Strategic work from June 2024 to June 2025
Monday 01-07-2024 - 09:16
The tables below describe our priority work to progress our strategy by the end of June 2025; we’ll update on progress and refresh our strategic priority work each year.
You can view the work up to June 2024 by visiting our page here.
| GOAL | OBJECTIVES | BY JUNE 2025, WE WILL... |
|---|---|---|
| Bring students across Durham together. | Communities: of students looking for people like them are active and well supported. |
Create collaborative working model with key university partners, prioritising the International Office, to prevent being at cross purposes in student community support, sharing resources to enable things like coordinated induction and welcome, collaborative events, training, mutual promotion etc, so more students are able to come together in one of our communities or events. Agree a rationalised support offer from Durham SU to student groups, recognising the breadth and depth of the portfolio as well as sustainable demands on resource. Develop cross-department connection offers for postgraduate students. |
| Societies: help students involve each other in new interests and experiences. |
Reduce the cost for students to be involved in student groups and their events, reducing event and membership charges and seeking new funding sources. Agree service standards and implement an improvement plan for the student user journey (online and offline) for students finding student groups and communities, outside of Freshers’ and without having to purchase memberships. Launch a new student media organisation, supported by Durham SU but led and managed by student media groups. |
|
| Spaces: across campus and online are accessible and high quality. |
Launch ASK space for student services in Dunelm House, preparing to welcome guests to the building’s 60th anniversary in 2026. Use insight from and reporting by our membership management system to improve service and support and inform student leader decision-making. |
| GOAL | OBJECTIVES | BY JUNE 2025, WE WILL... |
|---|---|---|
| Build confidence in the purpose and the value of the students’ union at Durham University. | Students: support the collective organisation by them, for them. |
Increase student engagement and democratic participation through Faculty-based, student-led, experiments.
|
| Student organisations: thrive in their distinct role, different but complementary to Durham SU. |
Connect student-led organisations led by Part-Time Officers (sustainability, welfare, and societies) with DU colleagues, for sustainable partnership work.
Lead the challenge to ensure peer-led student welfare support across student organisations at Durham, and achieve the Mental Health Charter mark. |
|
| Durham University: is committed to and acts in partnership with its students’ union. |
Deliver the Durham Teaching Awards as a partnership project between Durham SU and DCAD. In partnership with Durham University, highlight academic student communities and student voice in learning, on central and Departmental channels. Establish a collaborative approach to new freedom of speech regulations and collaboration on events on campus. |
| GOAL | OBJECTIVES | BY JUNE 2025, WE WILL... |
|---|---|---|
| Make Durham better by tackling the big issues that hold students back. | Induction: Durham prepares every student to do well as a learner and a citizen in our University community. |
Define and build support for our vision for a good induction.
|
| Housing: for Durham, students is high-quality, affordable, and secure. |
Conduct wide-ranging research with Durham University into the affordability and quality of the private-rented sector, to support the adoption of additional licensing by Durham County Council. Launch ‘Rate My Landlord’, collaborating with students to drive engagement and landlords to build confidence in the value of the tool. |
|
| Access and participation: to Durham, and in Durham, will advance the ambitions of excluded students. |
Create an affordability impact assessment framework to evidence to the University the impact of decisions about cost on access and participation. Review evidence and create plans to improve participation in all wider student experience leadership positions by international students, and excluded students. Develop a funding model for access and participation-related activities on campus which uplifts student-led initiatives. |
