Strategy
What, why and how - everything we hope to achieve from 2024 to 2027.
ULaw SU Strategy 2024-2027
Our 2024-2027 strategy has been developed in collaboration with students, student leaders, our governing board and staff from across the University of Law.
Introduction
"The University of Law Students Union are committed to being the representative voice of students at the University of Law. Over the years, we’ve grown and we’ve developed but we’ve not always got it right. We know we’ve got a way to go to increase engagement and awareness of the SU, to do better for our 17,000+ students. To develop this strategy, we’ve listened to students, taken time to reflect and understand what we need to do to make life better for every student at ULaw. Feedback from students highlights the need for improved communication, increased student representation, enhanced support services, and develop more community engagement opportunities. As your student representatives, activists, organisers and trustees, we’re excited for the future of the SU. We look forward to fostering a culture of collaboration with the University to address issues facing students, ensuring our community feels heard and supported."
Peter Bolaji, Co-President Academic Affairs (2024-25) & Uche Adika, Co-President Union Development (2024-26).
Our Purpose
To make life better for every student at ULaw.
Our Vision
To build an active, exciting and ambitious community where every student leaves ready for life after ULaw.
Our 'Big' Challenge
To develop an impactful independent Students' Union to be proud of.
Our Values
Our values are who we are, what we stand for and most importantly what we do. We work to live them every day.
| Who we are | What we do |
|---|---|
| We lead together | We are led by students, for students. Student leadership and voice is at the heart of everything we do. Students aren’t just a seat at the table, they’re leading the discussion, together. |
| We keep things clear | We are open and honest about our decision making. Students hold us accountable for our actions and challenge us to do better. If we can’t do something, we’ll always share why and work with you to find a different solution. |
| We experiment with new ideas | We don’t just follow the status quo, we try new ways of working and are excited by innovative ideas. We approach our work with curiosity and fresh ideas. |
| We utilise our data | We are the experts on student experience at ULaw and champion student voices to help make positive, informed change. |
| We fight for fairness | We don’t give up easily. We persistently advocate for better student experience and challenge barriers and discrimination wherever we find them. |
| We dismantle barriers | We are committed to levelling the playing field, ensuring every student has access to the support and community they need. |
Our Environment
The Students’ Union is operating in an ever-shifting context that is important to consider when delivering our strategic priorities.
| Factors | Effects |
|---|---|
| Cost of Living Crisis | The rising cost of living impacts all students, particularly those from lower income backgrounds. Students are having to make difficult choices around balancing paying bills, studying, and working, limiting their time to engage in the Union. This has also had an impact on the University and Union’s access to funding. |
| New UK Government | With a new UK government in place, elected in July 2024, policies affecting higher education and broader student issues like housing and finance are rapidly evolving. |
| Racism & Discrimination | Far-right rioting and a rise in discrimination has left many of our students feeling unsafe and at risk. We have an active responsibility to challenge injustice and foster an environment of safety, equity and inclusion for every student. |
| Campus Geography | With campuses across the UK, internationally and online, it’s difficult to provide an equitable experience to ensure all students feel connected, engaged and have an excellent experience. This is a particular challenge with a current staff team that work entirely from home. |
| Mental Health & Well-being | We’re seeing an increase in students seeking support for their mental health and well-being. With long NHS waiting lists and a difficulty accessing services in the community, we must be proactive in supporting students, ensuring they can thrive while at ULaw. |
| Climate Change | Now more than ever the climate crisis is urgent and all sectors and organisations need to reflect on their impact on the world. We are committed to living sustainably and promoting environmental responsibility across the student body. |
Our Challenges & Opportunities
We have a huge amount of challenge and opportunity ahead of us, and are ready to take these on to deliver better for students.
| Challenges | Effects |
|---|---|
| Campus Equity | Ensuring all students across our various campuses have an equitable and engaging experience is a significant challenge. The diversity of location, online campus and satellite campuses make it difficult to provide a consistent level of service. |
| All Staff Understanding | There is a gap in University staff knowledge and buy-in when it comes to the Students’ Union. Our purpose has not been clear, and has led to a lack of alignment and missed collaboration opportunities with colleagues. |
| Getting the basics right | We lack many of the established processes and mechanisms you’d expect us to have. This has led to us being inconsistent and inefficient with some of our operations. |
| People & Culture | Whilst our staff team has grown over the past four years, we are only now embedding a positive and collaborative team culture. This gap has impacted staff morale, collaboration opportunities as well as individual and team development. |
| Opportunities | Ambitions |
|---|---|
| Partnership working | Strengthening our partnerships with the University is an exciting opportunity to enhance our impact and drive towards achieving our shared goal of students having an excellent experience at ULaw. |
| Cross-city collaboration | Delivering more cross-campus initiatives and partnering with local Students’ Unions on shared campaigns and goals will allow us to increase our resource, share best practice and create a more vibrant student experience. |
| Developing student leaders | We know we have the expertise to help student leaders grow and develop their skills. We know these leaders being connected to each other and our Co-Presidents will also mean far better outcomes for students and a greater impact. |
| Innovation | With less structured, embedded areas of work, we have the flexibility to experiment and innovate with new projects and new ideas to deliver our strategy. We’ll try new ways of working, look at increasing our income through non-traditional routes and launch initiatives that work for our students. |
How we'll get there
We recognise that our strategic priorities or “pillars” aren’t standalone projects. To deliver an excellent student experience and prepare students with the skills, community and connections for life after ULaw we know our priorities must be interconnected. No matter where students start their engagement journey with the Students’ Union, we will work to increase their engagement and move them through a journey of support, community and development.
| Pillar | Engagement |
|---|---|
| We are there for students |
97% of students say the Students’ Union’s top priority should be providing support, advice & guidance (ULaw SU Survey, August 2024). Students can’t leave their worries at the classroom door. Studying in a cost of living crisis, with long NHS wait-times, and difficulty accessing suitable housing, students are struggling with their basic needs. We know this has an impact on their ability to engage in their studies and student life more generally. We also know this is even more difficult for those who face additional barriers to engagement. Even then, students exist in an education system that doesn’t afford fair opportunities. Whether at a structural level, such as the black awarding gap, or dependent on location or course type, students receive a widely varied quality of experience. Through 1-2-1 advice & signposting, effective academic representation and data-led campaigning, we’ll support students on the issues that impact them the most. We will:
We’ll measure our success by:
|
| We build community & connection |
69% of students say the Students’ Union’s should help students to meet one-another (ULaw SU Survey, August 2024) Students that feel connected and valued in a community are far more likely to stay at University and succeed (Sheffield Hallam University, 2021). Yet nearly all students report feeling lonely at least once in the academic year (Department for Culture, Media & Sport, UK Gov, 2023). We understand that without any intervention or change, there is also greater impact on students from lower socio-economic backgrounds or people of colour. We know that connecting students, building community and fostering a sense of belonging can only be a good thing; not just for student experience right now, but for life after ULaw too. Through societies and student-led initiatives, face-to-face and online activities and SU organised events, we’ll build student communities that make students want to stick around. We will:
We’ll measure our success by:
|
| We make change |
Making change ranked as the third highest priority for the Students Union in its next strategy (ULaw SU Survey, August 2024) Student voice and democracy is the beating-heart of students’ unions. With a historical backdrop of years of successful student campaigns locally and nationally, we continue to drive positive change for the benefit of students. Whether it’s working together at course level to improve assessments, giving feedback about an on-campus experience or challenging the local government over transport costs - we’ll be there. Students should have the opportunity to shape the world around them and the Students’ Union will be there every step of the way to help make the change you want to see. Through new ways of giving feedback, improving our data & insight and delivering high quality training and support, we’ll champion student change-making. We will:
We’ll measure our success by:
|
Our Enablers
We can’t grow and develop without a solid foundation.
Alongside our key strategic pillars, there are four areas of organisational development we are committed to over the next three years.
We are the experts on students at ULaw
Data & Insight should be at the heart of our work. We will be the go-to for student opinion and feedback at ULaw and will be clear who engages with us, and at what level.
We will:
- Review and re-launch our website including utilising its data and membership management system
- Develop a student insight strategy to put data at the heart of our work
We’ll measure our success by:
- Presenting an annual impact report to the University Exec & Student Parliament
- Identifying what level of engagement every student at ULaw has with us
We are an excellent place to work
People are our greatest resource and we know a supported and developed staff team will deliver excellent results for students.
We will:
- Develop a People & Culture strategy including continuing our work on reward & recognition
We’ll measure our success by:
- 100% of staff report they feel valued and supported in their roles
- Achieving Investors in People 'working towards'
We operate independently
In line with our 2023 referendum and in partnership with ULaw, we will develop the strong culture, governance and systems needed to run an independent charity.
We will:
- Launch our Independence Steering Group to take action towards independence
- Develop the strong internal processes and policies we to run an independent organisation
- Explore income generation opportunities to develop a diverse and sustainable financial plan
We’ll measure our success by:
- Achieving registered charity status by 2027
We build strong partnerships
We can’t do any of it alone. We will prioritise working in partnership with colleagues across the University of Law and our external stakeholders to deliver excellent student experience.
We will:
- Continue to develop relationships with staff and departments across the University
- Develop a shared partnership agreement
- Actively work on shared deliverables such as the TEF 2027 student submission
We’ll measure our success by:
- Delivering 10 cross-department projects in line with both the University and Students’ Union’s strategy
Our Future
This strategy is more than a document that lives in a drawer.
We’ll be working to embed our strategy into our everyday working practice. Each year, we’ll launch an annual plan to combine our elected co-president manifestos with this strategy and its priorities. Each quarter we’ll develop objectives to deliver against our annual plan and every single week we’ll reflect and share how we’re doing. We’re excited to build a strong, independent union that puts innovation and student voice at its heart.
Each year we’ll look to deliver an impact report to review our success and communicate to our students and stakeholders. We’ll use data-collection and review opportunities across the year to make sure our priorities stay relevant and respond to student needs.
A message from our Governing Board Chair
As Chair of the University of Law Students’ Union Governing Board, I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped shape the development of our new strategic plan. To every student who provided feedback, every staff member who participated in a workshop, and to Cassie O’Boyle (Interim SU Manager) who drove the plan forward, thank you. This document is proof of our commitment to Lead Together to make life better for students at the University of Law.
Our new strategic plan for 2024-27 clearly sets out how we intend to achieve our ambition to build an active, exciting and ambitious community where every student leaves ready for life after ULaw.
The Students’ Union is at the start of an exciting new chapter. Through this plan we embark on a mission critical path of growth and development, as we seek to more effectively deliver for students at ULaw.
In 2023, students at ULaw voted overwhelmingly for the Students’ Union to become an independent charity. The Governing Board supports this position,and we hope that through this critical journey of development, we can deliver the student mandate and achieve independent charity status by the end of this strategic plan.
We have a solid plan, and now we need to deliver it. I would encourage everyone in the ULaw community to get involved as we take the students’ union forward together.
Benn Rapson, Chair of the ULaw SU Governing Board
