We’re currently conducting a ‘democracy review,’ which is just a complicated way of saying that we’re trying find out how we can make the Students’ Union work better. We know the way we operate might seem a bit boring and complicated at the moment, so we want to bring ourselves into the 2020s. We’re planning a big revamp of all the union structures, with the aim of making things simpler and funner, and crucially making us more effective at improving the experience of studying at City and being part of the university community. We want to build a system where every student feels they can make the changes they need through the Union.
We’ve just run a big survey asking you all sorts of questions about what you want the union to be doing, how you want to get involved and what you think of how things are set up at the moment. We got an amazing response rate and it will be really, really useful to us on this project- so a big thank you to everyone who filled it out.
The next stage will be to speak to students directly through focus groups and interviews, which will be your chance to tell us exactly what you think we should be doing.
In the focus groups we will ask you to discuss what sort of union you want to see, and to come up with ideas we can incorporate into the new SU design. We will be holding 3 focus groups of 10 people from 4th May-6th May over Zoom, as well as an in-person group sometime after the 17th May when we can return to campus (dates and times to be confirmed). If you take part in the focus group and wanted to tell us even more after, then you can come along to an interview the week after. The focus group will last between an hour and an hour and a half and you will get a £20 Amazon gift card in return for your time.
At the end of the survey we asked if you wanted to take part in interviews and focus groups - and if you answered yes and left your student number we should be in touch to see if you’re still interested. If not, then make sure to sign up for a ticket to attend the focus groups on the following days here:
• Tuesday 4th May, 10am
• Wednesday 5th May, 4pm
• Thursday 6th May, 5pm