Stirling Students’ Union has been awarded Quality Students’ Union (QSU) status by the National Union of Students (NUS).
This news come after the Students’ Union last year took part in the national accreditation scheme.
The QSU scheme is a quality framework which outlines what good practice in Students’ Unions looks like across a number of themes covering their: governance, leadership and management, their activities, and their outcomes.
The scheme also interlocks with and complements relevant standards, codes that exist within the student movement and the charities sector such as the Students Union good governance code, Green Impact, and Investor in People.
The Union was judged against key criteria in a number of different areas including relationship and partnerships, democracy, services, equality, diversity and inclusion, participation and more.
In total there were 11 areas.
In six of the areas the Union received the highest ranking, four were seen as being very good, while sustainability work was noted as “working towards” on the basis of the Green Impact scheme, however due to COVID-19 the Union were unable to run this in 2021.
The assessors did note however the Union “great work” in the sustainability area due to being the first Carbon Neutral Students’ Union in the UK.
The Students’ Union said: “Moving forward, staff and Officers will be identifying and building on the excellent work identified and establishing what else we need to be doing with you in mind.
A big thanks must go to those students who took part in interviews with assessors and to Union staff and Officers who help deliver this work collectively so we can ‘make students’ lives better’.”
Commenting on the award, Student Union President Nela Cadinanos Gonzalez said: “It is so important that alongside the regular feedback we get from students on our work, we have a way in which to benchmark against other Union’s to ensure we’re delivering for you.”
“From our equality, diversity and inclusion work to democratic processes, student engagement to facilities, the feedback from QSU is a great credit to the hard work of everyone in the Union.”
“The report will be used to plan further work so we can continue to strengthen and develop in the best interest of our students.”
“We are always open to hear from our members as any feedback or suggestion is valuable, so please do make sure to get in touch to help us improve and make students’ lives better”.”
Image credit: Harry Williamson
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