University of Leeds Student Union - Assignment Example

Student Union Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Name Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Course Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Lecture Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 16th April, 2013. Introduction The student union is termed as student organizations that are present in almost all colleges as well as in the universities and in a few high schools. Based on the country in which union is established the assembly, purpose, implementation and method do have some dissimilarity. Globally the main purpose of the student unions is to stand for the other students in their campuses. In most instances this union is mostly run by the students and is usually operated as separate from the educational facility. The main purposes of the unions are to represent the students within the organization and also outside the schools for example on both the local, regional and national grounds. Student unions are also charged with the duty offering a number of services to their fellow students. Depending on the makeup of each student organization, students can at times get involved in the student unions by either becoming active members, or committee members, attending a general meeting and councils without failure or at times been among the elected officials of the student union (Fletcher 2005a). Some of the student unions are politicized and some acts as being the training grounds for politicians. A combination of factors such as youthfulness, lack of clear and concise decisions, student media that are characterized by partisans and in composed of inexperienced personnel and the fact that the students have no financial pressure, all these factors tend to encourage vigorous campaigns, political game ships and debates. Irrespective of the politicized agenda, all student unions tend to pertain similar aims with the main focuses being on offering students with services, support and facilities (Fletcher 2005b). Some student unions also allocate and recognize annual budget for various other organizations around the campus. University of Leeds student union The Leeds University union seems to be a democratic union, offering students the power to offer some change. When a student registers for a course in the university one automatically become a member of the student union and through this one is entitled to vote when elections are announced, forward various motions vote in a referendum and attend the union council. At the moment the union has about 32,000 members. The location of the union building is at the centre of the campus and it is commonly viewed as being the biggest student union office in the United Kingdom (Leeds University Union 2013). The building had everything a student needs in campus ranging from advice centre, clubs and bars and shops. The student union offers support to almost three hundred activities, societies and clubs and the union also operate various programmes of workshops the course of the term. Most of the money that is collected is spent on supporting the students in funding the societies and clubs which are later coupled with a number of services such as academic support, advice centre and volunteering projects. There seems to be a lot of fun at the campus and each time the students are offered with different and interesting things for students to do during their free time for example belly dancing and water polo (Leeds University Union 2013). The union has eight union venues and they include the old bar, hidden café, pulse, refectory, mine, Stylus, Riley Smith hall and the terrace. The old bar is built in the traditional English pub design. And it hosts a number of local ales. The bar also offers a range of traditions pub style food and has weekly events such as live sports, live music, and pub quizzes (The guardian n.d). The bar was established back in the year 1939, however the bar has been redesigned and it has allowed for the creation of a kitchen and there has been also the addition of a number of fire exits. The terrace on the other hand acts as a main focus for various student activities. It cats as a quick stop place for the students when students are attending lectures and thus it offers a range of coffee as well as hot drinks which are served quickly and at high standards. It also offers a number of seasonal foods which also caters to the wide range of dietary prescriptions at the same time as also offering a selected special meal daily. Located at the ground floor the union building is the hidden café. The stylus is commonly termed as the Beda award winning night club and it hosts a fruity club night every Friday and it has a sitting capacity of 1000 people. The mine was opened in the year 2005, and it is seen as being a redevelopment of the Harvey milk bar which had been closed in the year 2001 which was caused by the opening of the new wing of LUU, bar coda and stylus. LUU also has their theatre that is termed as the Riley Smith Hall. It has a sitting capacity 360 people and in the year 2005 it was refurbished, it is mainly the venue for many societies at LUU and most importantly the performing ones who tend to act and produce a number of plays ranging from dance performance to musicals and theatrical plays. Back in the year 2009, LUU was recognized as being the best student union in the NUS awards which is a new union that offers a lot of recognition to the outstanding demonstration and achievements of the best practices in university student unions. The union is also termed as being among the accredited students' union which has been recognized by the national evaluation scheme. Recently, the student union has also been recognized by various bodies for their efforts for example the green efforts and they won gold at the green impact awards (The national voices of students 2013). Leeds university media group has also been rated as being among the best media groups in the UK. The student TV has also won the position of the best broadcaster in the year 2011, while the student radio also won the BBC radio 1 Gold award for the position of journalist of the year 2010. LUU also have range activities that are geared by the students and they range from the real ale appreciation for sailing. Based on the review that was carried out in the year 2005 the terms and condition of the society, clubs and incorporated bodies as being independent categories were abandoned in the aim of reorganizing the student activities. The new groups are referred to as faith and culture, martial dance and art, performing, media and political and campaigning, sport, outdoor, volunteering and general interest just to mention a few (University of Leeds 2013). Leeds metropolitan university student union The union is located at the core of Leeds and also has a subsidiary campus in Headingley. The Leeds Met student union tends to present the students with a number of opportunities for them to be able to attain more for the experience that they have gained from the university through the various societies, academic presentations, advice and support services and opportunities of volunteering (Leeds met student Union 2013). The core aspects of Leeds metropolitan university student union to represent celebrate and campaign for the students who are studying at Leeds Met. The union has a diversified body of students who amounts to approximately 52,000. The student union is termed as a university wide courier's body for all the students who are studying at Leeds Metropolitan University. It's the students when it comes to making decisions, and at times acts as a voice of the students when it comes to debating issues in higher education policy debates and at the same time to offers direct services when it comes to the student bodies. In the year 2012, the union came second after Leeds university union in the ranking of the best students' unions in the area. In the year 2012, a survey of the best unions it was ranked as being the 39th while university of Leeds came second (Leeds met student Union 2013). The union has a number of facilities. The city campus has a self-governing advice centre that is owned by the students as well as a bar that is commonly referred to as The Met Bar and it contains live music venues and it has over time hosted numerous bands. The union has three major venues that is The Met Bar, the union and the Kirkstall brewery. The Met Bar is commonly seen as the student unions flagship and it is based on Civic Quarter and has a capacity that exceeds 400 people bar while the canteen offers different varieties of food to the students. Various regular meetings are organized in the bar for example the FUEL and time out Tuesdays. The union was previously referred to as the Beckett’s bar and it is located in the Headingley campus. The bar remains open throughout the week and at times it is also hired during the weekends so as to host certain social events. The other venue is the Kirkstall Brewery and it is located in the momentous breweries development. It is usually opened on 4pm starting from Monday until Friday and at midday on weekends. It also serves a variety of food and is popular among the local people living around the university (Leeds met student Union 2013). The union has a number of activities that they have to engage in. There exist a number of societies that the members can join and thus tend to range from cultural and religious groups in the poker society and my little pony Club. The students are tasked with the duty of electing four of the members into the elective positions and they include the president, vice president welfare, vice-president education, and vice president student activities. In addition to the above mentioned positions, another group of part time officials is elected that they include the four faculty officials, ethics and environment officials and five diversity and equality officials (Leeds met student Union 2013). Why students from University of Lееds more satisfied аbоut their Student Union than Students from Lееds Меtrороlitаn University Students are usually tasked with the duty of watching over the operations of their student unions and they are thus expected to air their concerns in instances when they feel that something is no going on as expected. Issues that they are more concerned about being the leadership and management of their unions and how their unions are performing as compared to other students' unions around them (Measham, Kelly & Smith 2007). Students in University of Leeds seem to be more satisfied with their student union as compared to the students from Leeds Metropolitan University. One of the main reasons why the students are not satisfied is based on the fact that the university seems to have a lower ranking as compared to the University of Leeds. Leeds metropolitan student union is rated lower than that of university of Leeds. In reality university of Leeds tend to be ahead of Leeds metropolitan university when it comes to ranking and this makes the student to feel that their student unions is not working according to the expectations. All student leaders are supposed to work with the core values of the union being at heart. This does not seem to be the case in the Leeds metropolitan university since they tend to be defeated by the University of Leeds when it comes to ratings. For instance there was a time when Leeds University was rated as being in the second position while the Leeds metropolitan university was in the 39th position (Measham, Kelly & Smith 2007). This seems to be a major difference between the two unions and in the Leeds Metropolitan university student union to catch up with the Leeds university student union they need to make a number of adjustments to their running and management of their union so as to reap the benefits that are usually associated with student unions. Another reason is based on the fact that the student union does not conform to the principles of good practices. In relation to this they ought to have won the position one in the year 2009, but instead LUU was recognized as being the best student union in the NUS awards which is a new union that offers a lot of recognition to the outstanding demonstration and achievements of the best practices in university student unions. Based on this the students were aware of the fact that though their student union was adopting good practices they were not at their best and they needed to make a lot of adjustments so as to be in line with the principles of good practices (Loeb 1994). The students are also concerned with the great number of awards that are being received by Leeds University while for them they are just receiving a few of them as students from Leeds metropolitan university. Based on these Leeds University seems to be receiving a lot of recognition and this is usually based on the fact that they are actually performing well and their initiatives seems to be among the best. Unions that are recognized are said to have done things that are far and beyond and the recognizing institutions felt the urge to recognize their efforts (Kelli & Kevin 2008). Also it has a very powerful TV station that airs in the campus. The TV has won a number of awards through the student TV association and it is also said to have won at least nine awards in the year 2010 among them are the best broadcaster of the year. Also Leeds university student union is one of the largest in the area and have a number of union venues which amount to eight on the other hand Leeds metropolitan student union have only three unions avenues. The students attribute this to the good management and good leadership that are in Leeds university student union. Through good leadership and management organization are able to forge forward since they have lesser issues to deal with. Also through the availability of the great number of venues, the student union at Leeds University is able to generate a lot of income and thus when they engage in a course they tend to do more than what was really expected (Brax 1980). University newsletters and newspaper also seems to play a good role in measuring the performance of the current officials who have been selected since it is through their leadership that such development and project will thrive. Leeds University seems to have a very powerful newsletter (Loeb 1994). It has been recently re-launched with the main aim of keeping their members who are the students more informed and they are able to do this by featuring and highlighting all the events that takes place in the union. This ensures that the officials are accountable to the members in all ways may it the use of funds and also in relation to the management functions that have been assigned to them. The other strength that LUU posses as opposed to the Leeds metropolitan University is in relation to the student radio station. LUU has the student radio station and it seems to be very active in the university and at times it even provides DJs for the various union events. Students from Leeds Metropolitan university student union view this as a strength of LUU and thus they tend to be dissatisfied with their student union since they can also perform in a similar manner but they are not doing it yet (Leeds met student union 2013). They also view LUU as being a stronger body when in comes to debating issues that are related to the country. Based on the fact that Jack Straw who was a former foreign minister was a president of the Union between the years 1967 and 68 the union was not happy with the straws role in the Asylum and Immigration Bill, his attempt to eradicate the trial by the jury and the legal aid that he offered in a number of cases, his participation in the anti terrorism bill, the curfew that had been placed on teenagers and his own coming attitude in relation to tuition fees and cannabis. A motion was passed to revoke him of his life membership in the union and he was banned from visiting the student union building in the university and the university was also called upon so as they withdraw the honorary degree that had been offered to him (BBC News 2007). In relation to this the students at Leeds Metropolitan University view the union at LUU a playing major role in issues that are occurring in the current day environment while it seems not to be the case with their student union. The LUU also seems to have a better student union website as compared to the Leeds metropolitan university. Through the website one is able to get all the information he needs in relation to LUU, clubs and societies that are available in the campus, airing one's ideas and also knowing how the union is run (Leeds met student union 2013). Conclusion Based on the above discussion it is evident that student unions are evident in almost all parts of the world and their main agendas are mostly related to the representation of student issues and concerns on a systematic and logical manner. Depending on the makeup of each student organization, students can at times get involved in the student unions by either becoming active members, or committee members, attending a general meeting and councils without failure or at times been among the elected officials of the student union. Through a review of the Leeds university union and Leeds metropolitan union, the Leeds university union seems to be more satisfying to the students as compared to the Leeds metropolitan University Union. This is mainly attributed to the application of best practices, awards and recognition as well as the ranking that Leeds has received over the years. Leeds student union ought to stay as competitive as possible so as to meet the needs of the students in an effective and adequate manner and through this learning will be facilitated. References Brax, R 1980, The first student movement, Kennikat Press, Port Washington, NY. Fletcher, A 2005a, Meaningful Student Involvement Series, Human Links Foundation. Fletcher, A 2005b, Guide to Social Change Led By and With Young People Olympia, Common Action, WA. Kelli A & Kevin B 2008, "Students Want Chance to Defend Themselves". CNN. Retrieved 2013-04-17. Leeds met student union, How union run, accessed on 17th April 2013, . Leeds met student union, Our achievements, accessed on 17th April 2013, . Leeds met student Union, student union, accessed 17 April 2013, . Leeds University Union 2013, Welcome to Leeds University Union, accessed 17 May 2013, . Loeb, P 1994, Generation at the Crossroads: Apathy and Action on the American Campus, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, N.J.  Measham, T, Kelly, G & Smith F 2007, ‘Best Management Practice for complex problems: a case study of defining BMP for Dryland Salinity’, Geographical Research vol. 45, no. 3, pp. 262-272. ‘Student vote to reinstate Straw’, BBC News, 7 December 2007, accessed 17 April 2012 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7133364.stm The national voices of students, Green Impact Students Unions, accessed 17 April 2013, . ‘The worst student unions: how does yours compare?’, The guardian, n.d, accessed 17 April 2013, . University of Leeds 2013, campus Life, accessed 17 April 2013, . Read More