Guild of Students Impact Report 2021/22

Things pretty much got back to normal just in time for the start of the 2021/22 academic year. Lockdown seemed like a distant memory and we were finally able to offer large scale events again, albeit with some Covid restrictions like face masks and good ventilation, still in place. For the first time in what felt like forever, we were able to plan events and activities for our students to attend, and attend them you did!

We were overwhelmed by your response to our Welcome events, where we welcomed thousands of you to our Fairs, Open Air Cinema, evening events and pizza parties. For the remainder of the year you wanted to get involved with not just our events and activities, but also with our student groups and it was great to see them being able to meet in person once more, and come together to perform at our Guild Awards.

2021-22 was a transitional year into the brand new Strategic Plan that was launched this year. This Impact Report is a roundup of the year in terms of what we did, what went well, what didn’t quite go to plan, what we need to learn from, and most importantly, how we can make the next academic year, and the new Strategic Plan, bigger and better!

This Impact Report is split into the five strategic aims from our 2018-2021 strategy:

- Engagement & Participation
- Communication & Branding
- Academic & Learning Experience
- Representing the Student Voice
- Mental Health & Financial Assistance

Read on for a summary of what your Guild has done in terms of achieving our aims, and why we continue to be extremely proud of our Guild family.

Engagement & Participation

We loved being able to see you all in-person once more!

So we organised all the things we hadn’t been able to do over the previous years due to the pandemic, and you came and experienced them with us. The appetite for in-person events and activities was well and truly back.

Communication & Branding

We had so many things going on, that we just had to tell you about!

Keeping you updated about our in-person events and activities was more important than ever, as we wanted you to enjoy all of the things we had on offer for you, but still doing them safely. Letting you know about our Officer campaigns and how we were making change on your behalf was also extremely important, as you showed us that you wanted a new university ‘experience’.

The breadth of our communications was vast and included:

Academic & Learning Experience

Ensuring that our students receive a first class academic and learning experience is always important to us. We continued to lobby the University in response to student feedback.

We did this by:

Representing the Student Voice

You were keen for us to amplify your voice more than ever this year, to help you ensure that your feedback and opinions were represented to the University, and acted upon. Our Officer Team led on a range of campaigns that were either suggested by you, or by events that occurred wither within Birmingham, or the wider community.

All of this couldn’t have happened without your involvement in our democratic structures, which saw us:

Support Mental Health and Financial Assistance

Just because lockdown was over, didn’t mean our support for you stopped. We realised that the way you felt about things had changed during Covid and you needed our support more than ever.

Whether that was help with socialising, adjusting to the ‘new normal’, or with the many changes that were seen across the country and the world.

That’s where our Community Welfare and Guild Advice teams stepped in to provide a whole range of support to our students, including: