The Story So Far...

With Election fever out of the way and the dawning realisation that I only have a few months left in my role as Academic Affairs Exec, I thought it would be a good time to look at my aims for the year and how far I am towards achieving them.


Higher Education Funding

I started the year with the aim to campaign around the issues of higher education funding in line with the NUS Broke and Broken campaign. However, as a committee, we decided that before we launched any campaign we would ask students what THEY wanted us to campaign for. At the AGM in December, two motions were brought; one for a free education campaign and one for a better education funding system. Around 80% of students voted for the latter. However, as AGM was inquorate the decision was not binding, and the vote was scheduled to be taken to Union Council as an indicative vote.
Since then a number of students called a referendum around the question of free education. Once again, not enough votes were cast to give the Union a binding policy.
So what do you think? Should we fight for free education or concentrate on lobbying the government not to raise the cap on tuition fees any more?


Anonymous Marking

I have talked to key members of the University about the issue of anonymous marking and how we can implement it. Although a University-wide anonymour marking policy can't be implemented overnight, the University have committed to setting up a working group to discuss all issues around marking including, anonymous marking, double marking, moderation and group assessment. Watch this space...


Student Reps

This year the student rep system has become bigger and better, and with more postgraduate student reps than ever before we can see that the system is growing across a range of courses. But is it working for you? Do you know who your student rep is? In a couple of months time, we will be reviewing the entire student rep system, so have your say and let us know what you think is good and what we need to change.


Engagement with Academic Activity

I've worked with academic staff this year to encourage students to set up subject-based societies. These kind of societies are a great opporunity t meet students from similar courses, support each other, and organise events that will help you in your course. Lots of new subject-based societies are in the pipeline and there's room for many more. So if you fancy setting up a society for your course and getting funding towards trips, events and guest speakers, it really couldn't me easier. Just get in touch.
On another note... do you think you've got what it takes to be part of Sheffield Hallam's University Challenge team 2009? Try-outs are just around the corner...so get in touch!


Assessment Feedback

The biggest campaign I have organised this year is the Feedback Campaign. With a small army of student reps,I have asked students what types of feedback you get and how you use it. The overwhelming response is that that you know how to use feedback to improve your learning and would like lots more of it. This campaign has been really useful, not only for letting you all know bout the kinds of feedback you could be getting, but also to use as evidence to the University.


Placement Students

Sheffield Hallam is one of the largest placement providers in Europe and proudly boast about this. However, I feel that if the University want to show off about this fact, they need to support their placement students a lot more. Before I can lobby the University to look after placement students more, I need to know about your experiences. So if you've been on a year block placement or are on a course that includes placements, please get in touch and help me make a difference.


There is still a long way to go this year, and I aim to get there. As always, any questions or comments, just get in touch!

Dani