SLT Priority Areas Update
The Student Leadership Team are finishing up their projects within the four priority areas, with support from other volunteers and the staff team. The priority sponsor(s) for each will provide updates at the final meeting on 13 July 2024, and details will be shared in the minutes shortly after.
The four key priority areas that all activities fall under are:
- EDI and Accessibility
- Representation
- Association Awareness
- Communities and Engagement
For more information on the work being done in the Student Leadership Team’s four priority areas, please visit the “Our Priorities” area of the Association website.
SLT Approvals
There were no approvals made in this quarter.
SLT Statements & News Stories
Manifesto for Lifelong Learning (oustudents.com)
Conference resolutions (including, what do you think of us being called OpenSU?) - THE HOOT (thehootstudents.com)
2024 Student Leadership and Trustee Election results (oustudents.com)
Student Representative recruitment now open (oustudents.com)
The 2024 Tutor Awards are now open! (oustudents.com)
Candidates announced for 2024 Student elections! (oustudents.com)
Environmental sustainability this April - THE HOOT (thehootstudents.com)
Student Issues and Concerns
Students have raised concerns, directly with members of the SLT:
The VP Engagement has continued to receive student concerns around exams and the new invigilation process. These have now been received by the Exams team and a meeting is in place to ensure that feedback will continue to pass through to Exams and that concerns are heard beyond the end of the current VP’s term.
Discretionary postponement continues to be something students don’t feel they can access. VP Engagement has had numerous conversations around this topic and the University has just opened a consultation on the process, so students can be redirected to that.
Students continue to express concern about the OU’s connections with arms manufacturers. VP Engagement has been chasing the University for comment and is hopeful a full statement will be released in due course.
Students raised the cost of living as a concern preventing them from achieving their full potential. This was raised in the context of how OUSET could provide specific support and de-mystify the process of applying for grants.
SLT Achievements
The Student Member of Council was invited by the Faculty of Business and Law to share the student view as part of all discussions at a Business School Teaching Day on 20 May 2024. Subjects ranged from: use of Artificial Intelligence; design of a new Student Experience; and developing Equality, Disability, Inclusion and Accessibility (EDIA), employability and sustainability action plans for both Undergraduate and Postgraduate Business.
Excitingly, the 5th edition of the hard-copy Hoot for SiSE is out for publication in June 2024. VP Engagement has enjoyed watching this project grow and change over the last two years and is delighted to report that the Hoot SISE shows good engagement and now includes more reader entries than ever before. As an Association we are restricted in what we can offer for our SiSE students, so the newsletter is a vital way to offer connection. One which has encouraged SISE students to reach out for support when needed.
The International Area Representative met with the heads of the Student Support Team (SST), to discuss support for international students. Some of the topics that were discussed were a ‘Call back’ option, alternative means of contacting the SST, the SST opening hours and student consultations for international students. SST advised that due to the way the OU systems are set up and the complexity of the systems, it is currently only possible to call the SST by telephone. However, the SST is trialling the Scheduled Contact Service, whereby students can book an appointment with the SST at which time an advisor will call them. The plan is to make this service available to all students after the trial period. This new service will save international students from having to make expensive calls to the SST.
The Deputy President is working on a guide to help students navigate through their student Journey and will continue this work as VP – Student next term. This project has been extended to look at establishing a much wider information hub than currently available and would cover more than the original plan for Mental Welfare, Cost of Living and our support groups. The project will cover a much wider remit on Health and Wellbeing, as well as support of students and will either signpost students to helpful information or to direct help on a wide range of issues. The plan is to centralise much more in one place than is currently available, which means that it will have to be completed in stages over the course of the new SLT’s term.
VP EDI and VP Engagement are working with the EDI and student welfare staff team at the Association to understand how we can better support and campaign for our neurodivergent students. They have already conducted a focus group and will be sending out a survey shortly, to gather more evidence from students to help inform our work and future plans, on what the Association can do to best support.
Students have raised the cost of living with the VP Admin, as a concern preventing them from achieving their full potential. This was raised in the context of how OUSET could provide specific support and de-mystify the process of applying for grants.
The results from a shortlisting of Online Invigilation suppliers were revealed, with the Student Member of Council involved in evaluation of the supplier demonstrations. For commercial reasons the winner cannot be communicated until contracts are finalised, however student concerns over reasonable adjustments and equipment/ software requirements were noted.
The International Area Rep. hosted monthly online meet-ups for international OU students, as well as social events, like Bingo games and quizzes, in support of international OU students engagement. The Summer edition of the International OU Students Newsletter was sent in June 2024. This was the third edition prepared by the current International Area Rep.
The Deputy President has been reviewing the role of Area Representatives and consulted with other members of the SLT and OU offices across the three nations, to see how we can improve and make the role relevant in the future.
VP Engagement was interviewed as part of the recent Responsible Futures audit. The Environmental and Sustainability Working Group have worked relentlessly towards putting together a portfolio of evidence and the outcome of this process in collaboration with the Open University is due for publication in July 2024.
VP Administration met with and interviewed candidates for the post of Associate Director of Finance and Compliance, with a view to appointing a suitable candidate to the Association shortly.
The International Area Rep has been engaging with the OU to raise the profile of international students and took part in one of the OU’s Virtual Open Days and answered any questions prospective students had. They also attended the OU Students Association’s Conference and hosted an online quiz, as well as the session by OU alumnus Genuine Mwasha, who shared his story and talked about the charity he set up, ‘The Roof of Africa’.
The Deputy President held face to face meet ups in Aberdeen and Inverness in May 2024. Although attendance was not big it was really a case of the quality not quantity that matters, with good discussions about potential future meet-ups in Northern Scotland.
VP EDI confirmed that as the current term comes to an end (31 July 2024), most of this quarter has been spent ensuring that EDI projects are on track and identifying any outstanding issues or areas of work, so that they are ready to be handed over to the incoming VP EDI and important projects are continued.
VP Administration supported grant applications of £200 to student societies, including M500 and the Poets Society.
SLT Social Media Conversations
VP EDI lent their support to the student minds “Student Mental Health Manifesto” and shared some of their own previous experience of poor mental health and its impact on their first higher education experience, and the ways in which now being an OU student has helped.
The Faculty Rep for WELS and VP Engagement promoted the sustainability session at the Student Conference in June. Asking delegates at Conference to join us for the sustainability session, ahead of the Chris Packham session. Check it out if you want to have a laugh!
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
Summer Student Rep recruitment
VP Student Rep confirmed that summer Student Rep recruitment is open and running until 30th June 2024!
International Student career resources
The International Area Representative met with a consultant from the Careers and Employability Services (CES), to discuss opportunities for international students. CES advised that the complexity lies in the fact that international OU students live all over the world and study many different subjects. It is therefore impossible for the CES to advertise job opportunities across multiple sectors, across so many different countries. However, the Prospects website is a good place to research about working abroad and can be searched by country. The link to the Prospects website is: https://www.prospects.ac.uk/jobs-and-work-experience/working-abroad
CES also advised that there is already specific information available for international students in the Help Centre, but these resources do not appear to be well-known to students. The International Representative and the CES consultant have agreed to promote the webpages and resources, so that information about working in the UK as an international student can be found:
https://help.open.ac.uk/job-seeking/working-in-uk-international-student
Information about working abroad and international job search resources can be found here:
https://help.open.ac.uk/job-seeking/working-abroad-and-international-job-search-resources.
Other advice from the Careers and Employability Services is to use LinkedIn to connect to professionals working in areas which students are interested in and to use the OU alumni tool on LinkedIn to search fellow alumni in the country international students live in. The link to the OU alumni tool is below: https://www.linkedin.com/school/theopenuniversity/people/.
Student Voice Forum
VP Student Rep advised that International Executive recruiters Perret Laver attended May’s 2024 meeting to discuss what should be taken into consideration when recruiting for a new VC. The OU’s Portfolio Director, Brigid McBride, presented the changes to Student Home in April.
Tutor Awards 2024
The International Area Representative is leading on the OU Students Association 2024 Tutor Awards, working alongside the Faculty Rep for WELS and the other Faculty Reps. 155 nominations were received this year, akin to the number of nominations from 2022. 54 students volunteered to be part of the student judging panels. By the end of July we will have shortlisted the winners and runners-up of the Tutor Awards.
Event and Meet-up Hosts
Following the survey conducted amongst Event and Meet-up Hosts, the International Rep., the FASS Rep. and the Projects Officer from the Association’s Community Team discussed how to encourage more volunteers, Clubs and Societies to host events. The actions taken resulted in more Clubs and Societies sharing their events with the Association, all of which can be found on the Association website. Furthermore, recruitment for new Event and Meet-Up Hosts is open until 23 June 2024.
Volunteer Recognition
The International Area Rep. is involved in the OU Students Association Volunteer Recognition project and attended a meeting to discuss the organisation of a Volunteer Recognition Event for students who volunteer with the Association.
Association Awareness
The VP Equality, Diversity & Inclusion and the International Area Rep, together gave a presentation about the work and services of the OU Students Association, to OU staff on the Open Board of Studies.
OU Teaching Advisory Group
The International Area Rep recently joined the OU Teaching and Learning Plan Advisory Group and subsequently attended her first meeting as part of the group.
Belfast Graduation
The Ireland Area Rep attended the OU graduation ceremony in Belfast.
Faculty feedback
Faculty Rep for WELS attended a “Future of Workshop” at the University to provide feedback and perspectives about the future of tuition assessment and also teaching and learning, alongside other students from each of the Faculties.