Why introduce an insight team?

This is a question that University of Nottingham Students' Union (UoNSU) are regularly asked by other SUs. With this in mind, this workshop will set out to answer the following questions:

• What difference has the UoNSU Insight team had on its internal and external stakeholders?
• How does the Insight team work with other departments - particularly the Marketing team
• How can Insight be used to not only shape SU strategy, but also support its implementation and evaluation through tracking impact and outcomes.
• What is the structure of the UoNSU insight team and what tools/expertise are incorporated?
• How has the UoNSU Insight team evolved since it was introduced four years ago?
• What does the UoNSU research strategy look like and why?

Audience: Elected Officers and Staff

Presenters:

• Sarah Murray - Customer Insight Manager, University of Nottingham Students' Union
• Sophie Hammond - Market Researcher, University of Nottingham Students' Union
• Tim Cosham - Data Analyst, University of Nottingham Students' Union
• Luke Wale - Front End Developer, University of Nottingham Students' Union

 

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SU19 and beyond

This session will gather feedback and ideas on the annual Students' Unions event to ensure we can work with next year's event planning committee to deliver a useful, inclusive event for the range of roles and contexts that you are working in.

Audience: All staff and officers

Presenters:

• Davina Keen, Head of Events and Facilities, NUS
   

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Lessons from Elections

This session presents the findings from last year's elections survey, provides recommendations for deputy returning officers on how to approach elections rulings, and explores case studies from this year's election season to support future decision making.

Audience: Staff (particularly those involved in running elections)

Presenters:

• Ricky Chotai, Membership Engagement Coordinator, NUS
• Emily Thompson-Bell, Head of Membership, NUS

 

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Making the most of the Careers in SU Employer Brand toolkit

One year on from the launch of the Careers in SU website, career pathways, and Employer Brand toolkit, this workshop will report on the impact of the brand on the movement so far, including the latest data on the website reach, diversity of the talent pool, etc.

We will provide some examples of how SU's are using the brand to attract talented staff, and improve their candidate’s experiences. Participants will be able to explore how to make the brand toolkit work with a variety of recruitment methods and social media marketing.

We will give participants lots of ideas of what else they can do to attract and recruit great staff from the relevant job markets, and also provide some tips to help students unions create effective talent attraction strategies.

Audience: Staff

Presenters:

• Stephanie O’Brien – Recruitment Manager, NUS 

 

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What's going on out there? Looking for inspiration beyond our sector

Hearing about what other students' unions and associations are doing is great; that's basically why we're all here this week. There is however a whole world outside our bubble that we can learn from. What are other membership organisations doing to involve their members? How do other democratic organisations get their members to vote? What are youth marketers doing? This session will pull together a range of examples of people, organisations and trends to look at, watch and learn from. Attendees can also share their suggestions of who we could be learning from.

Audience: Elected Officers and Staff

Presenters:

• Jo Walters - Communications Manager, University of Sussex Students' Union

 

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Raining on a Parade – How can we improve the weather for International Students

In this session we will have a conversation about the best possible experience for international students – in recent years the governments hostile environment, Brexit and a perception that the UK is a less welcoming place have caused the sector and critically decision makers to reflect on how we can continue to attract international students to the UK and achieve the globalised experience that forms a key part of many institutional mission statements. We will be pitching optimism against pessimism and seeing what comes out of the other end and linking it to campaign work we can carry out together. Yinbo Yu and Mike Day will lead the discussion, will they need to wear cagoules or is this sun coming out?

 

Audience: Elected Officers and Staff

 

Presenters:

• Mike Day – International and NUS-USI Director, NUS
• Yinbo Yu - International Students' Officer, NUS

 

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Challenging Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence – a Students’ Union Perspective

In 2016 Universities UK recommended scrapping the Zellick guidelines and published new guidance for HE institutions on handling alleged student misconduct. Since then Universities have been playing catch-up to get to grips with what will no-doubt eventually become one of the biggest scandals in the University sector. The scale of sexual violence experienced by students at University and the lack of appropriate recording, intervention and support by institutions is nothing less than a cover-up. 

In this discussion–based workshop we will cover some of the pro-active measures that Students’ Unions can take in collaboration with their institution to address the problem. This includes an effective disclosure response initiative, pro-active bystander intervention, REACT training, the Ask Angela Initiative, effective wellbeing officers in student groups and social-responsibility campaigns that can make a start in addressing the problem.

Audience: Elected Officers and Staff

Presenters:

• Joshua Gibbs – Head of Student Advice, Cardiff Students’ Union  

 

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Biannual Research Design Workshop

NUS Insight would like to conduct a large scale survey of all types of learner across the UK to understand the learner lifestyle. 

In what will become a regular piece of research (conducted biannually), the findings will allow NUS, and the membership, to increase their own knowledge of students and learners, and of how they change over time.

This workshop is your opportunity to understand more about what we want to do and to have your say.   We’d like to understand what’s important to our membership and what sort of information you would value, both on a UK wide scale and on a local level. 

Audience:  Staff and Officers

Presenters:

• NUS Insight team: Lynsey Owens, Jo Stanton, Fenella Bramwell

 

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Public Data can Transform our Students' Unions: Here's How.

Every students’ union is different in its mission, its student body, and its geography.  To make the biggest difference to our members we need to know not only how they interact with their students’ union but how they interact with their city, how their experiences shape their time in education, and how our services can support their success.  In this interactive session we will work together to look at how publicly available data sets can help shape our students’ unions work from employability, to widening participation, to the design of our membership services and beyond.

Audience: Staff and Officers

Presenters:

• James Coe, Event Content Consultant, NUS

 

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Growing media sales in your union

Successful media sales requires time, effort, and can be costly.  For students’ unions this is an income stream which has great potential with the right support in place.  In this session we will take you through how to grow media sales in your union and how NUS can support you to do so.

Audience: Staff

Presenters:

• Rupert Knight, Head of Local and Outdoor Media, NUS

 

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Membership Satisfaction

NUS is committed to a level of 80 per cent membership satisfaction by 2020. In this session you will hear about progress towards this goal and what we're doing to get there.

Audience: Elected Officers and Staff

Presenters:

• Sarah McIntosh, Director of People and Membership, NUS

 

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