NSS Who Cares!

National Student Survey results are out this week.  Do we really care?  Does anyone even read them? Surely it's all a big scam anyway?

Right now I'm sat on a train traveling from Oxford to London on my way to NUS HQ for some Advanced Training on the NSS for SU Officers and staff. Now I must apologise for the excessive use of acronyms and can confirm that I have not accidentally spilled my breakfast of alphabet soup.  So if you are reading this blog I must assume that you either know me or have some interest in Higher Education, Representation or some form of Quality Assurance.  For anyone who's accidentally stumbled across this blog entry, perhaps tricked by the letters N.S.S,  I suggest you find a suitable dating website as there definitely are no strings attached to this blog.

So this entry is all about the National Student Survey.  Tomorrow the embargoed versions will be made available to me and I can finally find out if Oxford Brookes SU have managed to pull themselves off the bottom of the pile of disgraced Unions that were slapped with a satisfaction score by students of a pitiful 36%.  At this point I must also point out that this was a lowly position shared with that other great university "down the hill",  Oxford University.  So you can probably guess that the feeling of most people here is to pull away from Oxford.  Now it's not as clear cut as that, I have an explanation of why we scored so low.

I have my own personal opinions on the NSS, it's real value and perception by students.  I want to tell you about the polishing of figures that universities do in order to use the results as a marketing and recruitment tool. I need to tell you about the university staff who use the dreaded Question 23 to bash the SU in an attempt to divert attention away from themselves and their yearly averaging score.  I must tell you about the universities who stand separate to their SU that score low, but embrace their SU if  it scores highly. And finally I need to show you who are the people that are driving traffic to the Unistats website. 

Now I know what you're thinking, this is certainly looking like a meaty blog here!  I admit, I'm  buzzing at the chance to air these views and put a few things into perspective.  So, bare with me as my train finally pulls into Paddington.  Let me upload this entry and I will add the meat and veg  once I'm done at NUS .

A University to be Proud of

Proud of My University

I've been toying with the prospect of whether I should start a blog or not and after many months of debating, I finally decided that if I don’t get fingers to keyboard, it’s never going to happen.  Then I realised that back in 2010 I started a blog and somewhere along the way, I simply stopped writing it.  So here it is the somewhat eagerly awaited updated blog by Ken Harris.  Please forgive me for referring to myself in the third person, but I’m sure that I will not be getting graded on my grammatical approach to this blog.

So you are probably wondering what I’m going to be talking about?  If you are expecting exciting stories of intergalactic battles, high speed car chases or naked (gender neutral) warriors, then you really need to get yourself over to your local  Blockbusters, because what I have install for you is something a lot more down to earth.  I hope to thrill you with a short introduction to my experience as a proud graduate from the University of Wolverhampton, and maybe tantalise you at the end with a hint of where I might go next.  

As a recent graduate of Wolverhampton University and former president of the Students’ Union I can honestly say that I am a proud alumnus of the university.   I have to say that we should all be proud.  Not just because it used to be one on the slogans printed on various university produced literature, “A university to be Proud of”.  Admittedly when it first came out I was a little confused as to whether it was a statement or a question.  If there is still any confusion, let me clear it up.  It’s definitely a statement! 

I will tell you about an experience I had recently on the issue of being proud of your university.  Sometime last year I was in the sports hall on Walsall campus, in the dressing room after a workout.  There were two young men talking about university.  To my astonishment one of them said, “This University is crap, my cousin goes to Aston University and that’s way better than this place.”  Now forgive me for paraphrasing a little in my quotation of this charming chap, as that wasn’t exactly the choice words he used.  But you will probably be surprised with what happened next.  I challenged him on what he had just said.  Why you ask?  Is it because I crave for topical debate and intellectual arguments at every opportunity?  Is it because I hoped that in doing so I would find myself a new friend to join me in my workout sessions? Or is it because I was disgusted with the fact that this young man was trashing the University that I was a member of and was therefore trashing my hard-earned degree, reputation and prospects of future employment.  

Now if you guessed the latter of the three options, then you too are on the same thinking as I. (you will see that I have reverted back to referring to myself in the first person).  So In addition to pointing all these things out to the young man, I also highlighted that I could be a potential future employer that he could find himself sat in front of once he completed his degree.  It took a little bit of additional explaining, but I pointed out that essentially I could be anyone, and right now all I am hearing is him trashing the university and giving me a negative perception of the university and all its students.  

I think my message struck home because he apologised, but he did end with saying that it was still a fact that Aston University were ranked higher than Wolves University in league tables.  Now if you remember, I’m in the changing rooms after a gym session and as much as I enjoy a good debate, I really wasn’t keen to spend the whole evening in the gym discussing this.  I much prefer to have that discussion online, in a blog for example.  I will however end on these facts; I don’t care about league tables because it made no difference to my overall achievement and experience.  I chose this university because it had the course I wanted to do and the location was perfect for me.  I read the prospectus, came to the open day and spoke to the lecturers that were going to be teaching me and I was suitably impressed.  

I understand why Wolverhampton University have chosen not to be in the University League tables.  I am in no way speaking on their behalf, but I personally understand it as being for a number of different reasons.  Mainly the information used in compiling the lists is not based on fair and comparable information.  The focus is heavily weighted towards those universities that have a strong focus to research. The Russell groups of universities will always be featured in the upper quartile of the table because the factors used to measure and produce the scores are unfairly weighted in their favour.  I could go on, but I think I should save this for a dedicated blog that I can also backup with relevant quotes and statistics.

In essence what I will say is that I feel that it is impossible to judge and rank a university based on a selection of factors and data that differs across over 100 different universities.  What is more important is the teaching and the resources and the personal effort that you commit as a student.  It is not a simple matter that it you go to the number one ranked university and are lectured at by the greatest minds in the worlds, that this will in turn translate to you magically getting a first class honours degree.  You will learn more and have a better experience if you are taught by lecturers who are not only knowledgeable, but passionate about their subject, but you must reinforce this with your own commitment to additional study and reading.  You will find these lecturers at all universities whether or not they are on a league table and regardless of its position in the charts. 

I received a 2:1 from Wolverhampton and am nearing completion of a Postgraduate Masters.  I value my degree for the hard work I committed throughout my studies and I see this degree as equally comparable to any degree gained at any of the other universities throughout the UK, whether that be Russell Group, Guild HE, University Alliance, or Million Plus.  I am proud of my degree and I am proud to be a graduate and alumnus of University of Wolverhampton.  This is why I always proudly say I went to the University of Wolverhampton.

Week 4 Aug 23rd till 28th

.... on and on it goes its the official 4th week in office and my week really does fill up fast!
Ive had the Monday off as holiday. Managed to write my graduation speech last week so spent the weekend practicing.

New Website is Launched!!!
Wow is all I can say, well I can actually say http://www.wolvesunion.org and take a look for yourselves. Its all the words associated with awesome, I believe the youth of today say "Sick!!".

Tuesday I am stacked up with meetings, starting with a group meeting with Sharon Meeley from the Grad Office. She has come over to ensure that we are happy with the procedure for the graduation and to check that we have what we need. We are lucky enough to have the offer of a special VIP lunch on some of the graduations days. MMMMM free food always helps me work harder. Later that day I have a 1-2-1 with the Vice Chancellor, I inform her about the current status of the SU, freshers, some other internal issues, and also about some proposed plans for the future of the students union. I also inform her of our plans for the NUS National Demo. The good news is that she sounds supportive and understands why as a nation of students we have to do this. My day ends with some student interaction, website designing and tweaking, more freshers planning, and I get to sign my contract of employment.


Wed & Thursday
These to days are spent on catching up with the day to day duties. I have another staff handbook consultancy meeting, this is good because we are now finished and ready to have this checked out by the solicitors before making the document live after presenting at the Trustee Board later in September.
Had a meeting with a Walsall Night Club for our Freshers week events and also discussed the possibilities of a regular weekly deal. All things are looking good and contracts for freshers are signed. That's another tick on the to-do-list!!!
The day ends at around 8pm, yes its a late finish considering I started at around 815am, but I went to visit Cov SU with Alex Blower, this was a meeting with other member students' unions to discuss plans for the future and strategy for the demo amongst other things.

Friday-the week ends
The end of a busy week ends today. The new building plans are moving along nicely and its starting to actually look like we will actually be in for an amazing treat with the new space. The morning begins with strategy planning with Luke and the team, followed by our very first Exec Meeting. This is a meeting that I chair. We cover the usual stuff and also discuss the possibility of a new student society linked to student media, setting up an open student forum for activities and of course the AGM. As always, minutes from the exec can be found online via our website

Week Three 16th - 23rd Aug

More NUS Training.

I'm back in the office for one day, and the work from last week is still here, so its back to back meetings before driving back home for a change of clothes and then Tuesday to Thursday more NUS training at Warwick University.

BBSU Building Better Students' Unions.

Its got nothing on APL but the amount of knowledge shared and gained is positive. The full details of both these training courses have been written up and can be found in my personal files.

So these last two blogs as short as they are, does not reflect the amount of shizzle I've been up to. Kinda finding it hard to even find time to write these blogs. (its a little late)

Week Two 9-15th August 2010

It's official, I survived the first week.............

So here we are in week two and it really is going well.
This is gonna be a short blog entry, but that doesn't mean its been a short week. I spent the first day on more in-house training, its a session on public speaking. It's not about "hear-yee hea-yee" but more about writing our graduation speeches and how to deliver them.
Tuesday to Friday I'm off with the whole team to University of Bristol for NUS training at APL (Active Political Leadership)

Wow this is an amazing course, I leave it feeling inspired, empowered and ready to fight for student rights. Way too much stuff to put to words here, but its four days of training, networking, sharing good practice, and Digby Jacks. Key word for the event? "Hyperdiversity"

1st Week in Office Aug 2nd- 8th 2010

Week one its the first week.

Yes its the first week and after a week of training, we are all here and ready to go bright and early. The whole team are unified and invigorated with plans for the year.

Monday begins, we start off with a presentation to the university, where we present our plans for the comming year and unveil our campaign plans. We have 7 main campaigns for the year and we will work on these as a team.

So onto Tuesday, with a day where we "Run The Union" for the day. Its what it says on the tin, we run the union, but with a twist. Throughout the day we are given different task and scenarios so owe can try out our skills and test our capabilities. Its fast paced but it works really well. We also get to meet some of the key people in the university and discuss how we will work together for the year.

Inbetween all this I still have my usual meetings such as Staff Consultancy Forum and the ongoing freshers planning. Wednesday we all get a chance to have individual one to ones with the ASC advisors so we cn get to know exactly what their jobs involve.

Now Im starting to realise that this blog thing is starting to get pretty intense, so I hope you are enjoying it. There's so much I could put on here, my personal thoughts, feelings, etc. But I hope that if you really want to know more you will come and see me as my oor is so open, it doesnt exist.

So back to the blog.............

Oh wow!! another week done and dusted. Training, meetings and presentations and I even maqnaged to get out into costa and speak to a couple of students.

July 26th-31st Training Officially Starts

Yes its finally here, my training officially begins this week. 9am start at the SU office (yes its like I've never left) We are all in for our 1-2-1 meetings with the existing officers- Bally Singh, Eric Potts, Matt Ward and Arun Bhajwad. Thank you for all your help Bally, I will take everything on board.

So training continues and we are down at the Chaplaincy with Super Hazel the master trainer. Its a nice change and we are engaged in lots of different tasks throughout the day. Its all about team building and getting to know each other and our roles. On a positive note, its great training and I'm learning new things as well as refreshing old. On the negative, there are slight tensions, but its something I know we will work out between us. Its not about power and trying to assert authority or superiority, and its fine and natural to have differences in opinions on certain issues. I naturally expect us all to challenge each other and ensure that students' needs and benefits remain at the heart of the organisation and our duties. I do generally mean that, even if I do read back over it and it looks contrived. Anyway the training continues...........................

...........from Finance Training to Health and Safety

It's H&S with Neil Reading, from the basics, right through to ensuring that we know how to Risk Assess an event. This is some serious stuff and is very in dept, I knew we were thorough, we cover every possible outcome. back to the office for another freshers meeting then back to the training, my feet don't really hit the ground and I haven't had a chance to grab any lunch, so I eat on the go,mmmmmmmmmmmmm biscuits and tea!!!!

Princethorp Residential

Thursday is here and I'm in the Kenny-mobile driving off to Warwickshire for special training and team building with the officers and staff. Its a fab place, very historic and beautiful ( that'll be the Historian in me) So I wont bore you with the details (I'm assuming that people actually are reading this!!) ahem..... so where was I?.............. oh yeah..... We work hard and learn hard. We have Emily from NUS helping us understand what our roles as Trustees will involve and also learning what it will be like to be a student officer. We even get to cook dinner for everyone afterwards. I do the starter (stuffed mushrooms) Alex and Dave the main (Fajitas) and Ellen does desert (Veggie Cheese cake). Another two days of class training and we have been able to work out our Marketing and communication strategy, what our main campaigns will be for the coming year and thoughts for the future. We are agreed that we will work unified on 7 main campaigns that include Education Funding, Course Rep System and Mental Health. This is a great move as together we will make this work. In addition to this there will be lots of issues that will be worked on and resolved diplomatically behind the scenes, but these seven will be the big "up there and in your face" type things.

And now................. I must digest all this information and prepare for another week ...............