I cannot believe it is almost the end of October! Semester 1 of the new academic year (if we can still call it ‘new’) seems to be flying by and it is great to see the campus so busy and vibrant again with teaching and student activities in full swing. I want to welcome everyone back (if you were away over the summer) and hope you have had a successful start to the year.
Image credit: The SU Bath
I have written previous blogs about our close working relationship with the elected Officers and colleagues from the Students’ Union to develop and improve the student experience. In this blog, I am reflecting on one of those mechanisms: the Students’ Union Top Ten, which first started back in 2010-11.
If you don’t know what the Top Ten is or how it is created each year by the SU Officers, you can read more about it on the SU website. From my perspective it always provides a valuable tool at the start of a new academic year to touch base with the Officers about what big issues are impacting our students at Bath and the SU believe need prioritising.
You can find details about the current SU Top Ten online which Jiji (SU President) presented to colleagues and I at a recent Student Experience Advisory Board meeting. I know that one of the things colleagues (including myself) worry about is the ambitious high-level nature of the Top Ten items. However, when you dig more into the detail of each ‘issue’ with the Officers you often find they stem from concerns or areas for improvement that we as a university are also already considering or working to improve. This reduces those concerns, and there is also the reassurance that the Top Ten is not just ‘given’ to the University to sort out, but rather we take a collaborative approach with the Officers to discuss and work out what progress can be made each year. We also all know how quickly the year flies by, so being realistic about what can be achieved between October and June also makes us more focused. In my opinion, it is right for the Officers to have an ambitious Top Ten as we should be striving for improvements at such a successful (and ambitious) university!
I would encourage all colleagues and students to take a read of the Top Ten as it gives a great insight into what issues are impacting our students now. Sometimes we can easily forget what is happening outside our own department or service that is impacting others. As I reflected earlier, it is important to highlight how a Top Ten item may not be ‘resolved’ within one year, but can have longer lasting impact. The call for an on campus floodlit 3G pitch featured on several previous Top Ten lists and will soon come to fruition, and often training for our academic colleagues around supporting students has been highlighted, and this resulted in our Pastoral Support training offer. In addition, we have introduced support options like the 24/7 Be Well-Talk Now service to support all our students, wherever they may be in the world, following Top Ten items around supporting placement students. We have also massively increased our focus and resources dedicated to harassment prevention and support during my time as Vice-President and PVC, issues which have again featured regularly in the Top Ten.
I look forward to working with University and SU colleagues on this year’s list and will write again about our progress later in the academic year.
You can read Jiji’s blog about last year’s Top Ten here: SU President Blog - The one with last year's top 10 wrapped up for autumn (thesubath.com)
Read my previous blogs here: Professor Cassie Wilson (bath.ac.uk)
Contact me directly at pro-vc-se@bath.ac.uk to ask questions or request future topics you'd like to hear about in my blog.
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