Schedule

This winter looks set to be brutal - food inflation alone will hit 9.6%, energy bills will spike and the general cost of everything will rise much faster than we're loaning home students money to and more than we're warning international students about.

In this session we'll explore the multiple ways in which SUs can tackle the crisis that's coming - from practical measures to reduce the cost of study and living, to lobbying and campaigning on student finance to ensuring that the rises that are coming are less of a shock.

A hands-on session on how your students' union can generate extra commercial income through an in-house production hire company. We will be playing on the lighting desk!

As part of Kingston's extensive turnaround project, rebuilding our governance was our first priority. Kingstons' context was that of a perfect storm, resulting in complex governance issues: a year with no elected officers, a year without a trustee board, implementing new election regulations, new officer roles, juggling an incorporation process. Find out how we weathered the storm, rebuilt our governance and how we are now imbedding "good governance" across KSU.

This session explores how universities can create learning environments where neurodivergent students are recognised, understood, and fully included. It examines the structural barriers students often face, from sensory and cognitive overload to inflexible assessment models, and highlights practical, evidence‑based approaches that improve access and belonging. Attendees will gain insight into the lived experiences of neurodivergent learners, the principles of universal design, and the role of student unions in driving institutional change. The session offers actionable strategies for shaping policies, practices, and cultures that enable every student to thrive.

A look at the key students' union scheme products and the key trends that we are seeing across these. We will aim to talk about the scope of cover and also highlight any calls to action in respect of claims performance. We will also touch on ongoing development work within the sector that we are involved in supporting.

Nicola will explore how sabbatical officers can take a mentally healthy approach to student leadership, including how they can support their own wellbeing whilst advocating for positive change and support for their student communities.

A discussion about how we set our societies up, the grant funding that societies can apply for and the accreditation scheme.

Over the past year, Reading Students’ Union has experienced significant commercial growth. This session will explore the key factors behind that success, reflections on the lessons learned, and provide an opportunity for delegates to discuss challenges, share best practice and take away practical ideas to support growth within their own Students’ Unions.

Commercial success is often seen as the responsibility of one team, but it is shaped by every part of a students' union. This session explores how breaking down silos, fostering a culture of collaboration, and working together across commercial and membership teams can create stronger services, deepen student engagement, and generate sustainable income that delivers lasting impact for students.

Nicola will explore some of the key components of mentally healthy students' unions, the support on offer from Student Minds, and some of the big challenges we're seeing nationally.

Increasingly young people entering university are showing lower levels of resilience while also facing high levels of stress and anxiety due to a wide range of factors. Often their only access to mental health support is once things become serious, yet equipping students with simple mindfulness, stress management and resilience skills can help many to handle the ups and downs of student life more effectively and prevent escalation. This session outlines some of the mental health challenges facing students and how they can be supported through better psychoeducation and simple practical techniques and life-long resilience skills.

Design and personalise your own reusable tote bag in this fun and creative workshop. Choose from a range of colours, stencils, and fabric pens to create a unique design that's completely your own. No artistic experience is needed—just bring your imagination and enjoy getting creative. You'll leave with a custom tote bag that's both practical and personal.

The Office for Students (OfS), the higher education regulator in England, is developing a new Statement of Expectations in relation to disability.

This interactive session offers opportunity for Students’ Union staff to help shape that work and contribute to ensuring that student voices and experiences are reflected from the outset.

The session will begin with a short presentation from the OfS, outlining its plans for the statement and the key themes currently under consideration. Attendees will then take part in a facilitated workshop, sharing insights from their own institutions, discussing the challenges disabled students face, and exploring what meaningful minimum expectations for universities and colleges should look like.

Whether you work directly with students, lead representation and campaigning activity, support academic interests, or have responsibility for inclusion and wellbeing, your perspectives will help inform an important piece of sector-wide guidance.

Why attend?
• Shape the development of national expectations relating to disability in higher education.
• Share insights from your Students’ Union and learn from colleagues across the sector.
• Explore current challenges and emerging priorities to improve the experiences of disabled students
• Contribute practical ideas that could help drive positive change across universities and colleges in England.

Join us for an open discussion with former Students’ Union Officers, exploring their experiences in office and how these have shaped their careers. Hear from Alex and Leah, recently elected Officers at Essex and Lancaster Students’ Unions, alongside Tash, who will reflect on her experience as an Officer and her longer-term career in the sector. An opportunity to hear different perspectives, share experiences and ask questions.

An open discussion about how Students’ Unions and academic teams can work well together. A chance to share what has worked, talk about common challenges and explore practical ways to build stronger relationships that benefit the student experience.

The Employment Rights Act introduces some of the most significant changes to employment law in recent years, many of which will have implications for Students' Unions as employers. This discussion isn't about having all the answers; it's about sharing experiences, identifying common challenges and considering how we can support each other as a sector.

Drop in and chat with the SU Network team about how we can help make your students' union more financially sustainable. Whether you're looking to maximise commercial income, explore new partnership opportunities, or better understand the benefits of SU Network membership, this informal session is your chance to ask questions and share ideas.

While the focus is on SU Network, we're also happy to discuss wider commercial topics, including retail, hospitality, business development, events, and income generation. There are no presentations or fixed agenda, just honest conversations, practical advice, and the opportunity to connect with colleagues from one of the sector's most commercially diverse students' unions.

Belonging has become a number to be raised – more events, more societies, better messaging – and it barely shifts. Most of that is a supply-side fix for something the supply side can't reach. Because "belonging" isn't one thing. It runs together having close friends, feeling you have a place, and being a recognised part of academic life – three things that come about differently and don't move together. A third of students who say they belong are frequently lonely, and the headline can't see them. Drawing on 18,590 student survey responses and friend-network data on where students' friends actually come from, this session covers the three things students mean by community, the routes into belonging that substitute for each other, and the programme-level structure – standard across much of Europe, scattered across separate owners in the UK – that produces all three at once. Delegates leave with the questions to ask before the next belonging strategy, a starter design, and a reading list.

Discussing Bucks Students' Union's Leadership Academy programme and its development from its inception to what it looks like now.

An interactive workshop to explore how SU's can benchmark pay more effectively, develop fulfilling total reward offers, and collaborate across the sector to improve attraction, engagement and retention.

We'd love to hear how your Union Council operates! Do you have a council made up of elected or selected representatives, or is it open to all members, like ours? We're keen to learn about what works well in your council, any challenges you've faced, and any changes you've made that have improved the way it operates. Your experiences and ideas will help us reflect on our own Union Council and identify ways we can make it even better for the year ahead. We'd really appreciate you sharing your approach and any advice or lessons you've learned.

For a number of years Bucks SU have taken the tactical approach to grow their portfolio of services and diversify their income streams with a range of benefits for their members. Often in partnership with their institution, these services have over time included recreational sports and wellbeing programmes, financial advice services and inter-campus bus travel and now stretch to catering and hospitality, events services at a town centre venue and the alumni offer. Alongside this 'internal' activity the union has used its position to develop a public facing events production hire business and a print and design operation. Growing their range of services has helped build the union, bringing in new staff, a more diverse range of skills and increasing capacity, making the organisation more resilient whilst improving the student experience and on campus offer. It has also introduced new income streams to support the grant funding and created many more opportunities for their members including a considerable increase in paid work. Find out more about their approach to indentifying new opportunities, building trust to allow fruitful partnerships and how they decide what is and isn't right for their organisation.

I will be recapping what the campaign has done so far and why and discussing plans for the upcoming year

A discussion on the value of information shared to different stakeholders -
Do your management accounts reflect an evolving organisation?
What layouts are used? - Narratives/Variances/Graphs etc.
Are they clear to non Finance stakeholders?
What feedback to you get?
What commercial information do you share?
What Charitable activities & Grant Funding information is shared?

Students' Unions exist to represent students. Every year, our members tell us that representation is one of the most important things we do. At the same time, relatively less students engage with the representative structures we've created, such as elected reps and representative committees. We want to explore why that is. Are these the right ways to represent students today? If not, what should representation look like, and how should students influence the decisions that affect them? This will be an open discussion as opposed to a presentation.

What you do is about so much more than what you do! In this workshop, we'll discuss how to get the most out of your role and how to best leverage your transferrable skills.