Rate Your Union: Headline Results

Over 1300 of you completed our annual Rate Your Union membership survey, taking the opportunity to tell us what you love, and what you want us to change. We’ll be using the full results to inform our plans for next year and beyond, but here are some of the headline results.

Over the past couple of weeks you've had everything from portable hoovers to inflatable unicorn costumes shoved in your face, as we asked you to complete our annual membership survey, Rate Your Union.

A whopping 1342 of you took the opportunity to tell us what you love, and what you want us to change, while we had loads of fun handing out a total of 29 prizes in the process to say thank you. We’ll be using the full results to inform our plans for next year and beyond, but before you head home for the summer break, we wanted to quickly let you know a few of the headline results – while they are still fresh in everyone’s mind.

See The Full List Of Prize Winners

The two most important questions we ask you are about your overall satisfaction with the SU, and our impact on your time at Royal Holloway. This year we’ve seen positive increases to both scores, reflecting developments we’ve made to our spaces and services that we run. Broadly you’ve said you’re happy and that we’re improving, but as we outline below, you’ve also told us what you’d like us to work on. Rest assured, we’re committed to doing more and more to make your life better here during your studies.

1. Target: 80% of students are satisfied with the Students’ Union at Royal Holloway

Year

% Agree

% Definitely/Mostly Agree

2018

88.0

69.7

2017

84.6

65.0

2016

81.6

60.0

2. Target: 80% of students agree we have a positive impact on their life at Royal Holloway

Year

% Agree

% Definitely/Mostly Agree

2018

80.0

61.6

2017

80.0

59.4

2016

73.7

51.4

Jacob Robinson was the lucky winner of our £250 grand prize - a nice little treat before Summer Ball

3. Target: 80% of students agree we play a positive role in improving the quality of their education

Two years ago we launched a new strategy (see below) that clearly put improving your education at the top of our agenda. This coincided with a change in our sabbatical officer structure, creating the first full time VP Education, and investing in our capacity to support course reps. Again, we can see the impact this investment is having, as we start to implement the changes set out in our Academic Review.

Year

% Agree

% Definitely/Mostly Agree

2018

77.9

60.0

2017

73.1

52.5

2016

67.0

45.1

 

 

 

4. Target: 80% of students agree we provide services, events and activities that are entertaining and fun

A question we have traditionally always scored well on, and one that most of you will probably guess, is around providing things on campus that are fun – helping you enjoy your time and keeping you entertained. Over the past year we’ve launched a new venue, renovated the outside of the SU for club nights, and grown our Give It A Go programme – all of which have clearly been positive steps as more of you than ever have given us positive feedback on them.

Year

% Agree

% Definitely/Mostly Agree

2018

90.2

71.6

2017

87.8

68.4

2016

85.3

63.1

Pigeon Detectives performing on Carnival Stage at this year's Summer Ball

But as we said above, we also know you want us to improve, and it’s clear from your open comments where you think we need to do more work on some of the following areas:

  1. Our pricing and value for money
  2. The variety of nightlife, and the music choice
  3. The levels of cleanliness in our building (and particularly the toilets!)
  4. Being faster at email communication
  5. Improving the quality of food on offer
  6. Increasing your understanding of how the SU works

Over the coming months we’ll be announcing a number of projects and changes to how we work, directly related to this feedback. Rate Your Union really does help us understand how we can improve, so thank you to everyone who took the time to complete the survey.