Throughout November, Sheffield Students’ Union has continued to progress through the ‘Discover the Future’ phase of the strategic planning process, carrying out significant pieces of research that will all be used in the formation of our new strategic plan: ‘Sheffield Students’ Union - The Future’.

As part of this ‘Discover’ phase, we have already carried out extensive desk research, some of which can be found here and we encouraged all staff and students to complete their ‘Shape the Future’ questionnaires. We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Andrew Gray, who won £500 for completing the student questionnaire. Well done!

There were a number of clear themes arising from the desk research and questionnaires. A number of these are detailed below but you can also hear more information about our research and some of the emerging themes in our latest video blog.

• Academic Support: Examining ways for the Students’ Union to better support students in their academic endeavours, whether this be by devising our own support network separate to the University’s, or by representing our students and lobbying the University for change
• Student Employability: Considering what ‘employability’ means to students and investigating ways for the Students’ Union to help our students get jobs
• A Sense of Community: Looking at how we can ensure that all members, both students and staff, feel part of the Sheffield Students’ Union community; exploring ways for us to improve student / staff relations
• The Role of the Students’ Union: Asking some big questions, like ‘are we still fit for purpose?’ ‘If we were to start up a brand new Students’ Union next year, what would we do differently?’
• The Impact of Fees: Thinking about how the increase in fees will affect the Students’ Union and our members; what should we change to ensure that our members’ best interests are kept at the heart of this organisation?

These themes have been fed into the next stage of our research: ‘Ideas Cafes’ for staff and online focus groups for students.

All staff, permanent and casual, were invited to come along to one of 8 ‘Ideas Cafes’ that were held on the 5th, 6th and 7th of December. These sessions gave staff the opportunity to discuss the above themes in more detail and offer their ideas on what the organisation should be doing, or changing, over the next four years.

Later this week Red Brick, our external market research partners, will be conducting a series of online focus groups with various groups of students including postgraduate research, international, part-time, mature and local students. Again students will have the chance to discuss the above themes in more detail and tell us how they think they will affect students over the next four years.

In just one week, we had over 300 students volunteer to take part in online focus groups which is great and shows how dedicated our students are to ensuring Sheffield Students’ Union remains an outstanding student-led organisation. If you missed out on the chance to take part in a focus group, or an Ideas Café, we would still appreciate your feedback; you can email su-thefuture@sheffield.ac.uk with your thoughts on any of the above themes or on anything else you think we ought to be considering when constructing our new strategic plan.

You have until Christmas to feed in as in January this ‘Discover the Future’ phase will culminate with all the different elements of the research being pulled together and presented to the Officers. All these pieces of research will then be carefully considered as we move into the ‘Shape the Future’ phase: writing our new strategic plan.

At the beginning of February the new strategic plan, which will be presented on one user-friendly page, will be made available for all staff and students to view and feedback on.

In the meantime, we would once again like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has contributed so far; we really value and appreciate your involvement in this process and cannot stress enough how important it has been. If you have any other thoughts, comments or questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch: su-thefuture@sheffield.ac.uk.

Thanks again and Merry Christmas!

-Thom Arnold, President & Stephen Hubbard, General Manager

Sheffield Students’ Union is currently developing our new strategic plan to take us through to 2016 - “Sheffield Students’ Union - The Future”. This plan will build on the successes of the current plan, Vision 2012, whilst guiding the organisation through the changing landscape of the next few years.

“Sheffield Students’ Union - The Future” will be a 4 year strategic plan. There will be the opportunity to carry out a significant mid-plan review process after 2 years, when we will have the chance to modify, change or adapt the plan if necessary. Given the current changing nature of the Higher Education sector, this flexibility is crucial and having a 4 year plan allows us to have that flexibility whilst still being forward thinking.

We are currently in the ‘Discover’ stage of the plan. This means that we are carrying out significant pieces of research to help us to discover what our members want so that we can ensure that their best interests are kept at the heart of this organisation. This research includes:

• Desk research
• “Shape the Future” student questionnaire
• “Shape the Future” staff questionnaire
• Online focus groups for students
• Ideas cafés for staff
• Interviews with University staff

Over the course of the last two weeks, we’ve been asking staff and students to fill out the “Shape the Future” questionnaire, letting us know their thoughts, feelings and opinions on Sheffield Students’ Union. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all those who completed that questionnaire; we really appreciate your time and feedback.

If you missed out on this opportunity to have your say, we would still really value your feedback. You can email any thoughts/ comments to this address su-thefuture@sheffield.ac.uk.

Everything we learn from the questionnaire will be fed into the next stage of this discovery phase, which is an ideas café for staff and online focus groups for students. These various sessions will be an opportunity for you to give us some more detailed feedback on the issues that arise from the completed questionnaires; this will give us a much more detailed insight into what you want from our Students’ Union.

Students - If you are interested in taking part in an online focus group, which will be held on the 12th and 13th of December, please email us at this address su-thefuture@sheffield.ac.uk.
Staff - An email will be sent out in the next couple of weeks detailing the various ideas cafés available over the 5th, 6th and 7th of December. You will then be able to sign up to your preferred slot.

So, between now and December, we will be continuing to carry out extensive desk research, and conducting interviews with some senior members of the University’s staff, in order to gain as broad an understanding as possible of what “The Future” of Sheffield Students’ Union should look like.

In the mean time, if you have any thoughts, comment or feedback on how you think the future of Sheffield Students’ Union should look, please email us at su-thefuture@sheffield.ac.uk.

-Thom Arnold, President & Stephen Hubbard, General Manager

Sheffield Students’ Union is constantly developing, aiming to deliver the best student experience to all of its members.

To achieve this, the Students’ Union members and staff develop a strategic plan to help guide the organisation through the changing landscape of the next few years.

*A strategic plan outlines an organisation’s future course and looks at

• What do we do
• For whom do we do it
• How do we excel

It is now time to start the planning process again and with your input, support and help we need to build on the successes of the current plan and discover what you and future students need from this Students’ Union.

Our current plan runs from 2009 – 2012 and is based around 3 broad themes:

• Driven by students supported by staff
• More than a building
• A landmark new building

This plan has seen some remarkable achievements and developments within and by the Students’ Union:

• £10,000 innovation fund
• Online voting and increased voter turn out in all elections
• Representation & Democracy Staff Department to support the Student Officers, Councillors and Course Reps with their representation work
• Merger of Councillors and Union Links
• Regular society showcases in The Zone
• Improved availability and reduction in charges for bookable spaces within the Students’ Union
• Employment of Environmental Co-ordinator and GOLD Green Impact Award
• The building itself: a brand new development that opened in Sept 2010

If you wish to find out more about the current plan visit http://www.shef.ac.uk/union/vision2012/

Following a tender process, Red Brick Research have been employed to assist the Students’ Union during the consultation period of the next strategic plan. Over the next couple of months you will no doubt be contacted for your feedback on certain themes and ideas. A student and staff survey will go live in mid October and your responses are truly wanted and necessary for this process to succeed.

This blog will be updated every month letting you know what’s going on, how you can get involved and indeed what we are discovering about our future.

We believe Sheffield Students’ Union is in a great position to continue to deliver for all of our members, ensuring that the best times, support and opportunities are had by all its members.

So let’s get started right now. Tell us what you think University of Sheffield students will be concerned about in the coming years. Email your thoughts to su-thefuture@sheffield.ac.uk

-Thom Arnold, President & Stephen Hubbard, General Manager

*Strategic plan definition source: Wikipedia