The Story of Our Year

Volunteering and Community

Each and every year we are blown away by the selflessness and dedication of our student volunteers, and this year was no exception. They give up their precious time for the benefit of others and the local community.

RAG

Knowledge

Accommodation

Volunteering Societies

Community Projects

Local Politics

Homed volunteers handed out over 1,000 cups of tea and coffee to members of the homeless community and gave out around 40 hot meals each week

Harry's Story

RAG

£325,743.31 was raised by Leeds RAG for charities and charitable causes.
£23,000 of the total RAG money was donated to local charities through the RAG Community Fund, keeping many in existence. £17,212 of this came from University libraries when RAG negotiated for library fines to be added to the Community Fund.
Students in RAG volunteer all over the world. The Uganda Project, where students help build primary schools, raised a total of £46,000 for Soft Power Education.
RAG offers loads of challenging events where members push themselves to the limit – the two projects that cycled from Leeds to Berlin and Paris raised £44,000.

Knowledge

The Knowledge partnership between the University, Council, Police and Spencer Properties, continued to reduce insecure burglaries in Leeds.
The Knowledge website received 21,496 unique visits.
6,400 homes received information about reducing crime.
Knowledge ran a citywide film competition, where over 30 students created videos exploring issues of crime & safety.

Accommodation

We undertook a joint research project with Residential Services on financial concerns of students in halls.
We established a new joint approach to public transport with Residential Services and saw service improvements for students.
We celebrated 18 different landlords and agents at a fantastic awards ceremony - after receiving 551 landlord nominations from our students.

Volunteering Societies

3,064 student volunteers gave their time this year.
5,000 hours of volunteer time was pledged to Action. If paid the minimum wage, our volunteers would have earned nearly £25,000!
2,500 potential lifesavers were recruited to the stem cell register thanks to the 23 recruitment events run by Leeds Marrow – that’s a third of all-sign-ups amongst UK universities!

Community Projects

Our ‘Get To Know Your Neighbour’ scheme for students and residents was so successful other students’ unions asked if they could use it.
We participated in a city-wide initiative to tackle child poverty in Leeds.

Local Politics

We encouraged members to get involved in local politics by voting in this year’s local elections, our promotional videos have received over 2000 views.

This year, we’ve been able to offer full internships to 9 students, many of which were made possible by funding from the University

Lucy's Story

Opportunities

956,938 is the staggering number of online views our employability opportunities pages have had.
8,631 students dropped by our lovely new Opportunities Centre.

Employability

1500 students attended one of our skills workshops.
1,320 students have taken part in our action packed employability events.

Joblink

Our fantastic Joblink service just celebrated it's 10th anniversary! This year, over 700 employers advertised through Joblink, and students received a total of £680,000 in pay from jobs found through the service.
During the last decade, our job shop has grown to become the largest supplier of temporary staff for the University of Leeds.

Student Staff

Around 300 students were employed to work for us in the Union, serving and supporting their fellow students.
Our student staff are an integral part of the daily workings of the building - they're vital to the smooth running of our shops, bars and events.

Internships

This year, we offered 9 full time internships to students, giving them work experience and enhancing their employability.
Our internships covered a variety of disciplines, from environment to marketing to leadership support.

Employee of the Year

We're immensely proud of our very own Steve Whiting, a key member of the Knowledge project, who was awarded the grand title of Student Employer of the Year by the National Association of Student Employment Services.

“I think students bring a lot to the table as employees. They want to use what they’re learning in education to change things for the better and make a difference”

_{Steve Whiting}

Developing Skills, Creating Jobs

As an organisation dedicated to giving our members opportunities, we not only employed students to work with us, but through training gave them the tools to achieve great things after graduation.

Opportunities

Employability

Joblink

Student Staff

Internships

Employee of the Year

Leadership and Representation

It’s through our elected Exec Officers and our reps on the ground that we continue to be recognised as the representative channel between students, the University of Leeds and any other external bodies.

Making Changes

Leadership Race

Student Exec

Reps in Societies

Reps in the Community

Reps in Schools

Our students set a national record when 9,753 of them turned out to vote in the Leadership Race and elected our latest Student Executive.

Greg's Story

Making Changes

1,000 student reps were supported to make changes in the Union, University and city of Leeds.
School Reps, Course Reps and Departmental Societies made over 600 changes across all departments to make the University better for students. These included improved assessment and feedback, better employability and careers support, and better access to support for module selection.
Out in the city, bus fares were reduced from campus to halls, and better home Internet provision was secured as a result of student action.
94% of students believe that arguments from students are effective in persuading the University to make change.

Leadership Race

Our students set a national record when 9,753 voted in the Leadership Race to elect our Student Exec.
This time around, 51 candidates ran - the highest number we've ever had!

Student Exec

74% of students were aware of their six Student Executive Officers, exceeding our 50% target.
The Student Exec continued to work on 147 ideas that were submitted through Campaigns and Democracy.

Reps in Societies

Departmental Societies and School Reps worked more closely than ever to ensure student's views were represented.
17,166 members joined one of our clubs and societies.
9,541 students took part in our Give it a Go programme.

Reps in the Community

This year the Hall Exec held over 80 events for students living in halls, including trips, parties and quiz nights.
Our Community Reps continued to build relationships with local businesses by inviting them to our Shop Local day.
Community Reps submitted four ideas to the Better Leeds forum, including improving cycling provision for students in the city.

Reps in Schools

The first ever Partnership Awards took place, recognising University staff and student relationships. 320 different people were nominated.
School reps continued to work to represent students on boards and committees, as well as running their own campaigns.

Our video campaign to raise awareness of students’ experience of mental health attracted over 8,000 views

Christian's Story

Welfare Campaigns

We’ve raised awareness of issues that our members face through innovative digital media, such as our LGBT ‘It Gets Better video’, which has had over 18,500 views.
Our ‘It’s Time to Talk’ video on mental health has been viewed over 8,000 times online, and was also broadcast on Freeview.

Postgraduates

Our Postgraduate networking events attracted 800 attendees.
We offered an integrated approach to induction, with 4,474 undergraduate and postgraduate students attending welcome talks.
Our specialist postgraduate film events attracted 600+ students

International Students

85% of international students said they had a fantastic welcome to Leeds.
Global Cafe has been more popular than ever, attracting an average of 300 students per week.

Student Advice

74,798 students visited our friendly Helpdesk, and our super Student Advice Centre supported 6,555 individuals.
3,000 students benefited from our “Relax” space during the gruelling exam periods.
On behalf of our students, our advice centre gathered evidence against a rogue landlord that led to a successful prosecution. £37,000 was recovered in compensation.

Digital Support

We’ve expanded our social media reach, with 15,000 Facebook likes and 8,000 Twitter followers.
150,000 minutes of video content was watched online – that equates to around 15 weeks!
13,000 people accessed the new help@leeds site, created in partnership with the University.

Students with Dependents

We created new children’s packs for our members with little ones – over 300 were quickly snapped up.
This year we saw a staggering 22% increase in students with dependents saying their Union caters for them ‘a lot’.

Supporting Our Members

Each one of our 30,000 members is different - that’s why we love them. We strive to ensure our services, activities and events remain appropriate and accessible to all, and that support is there for everyone when they need it.

Welfare Campaigns

Postgraduates

International Students

Student Advice

Digital Support

Students with Dependents

Our Family

By building a fun, high-performance culture, we’ve been able to achieve some truly amazing things this year. This is in no small part thanks to the unique people and personalities that make up our family.

One of the Best

The Building

Major Events

Leeds Service Experience

Bringing in Specialists

Developing Leaders

We hosted the first ever summer ball on campus which entertained over 5300 students and raised £40,000 for our charity.

Steve's Story

One of the Best

The Sunday Times named the Union as one of their top 20 not-for-profit employers to work for.

“We continually make improvements to create culture which enables our staff to achieve great results, and it’s fantastic to discover we are rated amongst the best in the UK.”

_{Antonia Frezza, HR Manager}

The Building

3 million visits were made to our building to socialise, eat, vote and get support.
It was another fantastic year for our hugely popular bars and clubs, with over 51,047 people attending our flagship club night Fruity.
We opened a fancy new staff room as a thank you to all teams.

Major Events

Our first ever campus-based Summer Ball entertained 5,300 students and raised £40,000 for our charity.
We grew Varsity into a must-attend event in the sporting calendar. Going head-to-head with Leeds Metropolitan University, we won 23 of 51 fixtures, and over 1,000 students took part. More than 10,000 people attended the rugby final at Headingley Stadium, making it one of the biggest Varsities in the country.

Leeds Service Experience

500 staff have been trained following the successful launch of Leeds Service Experience, helping us deliver even better service for our members.
Our staff hope to better understand how our members are feeling at all times, and anticipate their needs in advance.

Bringing in Specialists

1170 students were helped with their cash concerns by over 25 Money Ambassadors following investment in a new Money Specialist.
We also created the role of Housing Specialist to look after house hunting, landlord fairs and liasing with Unipol.

Developing Leaders

We invested in our leaders and emerging leaders with two new development programmes.
We launched a new comprehensive training programme for all staff.

Since last year we managed to reduce our carbon footprint by 11%.

Caroline's Story

Recycling

We’ve changed the way we recycle inside the Union building to make sure it’s easier than ever before.
We worked with Leeds City Council to improve public recycling facilities on campus.
We reused and recycled clothing, furniture and bric-a-brac through our Green Streets project.
We introduced compostable takeaway cups and containers in our Hidden Cafe.

Reducing Our Footprint

We reduced our steam use by 551,202kg – this saved is £16k on our heating bill, a 36% reduction from last year.
We also reduced our electricity usage by 100,334kWh, saving us £6k on our electricity bill.
We cut our carbon emissions by 11% from 2010/11.
We fitted new energy efficient lighting and equipment.
An online Green Guide was launched for our staff and members: www.luu.org.uk/greenguide

Local Produce

Our Bardon Grange Project set up a food garden in the Union building where we now grow salads and herbs for our Terrace bar.
We continued to use local suppliers Malcolm Michaels butchers and R.K.Harris greengrocers, for our bars and cafes.
The Bardon Grange Project sold salad bags to our staff and students, delivered to the Union via bicycle.

Leave Leeds Tidy

13.6 tonnes of waste from landfill was diverted through Leave Leeds Tidy and Green Streets – with a little help from Emmaus Leeds & St Jude’s.
In February we organised litter pickers to give the streets in Headingley a good clean.

Recognition

We once again achieved Gold Standard in the NUS Green Impact Awards.
Our initiatives were recognised at the University of Leeds Environmental Awards – we won the Sustainable Travel and Waste & Recycling categories, as well as picking up a nod for Biodiversity

Looking Forwards

We’re aiming for a carbon reduction of 35% by 2022 from a 2005/2006 baseline – this is our new long-term target, bringing us in line with the University of Leeds and all other educational institutions.
Our immediate target is a 12% carbon reduction over the course of our current strategic plan.
We’re also striving for a 3% annual reduction in utility and transport emissions.

Environmental Impact

As part of our strategic plan, we are striving to be sustainable in every way by monitoring and managing our environmental impact. This year we made significant changes to become greener than ever before.

Recycling

Reducing our Footprint

Local Produce

Leave Leeds Tidy

Recognition

Looking Forwards

Saying Thank You

Thank you to the Student Exec, our staff, the University of Leeds, our trustees, committee members, commercial partners, funders, and above all - our members. Without them, we simply wouldn't be here.

Our Awards

Our Money Cycle

Sporting Success

The Partnership

Looking Ahead

Thank You to Everyone

Our Money Cycle

Our Awards

Placed 17th in Times 100 Best Not For Profit Organisations
O2 award for Specialist Publication of the Year – Leeds Student Newspaper
University of Leeds Environmental Awards
The Waste & Recycling Award
The Sustainable Travel Award
Biodiversity Category – highly commended
Regional Student Employee of the Year
Steve Whiting (Opportunities)
NASES (National Association of Student Employment Services) Lifetime Membership – Gail Hardwick, Joblink & Helpdesk manager

Click here to see more

Greeting Card Retailing Awards
Nominated – Di Harvey, CATS
Best Bar None Award
Stylus, Pulse and Mine achieved Gold
Terrace achieved Silver
Old Bar achieved Bronze
Student Advice Centre Quality Mark - passed with no recommendations
Gold award in the NUS Green Impact Audit
NUS Best HE Students’ Union 2012 - shortlisted

Click here to go back

Our Money Cycle

We reinvest everything we make back into the Union for our members. See our Money Cycle here.
See our final signed accounts for the year here.

Sporting Success

This year saw a significant increase in BUCS (British Universities & Colleges of Sport) points and a higher finishing position. We also had the highest number of teams playing in BUCS Premiership.
Special mention for London 2012 trialthlete and Olympic bronze medal winner Jonny Brownlee, ran in the BUCS Cross country championships this year as part of our Cross Country Club (and also to his big brother Alistair who won Gold!)
Our women’s squash team finished in the top four nationally, and we also had WP national champions and saw cycling individual and hill climb successes.
We saw a growth of supports services, including S&C, physio therapy and massage.

Click here to see more

BUCS 11-12 League Winners:
- Badminton Men’s 1st – Northern 2B
  Badminton Men’s 3rd – Northern 5B
  Badminton Women’s 1st – Northern 2B
  Basketball Men’s 2nd - Northern 4C
  Hockey Men’s 1st – Northern 1A
  Rugby Men’s 3s – Northern 3B
  Table Tennis Women's – Northern 2B
  Waterpolo Women's – Northern 1B
BUCS Team Championships 11-12:
- Waterpolo Women's – BUCS Champions
  Climbing – BUCS Champions

Click here to go back

The Partnership

We've had another fantastic year supporting The Partnership between between University staff and students, which outlines the mutual expectations of everyone as members of the University community.
4,542 unique visits were made to the Partnership website.

Looking Ahead

We’re creating a loyalty scheme that rewards involvement with the Union.
We aim to see a significant growth in student awareness of our help and support services.
We will increase engagement with mature students and those with dependants.
We’ll deepen the integration between home and international students.

Click here to see more

We’ll reveal a new digital strategy to ensure our services and information is accessible and engaging across digital platforms.
We’re delivering our biggest, most ambitious community strategy yet.
We must be proactive and reactive to the changes in Higher Education. Graduate unemployment and £9k fees will provide us with a whole new set of challenges.
We will strengthen our links with the academic community, city leaders and national student organisations.

Click here to go back

Thank You to Everyone

Thank you to all our leaders, trustees, partners, volunteers and staff in 2011/12 for ensuring we made this year another one to remember!
Finally, this year 93% of students said the Union is contributing positively to their time at university – thank you!