End of year round-up.
What a wonderful year it's been! It's hard not to get emotional and go on about how wonderful this year has been for us and how grateful we are to all of you. Thank you for being part of societies, signing up for student leadership roles, and coming to the Plug for a double pint or some chicken and chips. All your officers have been holding on to life as a student in Bath as much as we could, and we're so grateful to have made so many memories with you in the past 12 months. - The SU Officer Team 2023-24
Please take a moment to watch our video showing The SU story from 2023/24. Thanks to Elena Chamberlain for writing another beautiful poem for the video.
Experiences
We also wanted to take some time to summarise some of the experiences, achievements and highlights from the last year.
Student groups organized hundreds of events and activities, both on and off campus and across the UK. We are incredibly proud of everything that’s been achieved. With hundreds of event planners, our events continue to grow in size, quality, and creativity each year. Here are some standout moments:
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TEDxBathUniversity celebrated its 10th anniversary in February with an inspirational conference featuring uplifting talks from a diverse array of speakers.
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Salsa Society attended the annual Dance Club Latino event in Birmingham, placing 2nd in the competition.
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Dance Soc achieved remarkable success at this year’s Loughborough Dance Competition, one of the largest Students’ Union Dance Competitions, and one of three competitions DanceSoc participated in this season.
In April we began a season of celebration, recognition and achievements. While we can't highlight them all, here are some of our key successes:
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The annual
SU Awards in April lit up the Komedia stage, celebrating the dedication, talent, and commitment of our student groups, with over 500 nominations from a wide variety of SU groups.
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University Radio Bath and
CampusTV from our Student Media Group
won multiple awards at the National Student Radio Association’s Amplify Awards and the 51st National Student Television Association Awards.
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The annual
Education Awards were held at the Apex Hotel in Bath, celebrating academic excellence in the areas of Academic Representation, peer support, and University Teaching Awards.
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The 50th anniversary of the
Blues Awards took place in May at the Pump Rooms, honoring sporting achievements and recognizing the immense talent at Bath.
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The Women's Rugby Club received the
Tom Miller Award for Social Impact due to their exceptional fundraising efforts for three female-oriented charities during International Women's Month.
Over 100,000 Pints were poured at The Plug and Tub this year, and 6000 lattes consumed and our new menu has seen Chicken and Chips become a firm favourite of our regular plug goers. SCORE went home and away this year and we filled the Tub for one off Saturday nights which featured the exchange, drag bingo and more. Our clubs benefited from the SCORE rep system with Hockey continually coming out on top being our top SCORERS! The Tub also hosted a huge variety of events for our societies, from quizzes, to ceilidh’s, to Music Socs impressive Battle of the bands! It’s great to see the space being used in such a creative and inclusive way.
VOICE, COMMUNITY AND SUPPORT
As well as all the experiences, students actively engaged and used their voice to stand up for the things they believe in. At our
SUmmIt meetings, they presented and debated various
standpoints, voted in their thousands during the
SU Officer Elections, and led impactful campaigns on issues they care about. Many groups dedicated significant effort to fostering inclusivity and diversity, with new initiatives, events, and training given to all members.
Spotlight on Inclusivity and Diversity. We were also delighted to see the new Sensory space open within the library this year providing a quiet, sensory friendly space for individuals (registered with the Disability Service) on campus.
Students also raised thousands of pounds for charity through various creative efforts, such as growing Mustaches for Movember, enduring marathon cycling sessions on the parade, and navigating back to campus after being dropped off at unknown locations. During
Women's Month alone, over £13,000 was raised for charity.
And if that wasn’t enough hundreds of hours were committed to community volunteering, planting trees, picking up litter, beach cleans, supporting the elderly and the young. We have received endless thanks from members of the community blown away by the kindness and empathy shown.
We recognise this year has also been challenging for many, there is still ongoing conflict across the globe and students continue to face the difficulties brought on by the cost of living crisis.
Our SU Advice team have supported over 600 students with a range of academic, housing, and personal issues. This number will continue to grow over the summer as with support for Individual Mitigating Circumstances and Appeals related to exams and assessments. Here are a few comments from students who have benefited from our support:
“Honestly you do not understand how grateful I am, and words can’t describe how much appreciation I have for the help you have given me. I’m jumping for joy!”
“Everything worked out in the end . I’m doing so much better now, and I wanted to thank you for all your help and support. I will definitely continue to use the advice and support centre whenever I need help and I will recommend it to my peers as my experience has been great, thanks to you.”
DEVELOPMENT
At The SU, we take pride in helping students reach their full potential through various development opportunities such as peer mentoring, becoming a representative, taking on leadership roles, or attending skills sessions. With so much on offer, every student can choose how they want to shape their experience. Currently, we have opportunities for students
to become Captains for next year's Freshers’ Week, and we have several jobs advertised on our
jobs page, so the opportunities don’t stop as the summer sets in.
SU OFFICERS
This year’s
SU Officer team has shared fortnightly updates on what they’ve been working on, their highlights, and proud moments, they’ve also shared regular blogs focussing more in-depth on specific issues, thoughts, and feelings around their roles. We’re so proud of the team and everything they have achieved, it’s great to end the year on a high with their pilot of the
SU Pantry which saw over 200 students visit in just one week. A huge thank you to the team, we look forward to working with JiJi, Amber, and David next year and it’s a fond farewell to Hanna, Jura, and Abbie, we wish you all the best for the future, you'll be missed.
WITH THANKS!
As exams conclude today and preparations begin for tomorrow's Summer Ball, we want to extend a huge thank you to our entire community for all that we've achieved together in 2023-24. To those leaving this year, please stay in touch. For those returning in September, we can't wait to see the campus buzzing with activity again.
Many of you, especially our postgraduate members, will be on campus throughout the summer. Be sure to pop into The SU to say hello and keep an eye out for events and activities happening on campus.
Here's to an incredible 2023-24 academic year – what a blast!