What's next?

Our strategic plan for 2016-2020

Our mission is simple: to make student life at Royal Holloway better

We’ve been on an incredible journey. But now it’s time to set a clear path for the next four years. This vision shows where we want to be by 2020, how we mean to get there, and what type of organisation we want to become.

You may notice we’ve spent a lot of time putting this together. That’s because we know how important it is to get it right. We’ve undertaken a huge research project and spoken to thousands of students on campus and online, asking them what matters and what they think we should be doing. We’ve looked at surveys and run focus groups and we’ve come up with hundreds of different ideas. Some of them were great. Some of them were easy. Some were impossible. Some made it into this plan. Some fell by the wayside. But all of them had one thing at their core: students. You’re at the heart of everything that we do. You’re why we exist. We owe it to you to be the best Students’ Union possible.

Our Aims.

Our mission probably seems really simple. But in reality, if we ask 100 of you what the most important thing that we do is, we’ll probably get 100 different answers. So we’ve broken it down to five key areas that you’ve said you want us to work on. Some of these ideas will involve delivering services ourselves or in partnership, while some will mean lobbying other organisations to do more.

Improve your Education

It’s the number one reason you’re a student at Royal Holloway, and it’s what you’ve told us you spend most of your time doing. Every survey tells us you want us to work on making your experience in the classroom better, topping your list of priorities in 2014. Higher quality feedback. Extra contact time. Better library facilities. More innovative use of technology in the classroom. We know we need to do lots more in this area.

By 2016
By 2020

Over the next four years, we will...

I

Rejuvenate the academic representation structure within the College; better supporting Course Reps to make positive changes to their own programmes.

II

Make better use of our research and policy work, securing changes for you at a College and Departmental level that have a positive impact on your experience.

III

Work more closely with academic departments to see how we can join up opportunities in the Students’ Union with specific degree courses.

By 2020...

80%

of students agree we have a positive impact on their experience in the classroom

80%

of course reps elected, trained and further engaged to make change in their department

100

positive changes are achieved by course reps each year

Improve your Education

Something we’ve always known that we need to do, and the single most popular area identified by you as a priority for us. But with changing tastes and expectations higher than ever, we know it’s important we do this well and help make your time at Royal Holloway as fun as possible. This means getting more of you involved in more activities, more often.

Over the next four years, we will...

I

Support you to increase the number of student groups on campus, including clubs, societies, media outlets and halls based associations.

II

Rejuvenate our events and entertainments programme, providing a wider range of activities that cater for all of you.

III

Provide higher quality space and venues on campus for you to organise your own activities, supporting you in planning and running events yourselves.

IV

Build engaging and active communities around shared interests, shared identities and shared living spaces on campus.

By 2020...

80%

of students agree we provide services, events and activities that are entertaining and fun

80%

of students will have attended at least one of our events each year

200

student groups with...

6000

unique members