for students who have hidden disabilities. If a student wishes to obtain one, please encourage them to get in touch with SWIS
  • Signage has recently been installed by lift entrances advising what to do and who to contact for advice if the lift is out of service.
  • The ‘Find Your Way’ app now has capability to re-route in the event of a lift being out of operation. As soon as lifts are out of operation, this information is entered into the ‘Find Your Way’ platform and the app automatically re-routes to the shortest step free alternative route.  
  • Students can be assessed by SWIS and based on the disability SWIS would contact the timetabling team to look into changung the teaching room appropriate to the student’s need
  • Thanks to our Students with Disabilities Officer - Lucy, we’ve been able to get a lot of things done even though she is so busy with her timetable. She has been amazing to work with and throughout Disability Awareness and Access month she has uploaded articles and has completed a social media takeover answering a lot of questions on misconceptions about disabilities.

 

NEXT STEPS:

  1. Looking for ways to engage with the community more and receive more feedback to bring to the working group
  2. Continue linking the working group with the Access Forum so that projects that go to the working group can be worked on with members of the Access Forum.

 

These are the people working to deliver these changes:

 

VP Community & Engagement 

VP Welfare 

VP Education 

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