Impact Report 2021-22

Welcome to our Impact Report where we look back on the previous 2021/22 academic year and see what we got up to at Christ Church Students' Union.

In this report we have divided up the facts and figures into the five Strategic Themes and five Strategic Enablers of Your Union Plan 2019-22.

• We voiced our concerns to the Vice Chancellor about the decision to postpone graduation ceremonies due to take place in January 2022 with less than 3 weeks notice.  Many students had waited several years to celebrate their academic success and our argument was that if government guidance permits, graduation ceremonies should go ahead as planned, with appropriate COVID safety measures in place.  
• In February the Sabbatical Team wrote an open letter to oppose regressive changes to student and university finance put forward in the government’s HE funding announcement and response to the Auger Review.
• The Students’ Union President met with Canterbury Labour MP Rosie Duffield who agreed to ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason students studying for a Paramedic Science degree course as their second degree are not eligible for grants from the NHS Learning Support Fund.
• Our President (Engagement & Sports) started a campaign to bring sports and social facilities back to the North Holmes Road Campus.

• The popular Choosday Chill event continued, offering students a route to access formal support in a more informal setting.
• Due to several instances of drink spiking and assault on women in late 2021 we lent our support to the Reclaim These Streets march and campaign as well as offering advice, support, and resources alongside our partners Canterbury City Council, Kent Police, the Community Safety Partnership, the University, Distinctive Bars and other local stakeholders.  Our primary message was that drink spiking is never the fault of the victim and ensured that all our messaging reflected that.
• In May 2022 we released a statement amid accusations of antisemitism within the National Union of Students (NUS) cementing to fact to all that Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion sit within our core values, and we condemn all racism and antisemitism.
• With news of energy prices going up we worked to ensure that students were aware of how to access their energy rebates along especially as most did not have direct debits set up with the council so would need to proactively apply.

• Our clubs and societies were able to fully resume in-person activities, but there was a reduction in numbers when compared to pre-covid memberships showing there is still an ongoing effect.
• Working with Christ Church Sport & Active Health we implemented the new support and financial model for club sport with the aim to enhance sustainability, drive improvements in experience and club development, and enable wider participation
• The Sports Federation and Student Activities Awards were held in person for the first time since 2019.

• We held the Freshers’ Fayre in the new locations of Abbey Square (Verena Holmes) and the Sports Centre with very positive feedback from students keen to get involved in university life resulting in 2,662 expressions of interest to join our various societies and sports teams.
• We continued to build upon the successful development of the Union’s presence and service at the Medway Campus and this included ‘Medway Monday’ in September which was attended by all union staff which was a first for any event.
• The International Food and Culture Fayre was held in the Lounge and our students did a truly wonderful job, sharing not just food but stories and knowledge from their own cultures.
• The 13th Annual Golden Apple Award event took place in July 2022 as a streamed pre-recorded ceremony.  There were 319 nominations, with 14 University staff members being recognised along with seven unique awards.  We aim to bring back an in-person ceremony in 2023.

• We implemented a new design on our ccsu.co.uk website to simplify the user journey and make our content more accessible.  This included incorporating new brand colours that follow on through our other digital and print comms ensuring continuity and brand awareness of our messaging.
• The student segmentation project we commissioned in Spring 2021 was completed in Spring 2022 and this has identified specific subsets within our student body so we can better understand their motivations for engagement and more precisely meet their service and communication needs. 
• We started our own TikTok account as the platform gained popularity within the student body and gave us another channel to be more creative with video content.
• The Union recorded 459,679 page views across 155,700 visits on www.ccsu.co.uk.

• As a new incentive for voting in our Sabbatical Officer Leadership Elections we pledged to plant a tree for every voter, resulting in 1,000 trees being planted.

• After a number of years of Union grant reduction and staffing contraction we were able to secure an addition to our block grant which will deliver essential improvements to student representation and co-curricular activity.

• 1,397 students filled in our Student Life Pulse survey and gave feedback on all aspects of Students' Union provision.  Overall satisfaction with the Union increased to 40%, a significant rise from the 32% of 2021, with the national average being 44%.  51% of students agreed that the Students' Union represents the views of students effectively, up from 47% in 2021.

• With the post-COVID trend of cashless payments, we invested in contactless card readers which allowed our student groups to continue to fundraise for good causes.

• This year signalled the second cohort intake of Kent and Medway Medical School students and we continued our support for them along with Kent Union.  MedSoc, the academic society for KMMS, grew in strength as their numbers doubled and direct funding from the School ensured all KMMS students could join free of charge.
• We developed our partnership with Kent Union and Greenwich Students’ Union to create The Hub at Medway for closer collaboration benefitting the students studying there.