Nerius Shah - President 23/24
Every year we aim to ensure that all students have the best university experience, whether that be through, joining a society, volunteering, making friends, enjoying our entertainment programme or receiving advice and representation. Ultimately, everything we do is to ‘have a positive impact on the lives of all students.’
2023 has been a great year to be part of NSU. We’ve continued to make huge impacts. As your President I’ve been working to make sure that the student voice is as loud as it can be – I recognised that we can achieve way more by working with other Students’ Unions from across the North East, so I Initiated a Regional SU’s Manifesto Coalition in collaboration with Newcastle, Sunderland and Durham Student Unions; as a collective we’re so much stronger, giving students a voice on issues outside out the classroom and enabling us lobby local government and other large decision makers in the region.
VP Education: Liv did an incredible job working with the University to pass a policy enabling students to self-certify for assessment extensions of five working days, twice a year with no evidence of mitigating circumstances required.
VP Welfare: Arushi developed and launched a campaign to offer guidance for students who want to report unacceptable behaviour. The campaign provides reassurance that reporting is safe, handled sensitively and can be anonymous if required.
VP Postgrad Gopal has fed back concerns about timetabling for masters students and is in the process of confirming with the University that teaching will be to condensed to three or four days in total and not the full week!
VP Sport: Harvey’s work developing a free sports program has resulted in over 2200 bookings since its launch and won Northumbria Sport the BUCS ‘Physical Activity Excellence Award’ for outstanding contribution towards encouraging physical activity in the higher education sector!
VP Activities: Kishore Reddy planned and organised Diwali events in both Newcastle and London campus with over 500 students celebrating in style!
It’s been another year, jam-packed with amazing results for students at Northumbria and we hope to continue this work into 2024 in collaboration with the University, to make Northumbria the best place to be a student.
Here’s to 2024!
A Message from Northumbria University’s Vice Chancellor
Professor Andy Long FREng
Students’ Unions are at the heart of their university communities. They provide welcoming and safe environments for students who are often taking their first tentative steps towards lifetime independence, alongside opportunities for cultural enrichment and personal development.
Northumbria Students’ Union offers a powerful and respected voice within the University community by representing the interests of their members and working constructively to enhance the quality of the student experience.
As outlined in the Northumbria University Strategy 2030, our collective vision revolves around empowering individuals from diverse backgrounds to thrive, thereby catalysing positive transformations in the North East, London, and beyond.
In an increasingly competitive HE sector we continue to compete for the very best students, and are already the best qualified of any of the newer universities in the UK. We seek to attract the best students irrespective of background and we remain committed to the advancement of social mobility and widening participation.
Students remain firmly at the heart of this University. We are equipping our students to tackle tomorrow’s challenges head on and to lead the way forward. Over the last fifteen years we have transformed to become a research-intensive university, ranked 23rd in the UK for research power in the last Research Excellence Framework. At the same time almost 40% of our students come from areas with low rates of participation in HE, the highest for a research-intensive university. And almost two thirds of our graduates go into employment in the North East.
We strive to listen carefully to what our students tell us to deliver our strategy in a way that centres on their needs and invests fully in our students' futures; Northumbria Students’ Union is an essential partner in this conversation. I congratulate the Students’ Union on another year of exceptional achievement and I eagerly anticipate our continued collaboration in the upcoming year.
Prof. Andy Long
Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive
Northumbria University