Welcome back to another update of my 25/26 elected officer term where each month, I provide an update summarising what I have been up to that month.
We’ve powered through March with meetings with different university services, elections, activities, conferences, open days and activities.
To summarise my areas of focus:
Campus Consistency: We are working with colleagues across the university and campus for a quiet/neuroinclusive space at the Nottingham delivery site. There are many discussions taking place about this opportunity and whilst we look for the space to accommodate this, we are looking at the room layout and key resources to facilitate. If you have any suggestions on this, please do reach out with your ideas.
In light of the recent news regarding the Aylesbury campus, we continue to work to ensure that students are heard, supported and clear communication is given. There are consultations ongoing for Aylesbury students focused on personal circumstances to ensure that situations and experiences and considered and understood. Please do reach out if you’d like further conversations. Also at the Aylesbury Campus, you have all been using the Community Space! It’s been great to hear your positive comments about this space and thank you to all who support the running of this, as well as a huge thank you to all of you keep this space tidy too! We still recruiting for paid “Community Space Supervisors’, don’t forgot to check out the job application and apply if you’re interested!
I continue to work with SVO Wilkie and SU President Jeanmarc about improve car parking options at the Uxbridge campus. Wilkie has launched a survey to gain further insights about parking if you’re an Uxbridge student (if you haven’t’ filled it out yet there’s still time! https://www.bucksstudentsunion.org/surveys/533/) and Jeanmarc continues to have discussions with the university estates team to improve the current offer. There are also ongoing conversations and consultations at the Uxbridge campus regarding the new campus.
Mental Health and Wellbeing advocacy: With discussions and reviews ongoing about face-to-face support availability I continue to raise and share feedback to aid these conversations and reviews of services. I recently met with the Director of Student Success and Counselling and Wellbeing team about an expansion of in-person services to other campuses. This is a positive moving conversation and the teams have launched a survey to get your opinions to frame their current work. If you haven’t already shared your feedback, please do reach out!
Academic Experience: As university departments continue to conduct their policy reviews and development, I continue to offer insight and share feedback around these. There is more information due to be shared regarding the Personal Tutoring Policy and the Assessment and Feedback policy, see keep your eyes peeled! If you have any queries or want to share your feedback, please email surepresentation@bnu.ac.uk. I continued to be involved with the university’s discussions around Artificial Intelligence and how this will impact the student academic experience. Within this group my goals are that this information is clear, consistent, and easily found to ensure that you are supported. If you have any feedback on this topic, please reach out to surepresentation@bnu.ac.uk to share your insights!
I have also been meeting and communicating with the Digital Services Team (DTS) and Learning Enhancement and Academic Practice (LEAP) teams to discuss topics of the ‘MyBNU App’ and ‘Blackboard’ issues that you have raised. Regarding the MyBNU App, if you are experiencing problems with this, please reach out to surepresentation@bnu.ac.uk with information about the issue you are experiencing (e.g. app crashing, not recording attendance, not showing information, the app not working), the device you are experience the issue on and when you experience the issue. Regarding blackboard, this is a very positive conversation, and the team are looking at addressing the systems and methods used to ensure the resource can be used in the most effective way. If you are experiencing any issues send an email with the details of the issues you are facing with blackboard to surepresentation@bnu.ac.uk.
Earlier in March I had the great opportunity to speak at The Wonkhe Secret Life of Students conference in London. I was invited to speak and share stories and experiences around the pressures students are under when using AI. During my speech I addressed student pressures around: time, cost-of-living, access to support, placements, caring commitments, wordy assignment briefs, commuting, and working/shift commitments. This was a great opportunity as there is much to learn about AI and the day was filled with learning, questions, and discussions by panel speakers across a variety of aspects on this topic such as assessment, employability, and regulations. I was also able to engage in some great conversations across the day about the different student pressures in more depth and look forward to seeing how these conversations develop. These conversations centred around the topics I addressed in my speech with questions about how universities would be able to bridge the gap and support students, what the tool would be used for and what missing.
As always, based on feedback that you wanted to see more on your campuses during the day, particularly around lunchtime hours, you can find what activities are taking place for the year on the what’s on page and the specific pages for the Uxbridge and Aylesbury campus. You can also get involved with activities within the local area, we offer theatre trips, bowling, farm trips and more. If you have any suggestions of what activities or events you would like to see, please reach out to surecactivities@bucks.ac.uk to book your tickets!
Taking place at Uxbridge this there is:
Taking place in Aylesbury there is:
Check out the What’s on page for recreational activities happening in the local area as well! If you have any questions or suggestions, email surecactivities@bucks.ac.uk. Some of these activities are:
Aylesbury:
Be sure to check the What’s On page to see what other activities you’d like to get involved with too!
Key dates to put in your calendar. We know there’s lots of dates to keep an eye out for including your assignment deadlines, exam, and placement dates! Here’s a quick list to add to your calendar:
That concludes another monthly update, be sure to check out our socials (@bucksstudentsunion and @buckssuvpew_au) for any quick updates and to see the day-to-day announcement.
As always, if you need anything please reach out.
Bethany