Hi all! Your President of Student Experience, Amelia, here. As the new term starts, I thought I’d give you all an update on everything I have been up to in Spring term. It’s a long update. Sorry not sorry 😊
P.s If you want to read me rambling on about Student Loans, scroll to the end (Title: National Lobby Day).
Work – Represent you in academic matters​ and uphold student voice
Rest – Make sure that you have the things that make your student life great: wellbeing, finance, community
Play – Run fun events, clubs and societies
Slay – Campaign for the changes you desire. Celebrate achievements
While in this role, the thing I have enjoyed most is organising art opportunities for students. This opportunity I was especially excited for due its collaboration with Faith & Reflection resulting in being able to exhibit in a stunning venue. This exhibition was an open call opportunity for all AUB students with the theme of enlightenment
Enlightenment: a state of profound understanding or clarity. In some instances, this can also be linked to a spiritual awakening. This often leads to the challenging of traditions, a gain knowledge, a sense of freedom or happiness.
Student artwork did not have to be religious to participate in the exhibition.
We had 30 students from a range of course BA – MA exhibiting a wide variety of media/mediums. This was all installed and co-curated with Aditi on free standing partition boards which is what makes exhibitions in spaces like this, where you can’t put anything on the building’s walls, possible. Campus services were a massive help in organising and building these boards for us.
The exhibition was open to the public to visit and Faith & Reflection thinks we had over 250-300 visitors over the course of the two weeks. The opening night was also
This is the 3rd year this collective has run in AUB Galley and AUBSU are always happy to be able to collaborate with the Gallery and International teams to bring this back.
Due to visa restrictions, most international students are unable to sell at our Market Days or freelance, so this exhibition is to celebrate all the work they do, display their talents to the public and highlight their importance here at AUB.
We had an increase in international students participating in this exhibition with 23 students from a range of countries and courses from BA – Postgraduate Research.
Aditi and I were invited to be the sole curators of the exhibition which is the 1st year the Sabbs have been able to do this. This was a really valuable learning experience where we were mentored but the Gallery’s Manaher and Exhibitions’ Curator Violet and Gallery Technician Will. Not only did I learn more skills about the ins and outs of organising and curating an exhibition, but I got to learn more about the students here at AUB. For me this exhibition was about listening to stories, perspectives and experiences that aren’t my own and thinking carefully about how to hold space for them in a way that feels respectful and meaningful.
The opening night had attendance from Senior Leadership, including the Vice Chancellor, and speeches from Violet, Mehjabeen (the CFO who was also an international student) and your SU Presidents. There were free drinks, including alcoholic drinks, music and good vibes.
(P.s all AUB Gallery openings have free drinks as well as amazing FAMOUS artists exhibit so I would recommend visiting their openings. You might get to meet the artist!)
Yes! We brought the dogs back again!!!
University Mental Health Day takes place every march to get the nation talking about student wellbeing and working together to make mental health a university-wide priority. This was organised by Student Minds and UMHAN.
In collaboration with Wellbeing, Reslife, Chartwells and Faith & Reflections we had dogs, plant pot painting, cookie decorating and face painting. This turned out to be a very popular event with over 150-200 of you attending over the 2 hours. We ran out of cookies and plant pots very quickly and the dogs were getting a lot of love.
Since before Christmas and over January, I have been working with Student Services to bring a joint Campaign week to campus.
This week consisted of discussions and raising awareness around consent, red flags, support, sexual health and safety with something different happening each day either online or on campus.
Monday: Red Flags – in the courtyard we invited students to place a red flag in the grass if they had been affected by sexual violence or knew someone who did. All 100 flags we had were placed and we believe more would have been placed if we had them! It was really impactful to see all the flags out and just shows that people aren’t alone, but it also shows how a significant amount of students unfortunately face these issues.
On social media we posted about red flags to recognise in someone who might have faced sexual abuse or violence, red flags to spot in potential abuses, and encouraged students to speak up if they have concerns.
Tuesday: Contraception – we posted on social media about what contraception students can access for free and where they can do so.
Writing Society led an open mic night about relationships where students were invited to read poems, tell stories, etc.
Wednesday: Support systems – Student Services held a Community Fair in AUB Gallery with a range of charities and organisations that look to support students and raise awareness. The charities gave out free items to students, and we had really positive feedback from the charities about the engagement they received from students.
We also posted on social media about all the support students can access both internally and externally.
Thursday: Play for Prevention – students helped run a bake sale and took part in SHAG related games which raised awareness around Sexual health. This was a lot of fun for us to run to engage with students in a way perhaps they didn’t expect us too. We had games like ‘Pin the Penis’, ‘How fast can you put a condom on a banana?’ and ‘Pill Ping Pong’.
Students directly donated to local charity, Safe empowerment which is a charity that is working to create safe spaces in Bournemouth for young people. One café just opened opposite Madeira Road student accommodation.
Friday: Sexual Health Awareness – We created promotion on signs to look out for with STIs and where they can get advice around sexual health.
Exhibition – During this week some of the artist who participated in the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Discrimination exhibition offered their artwork to be in a mini exhibition in the BUG Exhibition Space (North Building). Many of the charities that visited for the Community Fair visited the exhibition and expressed how impactful and powerful the artwork was.
The students running SEEGULL have been working independently since end of November with the occasional guidance from the SU. The students ran a fundraiser to raise money for the printing of the magazine, and they raised an amazing £1130.
They plan to launch the magazine on the 5th May with a mini market during the day with the sellers they interviewed for the magazine, as well as hold an exhibition in the BUG of artwork involved in the Magazine during the evening. Further details to come!!!
Me and Aditi are having regular meetings with the local MP discussing important issues for students. We have spoken a lot about cost of living, concerns for international students, safety in Bournemouth, transport, advice on how to get student more engaged in their voting rights and what’s going on locally. We are planning a Round Table with Jessica Toale (Local MP), Dorset Police and a University representative to discuss student safety issues. This will be on the 8th May 12:30-2pm.
If you would like to give your feedback about safety in Bournemouth and help us campaign for improvements, please fill out this form:
https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/uxkcBK8TLD
If you would like to give feedback on transport in Bournemouth so we can campaign for changes, please fill out this form:
https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/8ceFsYGbb0
This was one of the first proper networking events I have experienced as a Sabb. I really enjoyed attending and it was wonderful to be around other people who understand the working world of a SU. It was also beneficial to learn about how other SU operate. It became a learning experience of what ideas we could take from others and vice versa. We attended a range of sessions presented by other SUs and Wonkhe learning about ways of leadership, how to ensure your voice is heard, building ways of staying connected/supporting each other when we leave our sabb roles and more about student rights.
Blue Monday is an annual campaign, promoted by Uk Charity Samaritans, on the 3rd Monday of January to encourage people to connect and have a chat with a cuppa to tackle that ‘blue Monday’ feeling.
In collaboration with Student Services, we had goats, free hot drinks and snacks and craft activities with Faith & refection. The goats caused some chaos but I think it safe to say that they chased away any blueness students might have been feeling.
Nice weather kindly worked with us to create a buzzing campus. This refreshers fair was a lot bigger compared to others that we have done in the past meaning the lack of rain and the sun being out was a blessing. We had clubs and societies scattered about the courtyard as well as in the now old conference centre. Local businesses and charities brought more freebees and an idea of what is about in Bournemouth. We also held a student Market Day at the same time which was especially popular.
During the fair we announced our Mascot winner!
We ran a workshop with students to outline what their concerns are with the open hours are, what spaces they use, what they would like to see happen, etc. We have fed this back to different departments on campus who will continue to discuss what they can do during the winter months when campus opening hours are reduced.
As for summer term, campus opening hours are as followed:
13 April to 19 June 2026:
Monday to Thursday – all campus open 0800 to 2100.
Friday – all campus open 0800 to 1800.
Saturday – all campus open 0900 to 1600.
Sunday – all campus closed.
I have been trying to work with the Neurodiversity team and some students to campaign for a sensory room on campus. A campaign like this most like requires funding from external trusts or organisations who look to support universities/schools with this kind of thing. This has been a very slow process unfortunately and we are still exploring avenues. Space on campus is also an issue but to promote how important this is to students please let us know what you think!
Aditi and I partook in a National Lobby Day organised by NUS about the current Student Loan Situation. This particular Lobby Day was targeted at the Plan 2 Student loans which mostly effects graduates (students who started university from 1st sept 2012- 31st July 2023) but to add some context to this, Plan 2 loans had their interest rates increased due to inflation rising. Plan 2 interest rates sit at RPI + 3% and at the time of the lobby day, had no cap meaning they could keep rising. This was not what students agreed to when they initially applied for a student loan and entered a contract.
To add additional context, students/graduates on a plan 2 loan start repaying their student loan the April after they have left university if they earn over £28,470 a year. They repay 9% of whatever they earn over the threshold, and the loan is written off after 30 years.
Most current students will be on a plan 5 loan (anyone who started university from 1st August 2023). Currently their interest rate remains at 3.2%, however, they pay 9% on income over £25,000 a year and it is not written off for 40 years.
Graduates with a postgraduate student loan have the large 6.2% interest rate applied to their loan as well. They must start giving 9% of their income towards paying this loan as soon as they start earning over £21,000 a year, less than minimum wage.
None of the above student loan situations, if any of them at all, are ideal and this is just on the repayment side of it. While in university, students struggle with money even with a maintenance loan. Maintenance loans only cover about 50% of actual student living cost and even less on those on the minimum amount.
Maintenance Loans for Undergraduates living away from home outside of London:
|
Household Income |
Maintenance Loan Available, 25-26 |
Maintenance Loan Available, 26-27 |
|
up to £25,000 |
£10,544 (max) |
£10,830 (max) |
|
£45,000 |
£7,532 |
£7,739 |
|
£62,410 |
£4,915 (min) |
£5,048 (min) |
For those who often receive the minimum amount of maintenance loan due to their household income being a certain amount over the threshold, it is not taken into account whether the parents/carers can still actually afford to help support their child through university or the fact that they are also expected to support any other children they have if they attend university as well. Many other circumstances are not taken into account at all. To receive the maximum maintenance loan, household income needs to be £25,000 or below. This threshold has not been changed since 2007 and is not in align with inflation; this should be £40,000 to be aligned. It has also been calculated that the maximum maintenance loan is £1600 – £3150 below real value due to inflation.
Due to these reasons mentioned, 2/3rds of students end up working during term time often requiring 20+ hours a week minimum wage to meet basic needs. This means that students often work over 50 hours a week of combined work and study which also puts strain on mental health and wellbeing. More students are choosing to live at home while studying as they can’t afford to move away, however, statistics show that living at home while studying also reduces wellbeing due to lack independence, lack of social life and a feeling of missing out.
While the National Lobby Day we attended had a focus on the interest rates on the Plan 2 loan, as a result of it we won a Parliamentary Inquiry. This not only will examine whether the recent decision to freeze the repayment threshold for many graduates is fair, but it will look at all student Loan plans and whether repayment terms are “reasonable” when considered alongside the “broader taxation of graduates” such as income tax.
This is a step in the right direction to hopefully NUS’s bigger aim of Government doing a review of Student Loans all together.
Upon speaking to MPs on this subject, including our local MP, they have expressed similar concerns on student loans and many of them who oversee a student heavy area have seen the impact it has on their community. It was really positive to hear that, at least in Bournemouth, we feel the support of our MPs behind student concerns and experiences.
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I have been working on keeping the food pantry running and stocked as much as possible.
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Looking after the BUG and Student bookings
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Attending committee and working group meetings.
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Planning what’s coming up next
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Meeting with the Student Executive Offices and running the Student Assemblies
And probably lots more!
If you got this far into my blog then I am impressed! Thank you for reading. See yall throughout the next term!
