The CUSU 2020 Vision Our Strategic Plan for 2015 - 2020
Our Mission:
To represent the interests of all students of Coventry University
Our Values:
We are student led, inclusive, accountable, democratic and transparent. We believe in innovation and being ethically and environmentally sound. We strive to create social
groups and a sense of belonging to communities of students. We shall be partners with the University in improving the student education experience. As a membership
organisation we strive to meet the needs of a diverse membership.
Our 6 Strategic Themes for 2015 – 2020
Student Leadership:
CUSU shall ensure it is student led, develop and strengthen its leadership, encourage its members to take leadership roles, recognise and celebrate students’ leadership
Creating Communities:
CUSU has the unique role to create and sustain communities of students on campus and locally, and support its members to develop their own cultural and political
identities and engage with the wider student movement
Internationalisation and Globalism:
CUSU shall support and celebrate cultures and interests of all members in their diverse identities; provide critical support for the University’s aims in the globalisation of
education and develop relations with the University’s international partners.
Quality and Resources:
CUSU shall provide demonstrably high quality services that are innovative, accessible and meet the needs of all its members; and ensure that its resources and governance
are managed efficiently, effectively, transparently, and are financially and ethically sustainable.
Participation and Engagement:
CUSU shall ensure that more members participate and engage with it through its services and democratic representation structures through effective communication,
recognition and celebration.
Improving the Education Experience
CUSU shall represent the interests of all members in the continuous improvement of the student experience, supporting their needs in the teaching and learning experience
and contributing to the educational and intellectual life of the University.
The 6 Main themes: what we will do and how we measure our progress:
Theme 1: Student Leadership:CUSU shall ensure it is student led, develop and strengthen its leadership, encourage its members to take leadership roles, recognise and celebrate students’ leadership
Student Council
All Council members will receive regular written and oral briefings on finances and performance of CUSU; Council will select working groups to question CUSU Senior
Management at open meetings; Council will hold Executive to account and create policies with a 100% increase over the period
The membership shall have a greater awareness of CUSU mission and objectives as tested by annual surveys; there will be a focussed CUSU awareness campaign to
improve understanding of CUSU mission, objectives and performance
Executive Committee shall increase communications to the membership and other stakeholders by blogs and social media by 100% year on year; shall publish annually
the matrix plan of their responsibilities and regularly report to Council and the membership on their performance against the plan
There shall be a University-recognised accreditation for student leadership open to all student leaders which will facilitate a ‘ladder of progression’ and succession within
CUSU
All student leaders shall have the opportunity for training sessions and on line training programmes
The impact of student leaders shall be monitored and publicised
Candidates for all elections shall have the opportunity to join a CUSU ‘Elections Academy’ to improve knowledge and awareness of roles, CUSU and NUS
There will be a measurable increase year on year of engagement with regional, sectoral and national conferences of NUS
Theme 2: Creating Communities
CUSU has the unique role to create and sustain communities of students on campus and locally, and support its members to develop their own cultural and political
identities and engage with the wider student movement
Contact and increased cooperation with local neighbourhood and residents groups will be pursued; we shall brief student community reps to attend community fora;
there will be an increase in the number of local volunteering activities support local residents groups
Growth in societies shall be monitored as a contribution to creating cultural, social and religious communities on campus
Through halls and residences representatives we shall create a sense of community identity with halls and the local community with social, sports and cultural
programmes in the residences
CUSU will contribute to the City’s cultural developments, events and arts festivals
Theme 3: Internationalisation and Globalisation
CUSU shall support the needs of all members’ faiths and celebrate cultures and interests; support the aims of the University in the globalisation of education and develop
relations with the University’s international partners.
We shall create links with the University’s international collaborators to develop an understanding of the values and membership of CUSU
Our cultural understanding of the diverse student population shall be supported by staff training and monitoring the profile of student participation
We will support the celebration of cultural diversity by increasing throughout the period our sponsorship of nationality and culturally based events The Multi Faith
Council shall develop links with the Cathedral’s Multi faith Forum; the CUSU Council shall meet 6 times per year and shall host joint events, talks and social events
CUSU will support interfaith understanding and its role in maintaining good campus relations in liaison with the Spirituality Centre
CUSU shall collaborate with the University’s international initiatives through global leaders and IEMS to create international volunteering opportunities and exchanges
Theme 4: Quality Services and Resources
CUSU shall provide demonstrably high quality services that are innovative, accessible and meet the needs of all its members and ensure that its resources and
governance are managed efficiently, effectively, transparently, and financially and ethically sustainable.
We shall annually benchmark CUSU against other students unions to demonstrate value for money in delivery of services to our members and to inform our annual
business planning
Accessibility to CUSU shall be improved by developing a permanent presence across faculties on campus, delivering our services for partner colleges, and extending hours
of services for evenings and weekends on campus
We shall ensure the quality of our services by independent audit wherever possible and shall obtain and maintain over the strategic period an Excellence Quality level by
the NUS Quality Mark accreditation
CUSU Governance shall be of robust, ensuring transparency to stakeholders and engagement by Student Council; a model of self assessing CUSU development shall be
defined to measure meeting our core values
CUSU shall have budget controls in place to build reserves to $400K; income from commercial operations shall increase by 10% year on year through this period
Social events and entertainments shall be provided via third party promoters and financial risk shall be kept to a minimum and at best zero, whilst exploring income from
marketing/communications strengths of CUSU
Our staff strategy shall include an extensive mandatory training and development programme to support all our staff; survey staff and strive to improve staff satisfaction;
a talent management scheme to encourage internal progression; an independent audit to show CUSU is a good employer; achieve the two ticks accreditation
We shall create a Research Hub to collect data on CUSU membership, participation and engagement, NUS and other research, and University information to inform policy
and management decision making; to commission students to undertake research, data collection and other projects to support the Research Hub
We shall review all CUSU services in the period to maintain sustainable, environmentally and ethically good practice
We shall ensure that CUSU keeps up to date on technological innovations in communications
Theme 5: Participation and Engagement
CUSU shall ensure that more members participate and engage with it through its services and democratic representation structures through effective communication,
recognition and celebration.
We shall engage with our members before their arrival; we shall be at University open days to engage potential members
Students’ engagement with CUSU will increase year on year, by the end of the period we shall have:
200 societies with 5,500 members
50 sports clubs with 3,500 members participating in sport
Performance in BUCS competitions consistently in the top 40
Volunteering shall double in the period to 2,500 students engaged locally and internationally
Student led awareness campaigns will increase to 20 per year
Continue to increase election turnout and the number of candidates to remain in the top quartile of students’ union elections
Course representatives to increase in proportion to student numbers (i.e. 1 course rep per 20 students = 1500)
The growth of postgraduate students met with a formalised fora for both taught and research PG students
Our halls and residences representation shall be reviewed and relevant to members needs with an increase in membership by 50%
We shall increase engagement with subsidiary colleges of the University by ring fenced funding from those colleges
We shall communicate with national and international partner colleges to increase an understanding of students’ unions and support the embedding of shared principles
for all students
We shall have a permanent presence across all faculties on campus
The annual independent student survey shall measure impact and understanding of CUSU
Theme 6: Improving the Education Experience
CUSU shall represent the interests of all members in the continuous improvement of the student experience, supporting their needs in the teaching and learning
experience and contributing to the educational and intellectual life of the University.
CUSU shall organise a programme of talks and events related to campaigns, social, cultural and environmental matters open to all on campus; student reps engaging with
University staff to create discourses on campus and via student media
Academic based societies shall work with relevant course reps to develop teaching and learning; the impact of change in improving the teaching and learning experience
by course reps shall be monitored.
The support for postgraduate students will grow across all services/areas and the new representation model for them will increase cultural and social events for the
University community.
Launch and embed as an annual feature a ‘Give it a Go’ programme for cultural and arts based societies, supported by societies and other students (e.g. Beginners
Lesson in playing keyboards)
Student representatives shall engage with the University in embedding the University’s transformative Education Strategy
CUSU will engage with the CU Enterprise Hub , to supports members in understanding and developing opportunities in entrepreneurship
We will continue to be a critical friend of the University through the protocol agreement between CUSU and the University
Approved by the Board of Trustees and by the Executive Committee
CUSU
May 2015