At the last SLT meeting in October 2024, the following four priorities were agreed:
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Student Support Services: Campaign for access to OU student support services with increased availability that meet needs of the OU student population.
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Student Wellbeing: Champion initiatives that prioritise the wellbeing of the diverse OU student communities.
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The Academic Student Experience: Advocate for best-practice in teaching delivery to create a consistent academic student experience.
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The Neurodivergent Student Experience: Campaign for improvements in policy and process to create an equitable experience for diagnosed and undiagnosed neurodivergent students.
For more information on the project work that will be carried out under the Student Leadership Team’s four priority areas, please visit the “Our Priorities” area of the website.
SLT Approvals
Interim Freedom of Speech Code of Practice – approved 17 October 2024
New volunteer opportunity: Student Hedgehog Ambassador – approved 4 December 2024
Space Society Disaffiliation – to be approved 29 January 2025
SLT Statements & News Stories
Discover our new Student Leadership Team priorities
Olivia Hughes steps down from Student Leadership Team
Calling all international students – did you know there's a newsletter for you?
Student Issues
Students have raised issues and concerns directly with members of the SLT as outlined below:
A number of student concerns have been raised direct with the WELS Rep:
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Students in the Language and Applied Linguistics (LAL) school were concerned about the OU’s Gen AI Policy. The WELS Faculty Rep contacted the Head of School for clarification. WELS Rep has also promoted a new Gen AI policy to the faculty;
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Students on a Level 1 module in Education, Childhood and Youth Studies (ECYS) and a Level 3 module in ECYS were concerned about the length of time it took to receive marked assignments back (over 4 weeks on Level 1, 6 weeks for the Level 3 module). In both cases, the WELS Faculty rep contacted the Head of Programme and students received an explanation and advice on applying for special circumstances;
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Concerns were raised by numerous students when Masters and Level 2 Masters ECYS results were delayed by a week, since not all students received the email at the same time. The WELS Faculty rep contacted the Pathway lead and Academic Head of School for clarification and conveyed the information back to the students who had been in contact.
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Concerns were also raised by Masters in ECYS by students who had not had their degree finalised as of the 10th January 2025. The WELS Faculty rep contacted the Masters team for clarification and was assured all modules results would be finalised by January 19th.
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Concerns were also raised regarding the lack of clarity on the new module, L161, in the school of LAL.
The Vice President Student Representation is involved in a Perimenopause/Menopause working group, that will create more accessible resources and signposting for students around this topic.
The Deputy President has been approached direct about concerns over some students affected by a recent diagnosis of hearing impairment, and the impact of the hearing loss on assessments and day schools. Due to the lack of awareness of students facing hearing loss, their experience can be affected greatly and can lead to students less likely to achieve high standards of work or have a greater sense of achievement. For example, LB170, Communication skills for business and management, deals with elements of speaking, which for some students can be difficult if not confident in one's own abilities. The Deputy President signposted students to the Disability Student Support team within the OU, and the Disability Student Group within the OUSA as groups offering support.
The Wales Rep had direct contact with students about several issues:
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Tutors taking too long to provide feedback. Wales Rep shared with Faculty Reps on SLT, to allow them to raise the issues with the department.
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Students unhappy about the lack of social opportunities. They were pleased to be told that a Wales club is in the making.
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Concerns that decisions that impact their experience are not being run past students first. Wales Rep confirmed that when discussing potential changes, they ask those making process decisions to check that changes have been passed through students for feedback, before being put in place.
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A lack of social and educational environments in rural areas for students. Wales Rep is pressing for more resources and opportunities for rural students to get involved with their University.
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Students feeling as if they are not being kept in the loop with what is happening with the Association. Wales Rep is sharing messages on their X and social media accounts for students to stay updated.
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A student unhappy about not receiving postal materials and wanting the OU to change delivery provider. Wales Rep recommended the student post this on the “Student Issues” page of the OUSA website.
Students have raised concerns directly with the VP Student Voice around the length of time it takes DSA and Student Finance to approve applications. This then prevents students from studying and causes defferals. VP Student Voice has raised these issues with ECYS Retention Group as part of an ongoing conversation.
Several students wrote to FASS Rep about the Arts & Humanities day schools with positive reviews but hoped for more opportunities and locations. FASS Rep has highlighted this in several different sessions with the Executive FASS team. FASS Rep also added their voice to the faculty assembly where many tutors added their support of further day schools.
The International Area Representative and the Association Research and Strategy Engagement Officer held two online sessions for International Students during the OU ‘Have your say day’ in November 2024. Some of the issues that students raised were: difficulty getting in touch with the Student Support Team; problems with the delivery of module materials; tutorial times; issues with cultural differences relating to learning materials; difficulty to find job opportunities outside the UK and online; difficulty in enrolling in modules; feeling disconnected and isolated. The International Area Representative wrote an article in The Hoot summarising the feedback we received from students and the actions we have taken or will take. The article can be read here: https://thehootstudents.com/student-consultations-for-international-students/.
Students reached out to the STEM Rep about not being able to access the forums anymore. These forums had lots of information that was essential for study. The STEM Rep and President contacted the data controller who made the forums read-only so the student could now access the forums in read-only mode.
SLT Achievements
The President has been working with the SLT and staff team to formulate and agree the SLT Priority areas and identify 24-26 projects within them. This will ensure that SLT are working collectively to achieve our manifesto aims. More information on the priority areas we have chosen can be found on our website .
The WELS Rep is involved in leading quarterly Neurodiversity Cafe student led cafes in ECYS, to support ND students in achieving greater academic outcomes and narrow the awarding gap. The aim is to introduce these Cafes Faculty-wide in the WELS Faculty Rep’s 2-year term.
VP Student Voice has been working on qualification withdrawals and replacements to give feedback on how it affects students long-term. Also attended the first Qualification and Assessment Committee to give further feedback. Certain Qualification withdrawal decisions have been overturned but cannot be disclosed, due to OU confidentiality.
The Deputy President is collaborating with their staff link to research apprenticeships and ways that OUSA can successfully advertise roles to the apprentice student population. The focus is on how to recruit apprentices to work within the Association.
The WELS Rep is supporting retention in WELS through work on a document “What students wished they knew when they started studying.” The aim is to increase retention, improve progression from Access to Level 1 modules, and to provide students with more information on what to expect when studying with the OU.
VP Student Voice is part of the Hedgehog Campus Ambassador Programme. Group commitments include: to support campus hedgehog safety; safer housing for hedgehogs on campus; keeping the campus free of litter to protect wildlife; and a more sustainable campus.
The Sustainability Rep confirmed that Estates have funded the OU’s accreditation as a hedgehog-friendly campus. This led to the building of hedgehog houses on campus and materials have been made available to help all OU students conserve hedgehogs in their own areas. General hedgehog wonderment!
The President has been working with SLT members and the staff on reviewing our election processes. It is hoped that by working on the feedback that we received at the last elections we can improve the process for candidates and set clear expectations. Some of this will be implemented in the upcoming by-election. The feedback from these will then be taken forward to the main elections in 2026.
A Student Hub Live Welcome event is being held in February 2025. The VP Student Voice and Wales Rep will co-host and run a session on OUSA. Topics to include:
The Sustainability Rep has been intensively building the engagement, voice, and network of OUSA in sustainability issues. This has led to forums such as “Have Your Say Day” and events with academic and inspirational speakers, as well as meetings that include representatives from organisations such as SOS UK, the OU faculty, and universities around the world.
The President and VP Student Representation ran a Mindapples session at the recent Student Rep weekend. This generated some great conversation on how our volunteers can look after themselves whilst working on behalf of OU students
VP Student Voice co-hosts the Student Charter Task and Finish Group. This works to: simplify the Student Charter; review previous Student Charters; to include generative AI and Ethics information; and finally, a commitment that it needs to include all students and Staff.
SLT do not currently have an OU Scotland Area Rep, so the WELS Faculty Rep presented at an OU Scotland staff development day. The WELS Faculty Rep is also working closely with the head of Access to improve retention from Access to Level 1. The WELS Faculty rep and VP Student Representation presented at a knowledge exchange day on Campus in November 2024.
The President attended the Wonkhe Festival of Higher education with the student member of Council where they took part in a Q & A session along with Ian Pickup (now interim Deputy Vice-Chancellor) which focussed on lifelong learning
VP Student Voice has had success under the “Academic Experience” priority, with the Praxis Project In ECYS(Study). The Praxis Project will help identify areas of practice and improve awareness of the Relevant School/Faculty. The project examines:
The President has been a panel member in a couple of the recent executive appointments that the OU have made, which have been incredibly interesting. The President is looking forward to working with the successful candidates when they take up their positions to improve awareness of OUSA and its work for students.
VP Student Voice hosted the Opening Session at “Have Your Say Day” on 27th November 2024 and presented on:
VP Student Representation attended the Student Rep weekend in November, where new and continuing student reps participated in training and workshops. The President and VP Student Representation hosted the Wellbeing and Mind apples session.
The Sustainability Rep has been part of a new working group to address how to improve sustainability at the OU. This includes exploring the best way to assess what level of education is given on the Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) and sustainability in courses across the OU, based on all existing course content. This is about more than finding out how extensively the SDGs are covered in OU courses. Finding out the actual carbon footprint sustainability of courses is not close. The aim is to find alumni who are now doing super cool sustainable jobs they love, to talk about what they studied and the things they did to get there. We hope to create a host of articles, guides and posts from this to help people that want to, to follow those paths too, and then be a part of radically changing the way degrees are built around the idea of green skills and sustainable career pathways.
The FASS Rep hosted FASS connect with Executive Dean of FASS, Professor Adrienne Scullion, and Rachel Penny, Associate Dean of Student Success and Scholarship. It was a well-attended event that was positively received by students.
The International OU Students Newsletter was sent in September 2024, November 2024 and January 2025. These were the fourth, fifth and sixth editions respectively prepared by the current International Area Representative. The open rate remains high, namely 63% and 66.3% for the 2024 editions. The click rate shows a small increase from 6,1% to 8%.
The International Area Representative continued to liaise with OU staff in charge of the Student Support Team (SST) to discuss support for international students, including the Scheduled Contact Service, whereby students can book an appointment with the SST at which time an advisor will call them.
The STEM Rep was involved in the recruitment for the new STEM Exec Dean. He was involved in the short and long listing process and also attended Walton Hall for the remaining 6 candidate face to face interviews where a new STEM Exec Dean was selected.
The International Area Representative met with the OU Senior Marketing Manager, International to discuss challenges faced by international students.
The International Area Representative participated in the OU Vice-Chancellor Recruitment Stakeholder Group.
The STEM Rep has been involved in the creation of a new music request system from scratch for ‘Uni-Tunes’. It was a suggestion he made to Michael Jones after the first "Uni-Tunes" meetup. In the meeting people were bringing up their own spotify and then sharing their own screen so that they could get their music heard. The STEM Rep suggested to Michael that this needed to be managed, so he created a music request system where meeting participants requested a song via a webapp. There is a Temp webapp available now to students which is hosted through Zapier. However, this does have its limitations in terms of development of the WebApp so the STEM Rep is currently working on a new WebApp that is being built from Scratch. This has had to be put on hold due to his study intensity increasing from 1st Feb 2025 to 15th March 2025 but it will be picked back up on his return after a break.
SLT Social Media Conversations
The President has written a blog post for AL's about the importance of understanding Neurodivergent students and how the way they work will be unique to the individual.
WELS Rep shared the Academic Procession at Manchester Graduation, which they took part in.
The President celebrated Team Open's “University Challenge” win, which has seen them reach the semi-finals.
The President celebrated completing their degree in July at the OU October degree ceremony.
We Need You!
We really want to know about the issues affecting you, as OU Students! Use our Student Issues reporting tool to submit your issues, comment on the issues of others, and up/down vote the issues important to you!
Other News
The International Area Representative hosted monthly online meet-ups for international OU students, as well as social events, like Bingo games and quizzes.
The International Area Representative continued to liaise with OU staff from the Careers and Employability Services to discuss opportunities for international students. Together they wrote an article in The Hoot about job opportunities for international students. The article can be read here: https://thehootstudents.com/job-opportunities-for-international-students/.
Following feedback she received from students, the International Area Representative wrote an article about Library services for international students. The article can be read here: https://thehootstudents.com/library-services-for-international-students/.
The Deputy President (as a Business student) and the International Area Representative (as a Law student) are filling the role of Faculty Representative for Business & Law (FBL) on the Student Leadership Team on a temporary basis until a replacement is elected. In that capacity, the International Area Representative attended the FBL Faculty Assembly, the FBL Student Drop-In, the SCiLab Advisory Group (Scholarship Centre for Innovation in online Legal and Business Education), the ‘Meet your Faculty Reps’ drop-in and met with the Teaching Director of the Law School and the Head of Student Experience of the Business School.
The FASS Rep attended the Arts and Humanities Day School in Cardiff in October. The Rep engaged with students and staff to discuss OUSA.
The International Area Representative participated in the OU’s Virtual Open Day in November 2024 and answered any questions prospective students had.
The International Area Representative attended a student debrief by the Office for Students (OfS) about working together to improve the student experience.
The STEM Rep has been able to set up Faculty Rep sessions which enables students to attend and listen to concerns they may be facing. This is closely related to the SLT priorities as some of the issues they may be facing might be closely linked.
WELS Rep raised that the marking criteria for TMA does not specify that TMA must be marked in 10 working days but does state that ALs are expected to mark within 10 working days.
WELS Rep raised that students are being refused an extension on their TMA but there is a clear OU extension policy.