My name is Charlie Roper, and I’m standing to be your Students’ Union President. I came to UWE to study, but also to meet loads of new people. I’ve loved my experience at UWE, and I want to make sure that every one of you gets the best experience possible.

I want to represent you and your interests to the highest possible standard, by doing the following:

Improve the quality of your education, for the fees you are paying! Flexible timetabling and inspirational classrooms!

Fees have risen to £9000+, and although I do not welcome this, I want to be realistic. I want to make sure the money you are paying for your education, whether it be the old or new fees, should be better invested in you.

I do not want to see simple ‘read from the PowerPoint’ lectures anymore, and I want to address the reduction of contact hours on some courses. You need to be inspired in your classrooms and lectures, and feel empowered to learn! You need more!

Make sure that you know what you are paying for!

Hidden course costs are an issue that affects you. These range from materials for an art course; books for every module; travel to and from University; or even printing costs, which all adds up costing each of us hundreds of pounds a year.

These costs contribute to financial disadvantage and dropouts. I will ensure that the University begins to identify these costs and support is available for you.

Improve your travel to University!

I intend to lobby the University to ensure that parking is improved, and that the costs of parking are affordable for all students.

I will lobby Wessex Red to make sure your journey to University goes as smoothly as it should. We need an affordable and reliable bus service that runs later into the evening.

Furthermore, I will endeavour to promote cycling and sustainability across all campuses!

Develop better communications between your Students’ Union and you ahead of the construction of our new building

Not enough people know what your Union does. I will improve communications through social media and the creation of ‘President Presents’ events across all campuses, supporting and engaging every society, network and sports club we have.

It is important to help you engage with your studies, and give you the university experience you deserve.

YOUR UNION, YOUR VOICE, YOUR VOTE!

Students have varying ages, backgrounds, ethnicity and nationality’s however we all have one thing in common. We are at university to study and further ourselves through education. There are several key issues which I feel need addressing, I will address these issues and improve future students education through doing so. Since I was young I have strived for perfection and am running for vice president to build on what previous students before me have accomplished. Having lived with a member of the student union I feel that I have learnt ways in which to approach the university in a way that gets results and ensures the views of the students are heard

If voted this year I strongly believe that the opportunity to retake exams or coursework should be extended to at least a cap of 50%, enabling students that have failed the first time have an opportunity to achieve reasonable grades. I wish to expand on the foundation that have been laid by previous students and make it my priority to insure the opening hours of every UWE library to be accessible 24hours 365 days a year like many other universities

I want to continue the positive changes that have been made by the SU over the recent years and ensure that every student’s future will thrive from attending the University of the West of England. Whether you’re studying at Frenchay, Glenside, St Matts or Bower Ashton I intend to provide education services to every campus.

A voice for the student !

Hi guys, my names Chris White and I am running for VP Sports and Health. Some of you may know me from the bar, some from the sports department? Well I'm back with bigger and better idea's to improve Sports at UWE

I have worked in so many aspects of the Student's Union, from the bars to the finance office, not forgetting the sports desk and I know how much of an impact sport can play on an individual’s university life.

I want to make sports bigger and cheaper for everyone. We pay so much to represent the university, and this isn't right! Why don’t we have more teams in every sport, giving more people the chance to play? Why don’t we have intermural halls / course leagues so that students can play at the level right for them?

I want to make Sport's Night bigger and better, we train hard, we win, so we need someone to celebrate that’s ours. Our venue, our money, our celebration!

I would also like to work as a whole unit to increase fundraisers and ensure 100% of this money goes back to your sports instead of a big pot of money.

I want to liase with the centre for sport to ensure that our training time is ours, and that we have first priority. The CFS is a facility for the university, and as sports members we should have priority over non-UWE teams.

I want to make an even bigger deal of varsity and create some more inter university competitions such as the UK's best athlete and a university dodge ball competition.

I also want to publicise sports more, implementing team / club of the week, and rewarding the winners. I also want to ensure that all clubs are happy with their choice of representative kit.

I just really want to opportunity to work for the students of UWE. No one is more passionate, more knowledgeable of the Student’s Union or committed to improving sport at UWE and the Student’s Union.

SO VOTE FOR CHANGE, VOTE FOR KNOWLEDGE, VOTE CHRIS WHITE VP SPORTS & HEALTH!!!

Student activities bring the student community to life. Being involved in seven different societies in my three years at UWE has helped me to integrate into such a large and diverse community as well as personally develop my communication, problem solving and leadership skills. If elected I aim to work on communication between UWESU and the student body across all the UWE campuses to see more student engagement with activities. One of my initiatives to achieve this involves working on the layout of the UWESU website to make all information clearer and more accessible. I would also like to incorporate the input of media, design and illustration students on UWESU media design.

In my two years of leading society committees I feel we have benefited most from meetings with SU staff that are specifically focussed on the individual requirements of our society. I want to offer societies more opportunities to hold discussions and development meetings with the executive so that I may provide services specific to each individual society. Ensuring that new societies in particular receive the support they need is important. Having set up a new society from scratch this year

I am aware of the challenges and want to offer the same level of support to all new societies as my society received to make it so successful. I will be flexible to your convenience and make the time to travel to you- particularly if your society is located on one of the satellite campuses.

I want to ensure that the requirements of societies are met in the development of the new SU building. The building will make UWESU more accessible and provide new facilities and it is important to make sure societies benefit from this as much as possible. I want to make sure your needs are acknowledged, that the building is developed to facilitate your activities and provide you with new space and equipment you can utilise and be proud of!

Finally, I want to strengthen the relationship between subject based societies and their departments. I aim to promote the presence of UWESU societies within departments at UWE and encourage them to use their resources to support their societies. The more support a society receives from it's relevant department, the more the students can contribute back to the department, creating a more active and productive relationship between students and UWE staff.

I'm a mature student on the GDL aspiring to be VP Community and Welfare!

Passionate about student representation, I believe in higher education and support accessible to all and the university empowering us to get the degree we deserve.

Accommodation, Wellbeing and Sexual Health

I believe accommodation matters to us all, that building student communities and fighting for our rights needs to be a higher priority in our union given its impact on student wellbeing.

I will: empower students by creating an accommodation toolkit; implement a Rate Your Landlord scheme challenging landlords falling short of our expectations; expand our existing halls reps; tackle accommodation costs; and improve accommodation affordability, better providing for international, mature, disabled, & student parents.

Having worked with University executive members to train staff to better understand and meet the needs of students facing mental health challenges, I will: continue to improve visibility and availability of support services; promote accessibility of condoms, lube, and other contraception; and increase free STI testing on all campuses, positioning UWE as national best practice.

Equality, Diversity and Community Engagement

I will: promote disabled sport; champion liberation campaigns; facilitate LMHR and LMHH events; expand our One World Fiesta; embrace our communities of faith and spirituality; support an increase in inclusive volunteering opportunities which benefit communities near our campuses, promoting students positively; increase awareness of postgraduate students’ struggles and campaign for a funding system that increases access irrespective of gender.

Supporting our networks

I aim to raise networks’ profile and put on more events which match international students and network members’ aspirations across all campuses. I recognise the contributions our volunteers, a reinvigorated RAG and networks make to our Community and Welfare and will introduce an awards night celebrating our accomplishments.

International Students

I will provide better signposting and increased information through the orientation period and beyond. I will work with the university to create a ‘buddy system’ that delivers international students’ greater social and sporting opportunities through improved and safer on-campus events. I will also explore with the university having a UWESU International Officer.

Finance and Fundraising

I recognise the importance of ensuring our union’s financial viability in continuing to improve students’ opportunities. If you elect me, I will put the fun back into fundraising, sharing best practice from degree show students.

Elect this guy wearing pink, daring to think bigger better brighter bolder your #1 choice for VP Community and Welfare.

Hi, my name is Lauren Conen and I am currently student rep department chair for my faculty of Business and Management. I really enjoy this role because I get to make important changes to my course to help improve others as well as myself and voice concerns of other students. This is why I am running for education officer because I want to make important changes to benefit others at UWE.

I am really passionate about volunteering as I have been involved in every student council throughout my education and I work hard to make sure everyones views are heard and spoken. I put 100% into everything that I do and I feel that as your Education Officer I will be able to make important changes to help you!

Running as Education Officer my aims are;

• With increase of Tution Fees, the value of teaching and access to resources should be at its very best so I would make sure that all students are receiving value for money when it comes to education.
• Making sure that the student rep system is effectively used in order to make changes to courses and voice student concerns.
• That the student body is equally represented on board meetings concerning education.
• Help to improve the overall standard of education through the whole of the university.

Hey!

I don't know who you are, but I do know what you want...

If you are looking for a community and welfare officer, I can tell you I don’t have a degree (yet!), what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills needed for this job. Skills I have acquired over a long career of volunteering and reaching out in the community. Skills that make me an awesome candidate for people like you. If you vote for me now, that'll be the beginning of an awesome 2013-2014 academic year, but if you don’t... (you know how the rest goes!)

My name is Rachael, I’m currently a second year Biomedical Science student, hoping to go on to Medicine. I have been inspired and encouraged to run for the position of part time community and welfare officer 2013 because of my place on the community and welfare committee and role within all the Networks, not just the one which I am currently president of.

I have good communication skills, a strong background in faith and culture and can liaise with people on all levels. I’m passionate and enthusiastic about change, promoting the university’s networks and supporting UWE students that can’t always support themselves. I thrive on working in a team and have previously devised and prepared plans of action, which I’ve followed through with on a variety of inspiring and diverse topics such as the organising of this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day remembrance service. During this year, I have already contributed and supported many campaigns from the Mental Health Awareness Campaign to helping a UWE student raise enough funds to travel to Africa!

I want to make a positive impact on UWE and its community, this is hugely important to me because of the great experiences I’ve had at UWE and I’d love for you to have them too, which is why you should vote for me! I’ll leave this short and sweet and look forward to meeting you all over the coming week (with lots of treats). I believe in what I say, and what I say comes from you guys, so let me be your voice, when you think you stand voiceless.

Improving the student experience while ensuring that the good things you enjoy stay that way is our number one priority.

If elected as Frenchay Campus Officers, firstly, we can use our knowledge built up over the last year as halls reps executives to take the thoughts and concerns of students to meetings with the SU and implementing solutions quickly and effectively. We feel that we will make fantastic representatives of the student body as we both share a mutual passion to give something back to the university.

We are going into our second and third years at UWE, so together we can represent a large percentage of the campus. Working as a team allows us to gather even more suggestions and expressing the opinions of other students.

We have both thoroughly enjoyed working together alongside the student union, and we would love the opportunity to develop the student experience further.

Finally, we are both very approachable and motivated individuals and over the past year as the halls rep executives we have pushed ourselves to go the extra mile.

The experience of being a student on Glenside is very important to me. Sadly it is not important to the Student's Union executive committee, who seem to think Frenchay is the only campus. While Frenchay Students will soon have a £4.5 million new Student Centre, Glenside's Student Centre is crippled by severely reduced opening hours. Glenside is overlooked for events, and events that we do put on are poorly publicised.

I have already worked hard to improve things; petitioning and campaigning against reduced opening hours, running events such as the quiz and karaoke nights, assisting the current and past campus officers as much as I can, and publicising Glenside events.

If elected I will fight hard to get Glenside students the services they deserve. I will work to enable the Student Centre to be open more than the currently embarrassing one night each week. I will arrange more events at Glenside, liaising with societies to get their input.

For students living on Campus, I will highlight the disparity between the level of service provided by Accommodation Services and the very high rent charged. Since Glenside is rarely mentioned in Western Eye, I plan to introduce a regular Glenside newsletter, detailing upcoming events and issues for Glenside students. I will hold the Frenchay Executive Committee responsible for their consistent disregard for the students of smaller campuses. Wessex Red bus services may be alright for 9-5 students, but for those studying Health and Social care courses on placement; they are completely inadequate. I will do whatever I can to improve this. I would like Glenside to work more closely with the other satellite campuses, to stand united in representing non-Frenchay students and working together to provide an acceptable student experience for the smaller campuses. I also plan to implement improvements at Glenside Student Centre to attract more students, both at lunchtime and in the evening, such as a greater variety of deals on food and drinks. With sports societies I want to increase the number of inter-campus sports events at Glenside. I will be available for Glenside students to contact at any time, in addition to regularly being at the Student Centre. The Students’ Union exists for all UWE students, not only the Frenchay majority.

Hello! I’m Josie and I am a second year English student, and hi I’m Sam and I am a second year Drama student. We want to run for St Matt's Campus Officer because we both spend all our time here and really think we could play a positive role in improving life on campus. If you made us campus officers we would:

• Work with the university to improve and increase the recycling facilities across campus
• Increase Student involvement in the running of the campus by installing a campus committee with students from all facets of St Matt’s life, improving and expanding our social networking to reach more people and continuing to improve the campus newsletter.
• Improve events run on St Matt’s including more daytime events and having a volunteer photographer at each event to promote and publicise St Matt’s.
• Continue the popular St Matt’s fun day and summer ball and help towards its continuation in the coming years.

If you vote for us we promise to listen to what you have to say and to work as hard as we can alongside you to make St Matt's all that it can be.

My name is Grace Maddox, and I’m a student at Hartpury College. I wish to stand for Hartpury Campus Officer to give you the best experience possible whilst studying here at University.

I intend to represent you and I’ll do this by:

Engagement and better links with UWE Bristol and wider campuses, providing improved social life and better support!

I want you to feel that you have a voice! We are secluded at Hartpury from other campuses and I believe that you need more.

I will ensure that our campus is not forgotten and UWE Bristol engages you. I want you to feel fairly represented!

There should be an improved social life at Hartpury, by organizing transport to events in Bristol.

Improved student communication around campus!

I want to improve and establish clear communications throughout Hartpury. I don’t want you to miss out on any opportunity available whilst studying here.

I will encourage social activities and events, making sure that you are all happy with what is being provided.

Following this, I will ensure that suitable and direct communication channels are open for your access so that you can receive the best possible answers to questions you may have.

Better and affordable transport to and from campus.

A car-parking pass at Hartpury costs £50 and recently there has been a reduction in spaces available, with an increase in yellow lines.

I believe, although promoting sustainability, we should not be reducing access to campus. Parking should be affordable and plenty of transport links should be available.

Improved services on campus!

The careers service at Hartpury only have links in specific areas such as farming, but very little in areas such as science, business and finance.

I believe that UWE should improve these services to give you the best possible chance at getting employment after graduating.

Our support from the Library needs to be improved.

I want to be able to make it clear how you at Hartpury are able to get books from other campuses. You have access to thousands of books, but many do not know where to start.

Improved library services from wider campuses are key for you to study and achieve higher whilst here, and I will make sure those services are there for your easy access.

I want you to feel supported and represented in the issues that matter to you as a student at UWE