Campaigns Wrapped

Campaigning at the SU never really stops, but as the end of the academic year looms, we wanted to take a moment and reflect on the campaigns from this past year and the wonderful students who have been involved, as well as offer you some top tips on getting involved in campaigning here at RHSU!

There have been a whopping 24 campaigns supported by the SU over the 2025/26 academic year. That’s a total of 157 events, driven by countless hours of behind the scenes work from Community Officers, School Reps, and Student Groups (you can find out more about the outstanding work of these student leaders on the Shout About It Week page).

Here at the SU, there are two main campaign types that make up the most of our campaigning and representation work:

• Lobbying: Focused on influencing decision-makers through letters, proposals, meetings, or petitions.
• Awareness: Focused on educating others on a topic, using events, blogs, or social media.

Some of the amazing lobbying campaigns this year include the drive for Women’s Only Gym Hours, Period Dignity, and increasing Gender Neutral Toilets on campus.  We’ve had a variety of awareness campaigns this year, spanning the entire year (Cost of Living, NeverOk), entire months (Mention It), or condensed into a week of education and awareness including SHAG Week, Shout About It Week, or Skills Week. On top of this, we continue to recognise and celebrate our diverse student community in the liberation history months celebrating Black, Women, LGBT+, and Disabled student communities.

You can find out more about the campaigns that have made up the 2024/2025 academic year on our campaigns page, as well as the annual campaigns that will be happening again next year!

Every campaign is different, but if you’re thinking of launching your own, we’ve pulled together of what works and what doesn’t so you can make the most of your campaign:

• Social media! Engaging with the wider student community is important in spreading the message about your campaign, and rallying support in both raising awareness and lobbying for change. Social media is a great way of reaching as many people as possible. Whether you launch your own campaign account, or create content to be shared across the SU platforms, utilising a variety of content styles, from short form reels, to longer-form blog content, can help your campaign resonate with the wider student population.
• Stay Accessible: Considering the accessibility requirements of your campaign audience is important in making your campaign as inclusive, supportive, and representative of the student population. From hosting your events in physically accessible buildings, to using image descriptions on your posts and content, and remaining mindful of financial barriers to a campaign are all important when working with students.
• Planning: Investing the time into planning your campaign makes all the difference when delivering your events, lobbying, and drive for change, an making sure you’ve started planning your campaign with enough notice will also make sure you maximise the support the SU sabbatical officer team and staff can offer in designing and delivering your own campaign.

Can’t wait? Well, you heard it here first folks, we’ve launched a new Campaigns Hub!

Nobody understands the issues facing students today more than you! Whether it's housing, academic experience, welfare, cost of living – we believe students should have the opportunity to voice their opinions and make significant changes to the lives of students at Royal Holloway. We're here to help! 

Complete with all the resources and toolkits you could ever need, the Campaigns Hub is a virtual hub focused on supporting and guiding you in conceptualising, designing, promoting, and delivering your own campaign.

There’s always opportunity for student-led campaigning, whether you want to raise awareness about a topic or issue, or want to advocate for positive change in the student community, check out the Campaigns Hub, or just drop Student Voice an email!