Hi there, 

Welcome to the October edition of our Student Voice Bulletin! Each month, we’ll share key student insights and feedback, aiming to improve how we communicate and work together to enhance the student experience at Royal Holloway. In this bulletin, you'll find:

• Priority 8 Updates
• Rate Your Union Results, 2024/25
• Academic Representation Updates
• Upcoming Campaigns 
• RHSU Research Projects 2025/26

We hope you find this useful!

Student Voice Team @ RHSU

Sabbatical Officer Updates on Priority 8

The Sabbatical Officers have spent the start of term working on their priorities. Below we have some updates on new initiatives and actions since the last bulletin. 

As part of the Financial Support Priority 8, SU President, Olivia, is launching an initiative called 'Community Cupboards'. These will be pantry style cupboards around campus where students can take free food and household goods. These will be stocked by the SU, the SU Shop, and the University.

They will allow students free and unlimited access to a variety of essentials relating to food and household goods such as tinned foods, pasta, rice, biscuits, cereals, sauce jars, laundry pods, toilet roll, sanitary products, toothpaste, and soap. 

As part of the launch in Financial Support Week, The SU will be hosting a 'Community Cupboards Donation Drive' in the SU Main Hall on Wednesday 12 November from 11:00-16:00. This is open to all students and staff at the University. We would really appreciate your donations. You can learn more about the events taking place during Financial Support Week on our website here. 

Vaishnavi, VP Wellbeing & Diversity, is focused on making food and drinks more affordable on campus. The Union Shop has recently launched new deals for students and staff which are listed below: 

• Breakfast deal: Large coffee and £1 bakery product until 11.30
• Bake deal: Any two bakes for £4.50
• Sausage Roll deal: Two sausage rolls for £3
• Coffee and Sweet treat deal: Large coffee and sweet treat for £4

If you want to learn more about current actions for the other Priority 8, please take a look at our website. Each of the individual priorities has an action plan tracker, and we will continue to keep you updated on the work implementing these actions throughout the year.

Every May we ask students to complete our annual survey, Rate Your Union. This survey asks students what they think about our provision of activities, services and events throughout the academic year. Last year we changed our survey questionnaire to gain insight into different areas of the student experience and track our key performance indicators (KPIs) for our new strategy, Building Community, Leading Change. 

We have shared results with students on our website. Click the button below to see what we learned!

Academic Rep Updates and Upcoming Events

Academic Reps Training

At present, we have 407 students signed up to be an academic rep this year. Newly signed up Academic Reps underwent training this month. The total number of reps trained over the summer and in October is currently at 211. Reps have until Monday, 27 October to complete training on their own. Final Academic Rep numbers will be shared in the November bulletin. 

Speak Week

From 27 - 2 November the SU will be running Speak Week. During Speak Week, we will ask students, ‘What issue around your student experience would you like to see prioritised by your Sabbatical Officers?' Results will feed into our Priority 20 list for the 2026 Leadership Elections in March, and we will share the Speak Week results in the November edition of the Student Voice Bulletin.

Skills week

From 27 October - 31 October, Matthew, VP Education, will be joining forces with the Advice Centre with help from the Librarian team as well as the Academic Skills Team for a week of blog posts and events dedicated to helping students with academic support.

Upcoming November Campaigns and Events

Disability History Month

Campaign Leads: JJ Littleton -  Disabled Students Community Officer, Neurodivergent Society & Claude Kumar

The month is led by JJ, Disabled Students Community Officer, Neurodivergent Society and Student Leader, Claude Kumar. The month will explore the national theme, 'Disability, Life and Death' taking shape as both an awareness campaign but engaging in conversations with teams across the university to construct a lobbying agenda. 

This campaign seeks to raise awareness through social media updates and informative posts spotlighting students and their experience being a student with a disability. To get involved in these social media posts, you can sign up by completing this form.

Throughout the month, events will be hosted by familiar student groups both on campus and along Egham High Street. We’ll also be taking to the stage for the return of the much-anticipated Disability Creativity Showcase at the Pride Hub, Egham, on Thursday 27 November from 6pm.

If you identify as a student, staff or local community member with a disability, you can sign up now to perform in the showcase by completing this form, and to find out more information, check out the event page.

MENtion it

Officer Leads: Matthew Paterson- VP Education & David Gallardo Gonzalez - VP Societies and Sport

November is Men’s Mental Health month; this year Matthew, your VP Education, and David, your VP Societies and Sports, are highlighting this in the month long campaign of MENtion It! 

They’ll be seeking to get rid of the stigma surrounding mental health that men often experience. The month will include events dedicated to this goal, partnering with the RHUL wellbeing team, ALS, and student groups on campus. 

They’ll also be highlighting the amazing work our student groups do every year in Movember and the money they raise for the charity. You can view the events below.

Trans Awareness Week

Campaign Lead: Jakob Bird - LGBT+ Students Community Officer

Trans Awareness Week is an annual campaign held 13 - 19 November dedicated to centring the experiences and voices of the transgender community and educating the public about the challenges trans and gender nonconforming people face. This November, RHSU’s Trans Awareness Week will be led by LGBT+ Students Community Officer, Jakob Bird, with support from RHSU LGBT+ Society and SU staff.

This year’s campaign has three main objectives:

• Promoting & Fundraising – Raising money for the RHUL Transition Fund which provides financial support for trans students through GoFundMe donations.
• Education – Creating and promoting accessible information surrounding medical and social transition services in the UK.
• Awareness – Highlighting the erosion of trans rights and support in the UK and creating space for informed discussions around transness and allyship.

During the week we will also be raising donations for the Royal Holloway Transition Fund, set up in 2023, a mutual aid fund to help transgender members of the LGBT+ Society fund private transition costs. For more information on the fund and how to sign up for it or donate, please contact lgbt.community@royalholloway.su or come along to an event to speak to the RHSU LGBT+ Students Community Officer!

The campaign will finish with Trans Day of Remembrance on November 20th, where communities can come together to honour and remember the lives of trans people lost to violence and discrimination. You are welcome to speak at the vigil, whether you are prepared or not.

Estranged Students Solidarity Week

Student Lead: Nathanial King

Estranged Students Solidarity Week is the week commencing 24 November. This is a student submitted and student-led campaign from a student with a lived experience to this community.

The week will explore what it's like being an estranged student but will further spotlight what support is available for Estranged Students via informative events and drop ins from various support teams. More information will be up on our Campaigns page on the website later this month. You can view all our current campaigns here. 

RHSU Research Projects 2025-26

During the 2025-26 academic year, the Students’ Union will run two main research projects. The first will be a cost-of-living project which examines the student experience around the cost-of-living and learning crisis, investigate any links with our Sabbatical Officers’ Priority 8 work and will ask students about the provision of services, activities and events in SU and University commercial outlets. Research will primarily take place in Term One during University Money Week and Student Financial Support Week. There is potential for further insight collection through a focus group in Term Two.

The second project will be a Marketing Review which examines how we communicate with students and inform them about decisions and the work the Students’ Union does throughout the academic year. This project will commence in Term Two, and insight will be collected through an all-student survey and focus group(s).

Below are the proposed survey dates for these two projects: 

Cost-of-Living Survey: Friday, 7 November - Sunday, 23 November. Student friendly infographics will be shared on our website and social media accounts when students return in Term Two. We aim to share the full analysis, summary and highlights in the December Student Voice Bulletin.

Marketing Review Survey: Friday, 6 February - Sunday, 22 February.

Commuter Student Policy Inquiry: Recommendation Updates

In Term Three last year we shared our proposed list of recommendations from the Commuter Student Policy Inquiry. We want to let you know how some of these were implemented over the summer and first few weeks of Term One.