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27th February 2024
We’re celebrating National Colleges Week, 26 Feb – 01 March 2024, to showcase the incredible work colleges do up and down the country.
The theme for Colleges Week this year is on influencing, engaging, and celebrating and we’re excited to be supporting this campaign throughout the week.
With a general election looming, 2024 is set to be a defining year for the country and for the further education sector. Whoever the next government is, we want to make sure they are focussed on ensuring colleges play an even bigger role in an inclusive, tolerant, welcoming, strong society and a growing and productive economy.
During the week, we caught up with members of our Students’ Union (SU) team to talk about their engagement with the student body, how the upcoming general election will have an impact on the work they do, and where their ongoing activities link in with this year’s Colleges Week theme.
“My role as SU President and a Student Governor has given me the ability and opportunity to work with students to influence college life in a positive way through listening to students’ feedback and opinions and sharing this with others to make a positive change.
“I’m able to meet regularly with the Vice Principal, be a part of some board of governors meetings, and we also run the student rep conference to make sure students voices are heard and are able to influence change in the College.
“As part of the student parliament team, we gather feedback and ideas that I bring to senior management on behalf of students, which makes them aware of students’ opinions, challenges and how to help overcome them.
“We meet with other students each month at SU parliament meetings to gather feedback, plan celebratory events, and make sure these are diverse and inclusive for all students from all backgrounds so that everyone feels represented throughout the College and in the classroom.
“With the general election coming up later this year, we are looking to offer advice and information to students on the importance of registering to vote, to ensure that their voices can be heard. Being a part of shaping these kinds of conversations is something that I’m really grateful for, and I’m glad that we can pass on students’ thoughts and ideas to help make a difference.”
“We celebrate students in many ways, such as our celebratory cultural events. For example, I was involved in arranging Romanian national day, which we had never celebrated before in college. Events to involve all students are such a good idea to meet other students, make new friends, and learn about other people’s cultures. The events we arrange are always very successful and result in lots of engagement with students and staff, that creates a welcoming and friendly atmosphere.
“The SU also takes produces a termly student bulletin that our student body can contribute to. We also focus on celebrating events, achievements and successes of all students. Sharing success stories between students, such as class projects, fundraisers, trips and achievements is just one of the ways we love to share and engage in celebrating each other in our college community.”
“As SU Vice President, I think we engage really well with the students. We have a big population in college across many campuses, and we find that students love engaging with us as we have a big presence in college and are there for support.
“The SU have a big presence at all college centres, making us a focal point for students to find information about events, clubs, societies, trips, or even speak to a member of the team to ask for help, or to be signposted to other internal services.
“I’m really proud of the work that we do within the SU and that we are able to be there for all students to help enrich their journey at the College. With this year being such a key year for colleges to make their opinions heard, it’s now more important than ever for us to engage with students across college to gather opinions, feedback and to ensure that student voices are shared and listened to affect positive change within the sector.”
Photo L:R Maria; Sleiman; Lanya
