Hello everyone! 

This is the first blog post back in the middle of the madness. Now that Freshers’ Week is over and all students are back on campus, the real fun begins. The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of new people, good times, and planning ahead for the academic year.  

The biggest highlight of them all is that the SU Top 10 for this year is finally out! I personally sent it over to the relevant university staff, and our lovely SU staff is helping us prepare an updated webpage for it as we speak. One of my upcoming blog posts will be fully dedicated to this year’s top 10, so I won’t go into too much detail right now.  

We also had university senate’s away day last week, as well as the proper senate meeting yesterday. Essentially, university senate is the highest level of academic decision-making in the university. So, while the council (another governing body which I’ve mentioned consistently in my previous posts) deals with the strategic overview of the university (as any board of directors for a company or charity does), the senate focuses on all things academic. The third side, the operational running, is managed by the university executive board (UEB). But I could go into a hole of explaining university structures and never come out, so I’ll leave it at that. Do reach out with any questions if you are interested in knowing more of how they work or what our role in them is.  

I was also involved in a university strategy planning day last week (what a rivetting name, I know). The event in itself was really interesting and useful. The university, as any formal institution, produces a strategy for every three to five years which sets the overall direction the organisation wants to move in, sets a clear set of goals and values, and works as a roadmap for staff and senior management to look at. So, as you can see, the university’s strategy is a big deal. The fact that the university senior management team invited me to be part of their initial planning of the next strategy is really positive – it both means that they take us really seriously as student leaders, and that they want to truly represent students in their next strategy! 

A couple of interesting things coming up: one, all the officers are hading to Exeter next Monday, for a National Union of Students (NUS) campaign day (a great chance to network with other officers form the region and work together to move the student agenda forward); and two, Amber and I will be in a university council development day next week, during which we’ll yet again get a chance to input what the future of the university should look like if it wants to properly represent students.  

So, as you can see, the first week of the semester has been really busy around here. I will continue to keep you posted and do reach out with any questions. As the leaves begin to fall and the temperature gets lower, make sure to stay warm and be kind to one another.  

Much love,  

Jiji x