1. Welcome Fair Report By Olivia Dye Brand and Insight ambassador
University of Nottingham students union insight team
Nov 2016

2. Introduction There were 483 students responding to this survey.
None of the respondents attended the Welcome Fair and this report analyses how these students answered questions.
The first set of slides analyses the demographics of the students. Whilst we know none of these students attended the Welcome Fair the participants come from a wide variety of backgrounds. The second set assesses their impression of the SU and its services.

3. Academic SCHOOL
There were representatives from each of the 34 academic school with the exception of History of Art and Russian and Slavonic Studies, from which there were no participants.
Generally there was an even distribution of students from different schools. Saying this, however, there was a far greater response from Biosciences students and Veterinary Medicine and Science students. Together these two schools accounted for almost 40% of the response (Biosciences – 18.63/VMS – 18.43%)
This could be because these students are based on Sutton Bonington Campus and this discouraged them in going to the Welcome Fair.

4. Student demographics
A wide majority of students answering the survey (71.64%) came from the UK % of those respondents were from EU territory and 19.05% were from outside EU territory.
One student stated they were under the age of 18 whilst over half (50.52%) were between the ages of 18 and 21.
22-25: 27.95%
26-34: 17.81%
35-44: 2.84%
45-64: 1.04%
96.27% of students are not parent or guardian to a child under the age of % said they were and one respondent would rather not say.

5. Student demographics Stage of Study Gender
The majority of the students responding to this survey (32.92%) stated that they were in the intermediate years of their undergraduate degree.
Postgraduate Research (PhD) – 22.36%
Final Year Undergraduates – 16.15%
First Year Undergraduates – 14.08%
Postgraduate Taught (PGCE/Masters) – 13.87%
Foundation Students – 0.62%
Gender
There were almost double females responding to the survey (64.6%) comparative to male respondents (34.16%).
0.8% of students would ‘Rather Not’ state their gender and 0.41% described in their own words.

6. Student demographics First Language? Ethnic Group
75.57% students stated English as their first language whereas 24.22% claimed English was not their first language. One student did not wish to state whether or not English was their first language.
Ethnic Group
The chart to the right displays the
ethnic groups of those responding to the
survey.

7. Student demographics Years of Study Types of Learners
Distance – 1.52%
On Placement -7.11%
One year/semester at Nottingham – 3.55%
Part Time – 4.57%
Full Time – 93.4%

8. Student demographics Accommodation Placement – 0.62% At Home – 10.77%
Halls
Campus – 13.28%
Not Campus – 8.07%
Renting
Apartment -6.63%
Small Property (2-3 bedrooms) %
Medium Property (4-5 bedrooms) – 26.5%
Large Property (6+ bedrooms) – 9.94%
8.84% of people stated that they lived in Lenton whilst 12.01% occupied accommodation in Beeston. The majority of people taking the survey lived in rented accommodation but not in Lenton or Beeston, this accounted for 42.65% of people.

9. Student satisfaction – su performance
Students were asked to rate SU performance on a scale of one to ten (where one is extremely unsatisfied and ten is extremely satisfied). The weighted average for this resulted at 6.51.
Students were asked to consider their experiences with associations such as SB Guild and Healthcare Associations (e.g. MedSoc, UNAD, SUPRA and NMA), Student Advice Centre, Societies & Sports, Volunteering, Student Run Services (such as URN, Impact, Karni, NSTV, Tec...), Mooch & SU Shops, Representation Development (including Course Reps and support for student led campaigns, Events & Reception, Halls & Student Living.
The greatest rating was 8 at 23.6%.

10. Student involvement
Students were asked about their involvement in three areas of university : societies, sports clubs and volunteering.
61 students skipped this question.
The tiers of involvement were as follows :
No, with no intention to
No, but considered it
No, but I have identified a group I’m interested in
No, but I will do in the future
I recently became involved
I have been involved for a period longer than 6 months

11. Student involvement

12. Student involvement Sports Club Societies Volunteering
No, with no intention to
32.06
16.83
30.90
No, but considered it
25.84
23.08
34.55
No, but identified a group of interest
7.89
9.38
8.27
No but I will do in the future
8.85
10.34
11.92
I recently became involved
13.94
9.00
I have been involved for over 6 months
16.51
26.44
5.35
The table to the right shows the percentage of people who associated themselves with each category.

13. Student involvement
Reasoning for the ratings of the students were given and there were some prominent themes:
A ‘lack of free time’ became an apparent problem for a lot of students.
There were complaints regarding the recent increase in price for gym membership and this was particularly seen among Sutton Bonington students who said that they felt too far from campus to make use of the facilities. Therefore spending this much money in order to access certain sports clubs and societies seemed to be a waste.
Sutton Bonington students also felt that a lot of the societies were based on University Park Campus. Being a fair distance and with the limiting of the Hopper Bus they felt that it was becoming more and more difficult to access the same activities as other students.
Some students also highlighted the fact that they felt certain clubs required at least a modicum of ability that they didn’t possess or didn’t feel confident in.

14. True/false statements
Students were asked whether they thought select statements were true, false or they weren’t sure. 66 students skipped this question.

15. Sense of belonging
Students were asked how much they feel a) ‘At Home’ at University and b) a ‘Sense of Belonging’ at University. Respondents answered this, rating how they felt on a scale of one to ten (one being ‘not at all’ and ten being ‘very much so’) 73 people skipped this question.
In terms of ‘Feeling at Home’ at University the weighted average was 6.82.
In terms of having a ‘Sense of Belonging’ at University the weighted average was considerably less at 4.53.

16. Su impact on university experience
Students were asked how the SU had impacted their university experience thus far. The scale ranked from -5 (extremely negatively) to +5 (extremely positive) with 0 being no impact at all.
57.81% of people rated the impact positively, whilst only 6.34% of people rated it negatively. Almost a third of people (33.17%) said that there was no impact of the SU on their university experience.
73 people skipped this question.
There were a variety of comments on this question.
Negative comments included the fact that they felt the SU weren’t ‘helping’ students if they ran into issues. Other students claimed that they don’t know what the SU ‘does’ or where they have ‘input’ and as a result of this did not feel confident in positively rating their impact on the experience of students. Sutton Bonington students said they felt as though they are often ‘ignored’ by the SU.
Positive comments included students feeling as though they were well represented by the SU and that they were ‘given a voice’. Some responses were that the events organised by the SU were ‘great’ and it was also said that compared to other experiences students had had at university the student support at UoN was ‘far, far better’

17. Zero impact
Those who stated that the SU had zero impact on their university experience were then asked if they were satisfied or unsatisfied with the SU.
72.39% said they were satisfied % were unsatisfied.
Comments regarding this included, again, the feeling that Sutton Bonington students were often forgotten about and there was a similar sentiment regarding Postgrad students. It was also said that students wished they had had more opportunity to argue the conditions of the sports membership before it had been implemented.
Some students rated the SU having zero impact because they were unsure of ‘how the SU benefits’ them.

18. SU IMPACT ON WELLBEING
Similarly to the last question, students were asked how the SU had impacted their wellbeing at University thus far. Again, the scale ranked from -5 (extremely negatively) to +5 (extremely positive) with 0 being no impact at all.
This time 44.4% said that it had positively impacted them, 3.17% said it had negatively impacted them and almost half (49.02%) said that it had had no impact on their wellbeing.
Again comments on this largely revolved around the failure to negotiate on the sports membership, with SB students feeling particularly let down. Some students feel they can no longer go to the gym and that this was difficult.
It was also stated that a lack of SB events left students feeling isolated and unsociable.
Students commented that there was little or no interaction that they knew of from the SU. One student claimed to have benefited from counselling service but was unsure as to whether to credit this to the Students’ Union.
Positive comments included praise of the ‘dyslexia support’ and whilst there were negative comments, one student felt that the SU is ‘there if [they] ever need extra help’.

19. Zero impact
Out of those that said the SU had zero impact on their wellbeing 81.63% said that they were satisfied with 18.37% unsatisfied.
Reasons for this stated in the comments were similar to previous questions with major themes reappearing. Students felt that the SU favoured UP based students with SB student being ‘left out’. It became this has become a particularly prominent feeling in light of the stopping of the Hopper Bus from Kegworth. This has left many SB students feeling neglected.
Some students were unsure of what the SU did for students’ wellbeing.

20. Emotional difficulty
Students were asked if they experienced emotional difficulty over a twelve day period (22nd September – 3rd October) and if so, which specific days did they associate with this emotional difficulty.
Almost half (48.46%) said that they did not experience emotional difficulty on these days but the most noted days were Monday 26th September (17.69%) and Tuesday 27th September (15.38%). These two days are the same days that the SU Welcome Fair was hosted at University Park. This may provide some (albiet anecdotal) evidence for non-fair attendance.
It is important to note that 353 of the 483 students skipped this question. Only 27% of respondents actually responded.
There were comments with regards to these ranking. These revolved around similar and completely typical and expected ideas such as feeling homesick, missing family and friends and drastic change being hard. Students felt anxiety being in new surrounding without knowing anyone. There were worries about social aspects of university as well as academic and practical lifestyle factors. Many students found that they didn’t know what to expect and this made things difficult. They felt that the Welcome Week was very busy and many areas of campus (Portland) were overcrowded. Some students could not pinpoint these feelings to specific days.

21. Coordination of services
Students were asked who they thought coordinated selected services (SVC, Societies, Course Reps and Student Advice). 310 people skipped this.

22. Social media
Respondents to the survey were asked if they followed selected social media channels.
UoNSU Twitter: 20.23%
UoNSU Facebook: 44.01%
UoNSU Instagram: 12.72%
Youtube Channel: 4.05%
UoNSU Tumblr: 0%
WeChat: 1.16%
Their Hall’s Facebook Group: 21.92%
Nothing 36.42%

23. Breakdown and suggestions
Looking at the overview of the survey results there were common themes. There were analogous views that a large proportion of the students taking this survey felt neglected by the SU, isolated either by their location (Sutton Bonington) or their stage of study (postgraduate students). This could be explanation as to why they did not fully engage with Welcome Week, primarily the Welcome Fair. Sutton Bonington students felt that they were physically distanced from the activities where as Postgraduates felt it wasn’t aimed at them.
The gym membership was another recurring complaint. Many felt that the price increase was unfair, limiting to students and had not been argued against hard enough. Again Sutton Bonington Students revealed themselves as they felt it had particularly negative effects on them. Being so far and unable to access facilities (New Sports Centre) that caused the price rise, they felt that the membership was a waste. This also unfortunately meant that they could not join certain sports and societies.

24. Breakdown and suggestions
Another point SB students had to make was how they felt isolated by the recent stopping of the Hopper Bus from Kegworth.
A few students highlighted the fact that whilst they had had positive experiences they were unsure whether or not these could be attributed to the SU. Being unsure of what the SU does or how it benefits students meant that they didn’t have the positive impression they could have done.