Glasgow University Students' Representative Council

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GLASGOW UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

SCOTTISH CHARITY NO: SC006970

REPORT & FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30th JUNE 2020

Contents

TRUSTEES' REPORT ...... 8 GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT ...... 8 Council ...... 8 Roles and Responsibilities ...... 8 Induction and Training of Trustees ...... 8 Related Parties – Partnership ...... 9 Objectives and Activities ...... 9 STRATEGIC PLAN 2015 TO 2020 ...... 10 STRATEGIC AIM 1 - REPRESENTATION AND ENGAGEMENT ...... 10

GUSRC ELECTIONS ...... 10 SUPPORT TO ELECTED OFFICERS ...... 10 COUNCIL AND CLASS REPRESENTATIVES ...... 11 ENGAGEMENT WITH UNIVERSITY DECISION MAKING (OVERVIEW) ...... 11 STUDENT EXPERIENCE COMMITTEE ...... 11 CLASS REPRESENTATIVES: ...... 12 Impacts and Benefits ...... 12 Class and PGR Representative Training ...... 13 Evaluation ...... 13 Demographic ...... 13 Class Reps Skills Development: ...... 14 Areas for development ...... 14 Class Representative Training for Online/Distance Learners ...... 14 Class Representative Mixer ...... 15 ACADEMIC ISSUES ...... 15 Student Code of Conduct – Fairness in approach ...... 15 Periodic Subject Reviews ...... 16 #LecRec ...... 16 Content Advice ...... 16 Student Representation Toolkit...... 17 Review/Evaluation of Toolkit ...... 17 Student Teaching Awards ...... 17 24/7 Library Access ...... 18 SOCIAL AND SUPPORT ISSUES ...... 18 Guarantor Scheme ...... 18 Student Carers ...... 19 Black History Month ...... 19 LGBT History Month ...... 19 Student Accommodation ...... 19 Period Poverty: Free Sanitary Products ...... 20 Invisible Disabilities Campaign...... 20 International Day of Persons with Disabilities ...... 20 Campus Estates Development ...... 20

MENTAL HEALTH ...... 21 Take a Break ...... 21 De-stress at a Distance ...... 21 Mental Health Action Plan ...... 21 MIND YOUR MATE (PHASE 4) ...... 21 MYM Evaluation/Feedback ...... 22 PGRs ...... 22 General feedback ...... 22 GENDER BASED VIOLENCE ...... 22 “Collaborating for Change”...... 22 Let’s Talk About Sexual Violence ...... 23 GBV Training - Evaluation ...... 23 Rape Crisis Scotland: Campus Based Surgery ...... 24 CHILD POVERTY ACTION GROUP (CPAG) ...... 24 POSTGRADUATE ENGAGEMENT AND REPRESENTATION ...... 24 Gilchrist Postgraduate Club: Postgraduate Welcome Fortnight: ...... 25 SUPPORT FOR INTERNATIONAL AND CULTURE BASED SOCIETIES AT THE GILCHRIST ...... 27 GUSRC IN THE MEDIA ...... 28 STRATEGIC AIM 2 – SUPPORT AND WELL-BEING ...... 28

WELCOME POINT ...... 28 THE ADVICE CENTRE ...... 29 Casework Activity ...... 29 Case Types ...... 30 Outcomes and Gains: ...... 30 Case studies ...... 30 New and updated information resources – Web Based ...... 31 PARTNERSHIP WORKING WITH UOFG ...... 32 Respect Advisers’ Network ...... 32 Senate Student Conduct Committees Training ...... 32 No Detriment Policy ...... 32 ADDITIONAL ‘MONEY SAVING’ SERVICES ...... 33 Second Hand Bookshop ...... 33 Photocopying, Printing and Binding ...... 33 Jobshop/Employment Rights ...... 33 STUDENT GUIDE ...... 33 FRESHERS’ WEEK ...... 34 CREATING AN INCLUSIVE SRC FRESHERS’ WEEK ...... 34 Freshers’ Fair ...... 34 Tours ...... 34 Student Lunches ...... 34 Give it a Go ...... 35 EARLY EVENING EVENTS ...... 35 Reviewing the week ...... 35 STRATEGIC AIM 3 - VOLUNTEERING AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT ...... 36

VOLUNTEERING ...... 36 GU Volunteering ...... 36 Volunteering and Social Justice Fair: ...... 36 SERVICE PROMOTION ...... 36

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT: PROJECT EXAMPLES ...... 37 Glasgow University Environmental Task Force (GUETF) ...... 37 Climate Change Tree Planting Day of Action ...... 37 Get on Board ...... 37 Glasgow’s Improvement Challenge ...... 37 Refuweegee ...... 38 Riding for the Disabled ...... 38 Basketball Outreach ...... 38 Charity Shops ...... 38 Glasgow University Service to Homeless people (GUSH) ...... 38 VOLUNTEERING, CLUBS AND SOCIETIES AWARDS ...... 38 GRADUATE ATTRIBUTES ...... 39 UOFG TOURS ...... 40 CLUBS AND SOCIETIES ...... 40 Affiliation and Support ...... 40 Interclub Forums...... 41 Storage Space ...... 41 Room Booking Policy ...... 41 Office Bearers and HEAR ...... 41 Support with Promotion and Recruitment ...... 41 Grant Awards ...... 41 STUDENT MEDIA ...... 42 Guardian ...... 42 Glasgow University Magazine – GUM ...... 42 Subcity Radio ...... 42 Glasgow University Student Television (GUST) ...... 42 ACTIVITY DURING EARLY LOCKDOWN: MARCH 16TH TO JUNE 30TH 2020 ...... 43

COMMUNICATING THE CRISIS ...... 43 Weekly Updates ...... 43 Live Q&A ...... 43 Student Support ...... 44 The Welcome Point / SRC Administration ...... 44 The Advice Centre ...... 44 Community Engagement During the Crisis ...... 44 Viral Kindness...... 45 Scotland Cares – University of Glasgow Cares...... 45 Marie Trust ...... 45 Glasgow’s Golden Generation #springhope ...... 45 Food Train – Telephone Befrienders ...... 45 REPRESENTING STUDENTS DURING THE CRISIS ...... 45 Virtual Teaching ...... 45 Move to Online ...... 45 Library ...... 46 University Accommodation ...... 46 Private Accommodation ...... 46 Financial Hardship ...... 46 Assessments & Exams ...... 46 Engaging & Positive Social Media Content ...... 46 De-stress at a Distance Campaign ...... 46

The Virtual Conversation Café ...... 47 #IsolateNotProcrastinate ...... 47 Sharing the Experience of Key Workers ...... 47 GUETF (Glasgow University Environmental Task Force) is staying green ...... 47 FINANCIAL REVIEW ...... 48

RESERVES POLICY ...... 48 GRANT MAKING POLICY ...... 49 RISK MANAGEMENT POLICY ...... 49 FUTURE PLANS ...... 49 STATEMENT OF TRUSTEES’ RESPONSIBILITIES ...... 49

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES ...... 53 CASHFLOW STATEMENT ...... 55 NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS ...... 56

TRUSTEES

From 1st July 2019 to 30th June 2020

President VP (Education) VP (Student Support) VP (Student Activities)

Council Members from 17th October 2019 (Autumn Elections) to 30th June 2020

*=Elected at Spring Election (6th & 7th March 2019)

From 1st July 2020 to 30th June 2021

President VP (Education) VP (Student Support) VP (Student Activities)

Council Members from 1st July 2020 to 30th June 2021 (Spring Elections 4th & 5th March 2020) Academic Convenors, School Representatives and Welfare and Equal Opportunities Officers are elected at the same time as Sabbatical Officers and their term of office runs from 1st July – 30th June. Elections for vacant seats and General Representative Constituencies will take place in October 2020.

GLASGOW UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

REGISTERED OFFICE BANKERS CLYDESDALE BANK PLC UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW BUSINESS BANKING CENTRE JOHN McINTYRE BUILDING 2 ROMAN ROAD UNIVERSITY AVENUE BEARSDEN GLASGOW GLASGOW G12 8QQ G61 2SW

AUDITORS ALEXANDER SLOAN SOLICITORS ACCOUNTANTS AND STATUTORY AUDITORS GOVAN LAW CENTRE 180 ST VINCENT STREET 47 BURLEIGH STREET GLASGOW GLASGOW G2 5SG G51 3LB

TRUSTEES' REPORT

The trustees present their report and the financial statements of the Council for the year ended 30th June 2020

GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

Glasgow University Students’ Representative Council (GUSRC) is a non-incorporated organisation and is a registered Charity (Charity No SC006970).

All students registered at the University of Glasgow are automatically members of GUSRC. Students can opt out once per academic session. Membership entitles students to vote and stand for election. Where students opt out they can still use GUSRC facilities and services.

Council

The Trustees are the members of Council, including the Sabbatical Officers. Council is the governing body of GUSRC. Members of Council are elected through secret ballot.

The constitution makes provision for a Council of not more than 49 members, an Executive of not more than 4 Council members, Offices of President, Depute and Vice-Presidents, and Permanent Secretary.

There are 47 elected positions on Council, including 4 in the Sabbatical constituency. All members have one vote. A candidate can stand for one position at one election. Members can only vote and nominate candidates in academic constituencies (i.e. the School or College) to which they belong. Votes are cast online. There is also provision for 5 ex officio members of Council. The Executive Committee comprises the Sabbatical Officers’ Roles and Responsibilities.

Roles and Responsibilities

The Permanent Secretary (Bob Hay) fulfils a Chief Executive role and undertakes an advisory role and day-to-day management of the organisation; the Executive implement policy on a day-to-day basis. To do so, the Executive (on behalf of the Council and through the Permanent Secretary) has operational financial power and responsibility. Various checks and balances, as required by the University, are provided for.

Induction and Training of Trustees

There is a comprehensive training and induction programme provided for the trustees with a particular focus on the Sabbatical Officers. A rolling training programme is delivered for Sabbatical Officers throughout the summer period and beyond. Council members are required to attend a full introductory training event plus additional sessions throughout the year. The training programme incorporates a range of areas relating to effective governance and an inclusive, informed approach to organisational development, including the following:

Sabbatical Officers Training July19- June 20

 Introduction to internal policies and procedures (including financial controls)  Governance (roles and responsibilities)  Financial management and budgeting skills  Managing professional relationships  Managing professional relationships (Roles of Officers/Staff)  Public Speaking  Equality and Diversity Essentials  Organisational Planning and Goal Setting

In addition to Sabbatical Officers, GUSRC works to ensure that all members of its governing body (GUSRC Council) receive adequate support to fulfil their roles. Related Parties – Partnership

In recent years GUSRC and the University have worked closely together in establishing and developing meaningful informed student engagement. The University’s reflective analysis for last year’s Enhancement Led Institutional Review (ELIR 3) highlights the strength of this relationship:

“The University continues its commitment to maintaining and enhancing the quality of the student experience. Central to this has been student engagement and our partnership with the Students’ Representative Council (SRC). The SRC is an effective body and its interactions with the University are extremely positive; we will seek to continue this highly effective partnership throughout the next cycle and to ensure that our students retain a key role in discussion, policy development and decision making”.

GUSRC’s ‘Activities and Operations’ are included under one of three high level aims set out in the GUSRC Strategic Plan 2015 to 2020 (extended for one year due to Covid 19). What follows is a brief synopsis of some of GUSRC’s most recent activities, grouped under the relevant headings.

Objectives and Activities

The objectives of GUSRC as set out in the constitution are:

 To represent and promote the general interests of students of the University.  To advance civic responsibility by providing a recognised means of communication between students and the Court and Senate of the University.  To prevent and relieve poverty and advance health by providing welfare services for students and potential students.  To advance the arts, culture, education, heritage, science and sport by providing amenities and supporting activities for students.  To promote equality of opportunity amongst students and challenge all forms of discrimination whether based on sex, age, race, ethnicity, sexuality, disability, religion, cultural background or other such status.

STRATEGIC PLAN 2015 TO 2020

Our Strategy for 2015 to 2020 was due to be replaced by a revised strategic plan towards the end of 2020. The Covid epidemic resulted in delays to the process and the agreement that we would continue with the existing strategic document for a further year, or such times as the environment becomes conducive to the planning process.

The existing plan sets out our key values, vision, mission as well as key strategic aims and objectives which have underpinned our work from 2015. Where possible our aims were closely aligned to those of the University strategy “Glasgow 2020 – a global vision”

STRATEGIC AIM 1 - REPRESENTATION AND ENGAGEMENT

GUSRC is committed to its representational role, continually ensuring that it engages with students, University stakeholders and external partners to influence the quality of the student experience. This section introduces and summarises some elements of this year’s work under this strategic heading.

GUSRC Elections

GUSRC runs two sets of elections annually. The Spring elections generally enjoy three to four times the participation of the autumn elections. The Spring elections include the most senior positions of SRC President, VP Student Support, VP Education and VP Student Activities all of which are full time salaried (sabbatical) positions.

The Spring Elections in 2020 saw 48 (36) candidates contesting 41 (41) available positions. 10 candidates contested the 4 Sabbatical positions (President and 3 Vice Presidents), a rise on the 6 candidates in 2019.

The unique voter turnout for 2020 was 3306. An error in 2019 meant that this detail was not requested from the University (who manage the election) before the relevant data was wiped from the IT system, but in comparison to 2018 voting figures are similar to the 3326 who turned out then

Support to Elected Officers

All student officers are elected annually. The officers are supported by a staff team who fulfil a combination of secretariat, advisory, support and developmental functions. Throughout the year the strong, positive working relationship between staff and student officers contributed to the organisation’s successes.

GUSRC officers sit on an extensive range of committees and working parties within the University, currently over 80 for 2019/2020 with a campus-wide remit, plus a significant number of college and school level committees, this is up 20 from 2018/2019. Our staff team are allocated specific committees and will liaise with the nominated student officers prior to these meetings to prepare briefing materials as and when required. This ensures a degree of continuity as well as assisting informed, empowered student involvement.

GUSRC’s structure helps to ensure that its campaigning priorities and policy development process are evidence based and informed by the current issues affecting students. The Advice Centre, through its casework, is often able to identify issues and trends at an early stage and brief officers accordingly.

Matters emerging as a result of senior officers’ participation in University committees are communicated back to SRC Council in the required council report format for discussion and, where appropriate, agreement on future action.

Council and Class Representatives

The structure of our Council includes elected College Convenors and School Representatives (school reps) reflecting the College and School Structure of the University. Ideally these academic representatives link with and support our 1200 class representatives (class reps).

A priority during the period of our current strategy is to develop the links between class reps and GUSRC and seek to identify and promote the impact and successes of the class rep system.

Engagement with University Decision Making (Overview)

GUSRC, from class representatives to the full time sabbatical officers, have the opportunity to influence decision making at every level in the University. The following pages outline examples of our work over the year and demonstrate our role as influencers of University policy, as well as highlighting the services we deliver to complement the aims of the University in enhancing the experience for our students. GUSRC input in University decision making at the highest level, and across the diverse range of strategic projects, is supported, encouraged and highly valued by both parties. Throughout the year, GUSRC Executive officers have been involved in a range of strategic and large-scale projects, working with the University to place consideration of the student experience at the front and centre of strategic deliberations. The strength of this working partnership was recognised and commended in the most recent ELIR Outcome report as highlighted below, and both parties continue to pursue the same partnership philosophy Commendation 2 - Student engagement and partnership” - a strong and productive relationship with the Students' Representative Council is evident, and the University has taken positive steps to engage the wider student body, both on formal committees and in the range of strategic projects underway. Students are clear that their contributions are valued and acted upon”. Enhancement-led Institutional Review of University of Glasgow Outcome Report March 2019

Student Experience Committee

The Student Experience Committee (SEC), established in spring 2018, provides us with an additional opportunity to bring the most pressing non-academic student issues to the highest level in the University. With the GUSRC President as co-chair, and a large percentage of the membership comprised of GUSRC representatives, the student voice is a significant element in the SEC’s decision- making. Partnership working between students and senior University leaders is central to the SEC’s success as well as its influencing and decision-making powers within the University’s power hierarchy.

The 2019-20 academic year was the SEC’s second full operational year, and the work of the committee was steered by the Student Experience Strategy and Action Plan. The key priorities for the year were shaped by a few overarching themes: mental health and wellbeing, extra-curricular activities and graduate attributes, supporting equality, diversity and inclusion. SRC representatives were instrumental in bringing forward proposals for improved facilities for clubs and societies on campus and reporting from the Content Advice Working Group, as well as representing student interests on the International Student Experience Working Group which reported to SEC in 2020. The SEC Away Day was held in December 2019 and jointly hosted by the SRC President and University’s Chief Operating Officer. The day focussed on presentations and discussions of a number of priorities including the draft University Strategy 2020-25, the draft University Climate Change Strategy, and issues and priorities identified and presented jointly by the four student-led organisations. The SEC Action Plan was also scrutinised and reviewed in a groupwork session, aiming to make it more tightly focussed and achievable.

Class Representatives:

Impacts and Benefits

GUSRC is considerably larger than its elected representatives on Council - with over 1,200 class representatives on campus, we consider there is potential to develop engagement and gain wider influence and understanding of learning and teaching. We ran our annual Class Rep Survey again in early 2020 and received 721 responses (a response rate of 54%). This is lower than last year (69%) but is believed to have been impacted by firstly University strike action and then the COVID-19 outbreak leading to lower levels of engagement by the time the survey was sent out in late March 2020. As in previous years, the survey findings were positive, including:

 89% of respondents felt well prepared for their role by the SRC training  77% found it easy or very easy to raise issues at Staff Student Liaison Committees  82% reported that some action had been agreed or taken as a result of their input  80% said they had developed their communication skills as a result of the role, and 71% reported a better understanding of University structures  Changes the reps reported to their courses as a result of their work included:  42% improved access to materials/resources  35% changes to lecture/tutorial arrangements  31% changes to assessments  28% changes to course materials  24% changes to student support

The researcher commented:

“Across the last five years, the reputation of the SRC Class Rep training has gone from strength to strength. In 2016 68% thought that the training had prepared them well for the role and this has risen to an astonishing 89% of Class Reps. Thus this illustrates the quality of the training package as is currently delivered by the SRC and – as stated before - this may be due to the participatory and peer engagement nature of the training.” GUSRC CLASS REPRESENTATIVE SURVEY 2020 – Solomon April 2020

The researcher went on to say:

“What the past five years of the survey have shown is that the Class Representative model at Glasgow University works very well and the majority of Class Reps have found the whole experience worthwhile and rewarding – even when challenging at times.” GUSRC CLASS REPRESENTATIVE SURVEY 2020 – Solomon April 2020

Class and PGR Representative Training

We recruit and train around six to eight UofG students per year to deliver the class and PGR representative training. As UofG students, the trainers are familiar with the structures and systems of the University. As well as training on the main campus, we also offer to provide class representative training for students on site at the Dumfries Campus, and for students on partnership programmes at Singapore Institute of Technology, the Joint Graduate School in Nankai, and UESTC in Chengdu, China (via video link). We also offer an online version of the training via Moodle, for online/distance learners.

Evaluation

GUSRC runs two main blocks of training, one per semester. During the academic session 2019-20, we trained a total of 894 Class Representatives (last two years 812 and 732 respectively). A total of 860 (797 in 2019) evaluation forms were completed. From the forms, we were able to elicit the following:

 For the statement "The training developed my understanding of the rep role", 99% (99%) of respondents gave a positive score (4, 5 or 6).  For the statement "The training defined the student learning and development experience", 98% (98%) gave a positive score.  For the statement "The training explored how I can gather student opinion about learning/research issues", 98% (97%) gave a positive score.  For the statement "The training introduced skills and methods needed to present information to staff and fellow students", 97% (97%) gave a positive score.  For the statement "The training gave me a good overview of the feedback processes here at the University of Glasgow", 98% (97%) gave a positive score.  For the trainer’s "knowledge of subject" and skill at “involving the group”, 99% (99%) gave a positive score on each measure.  98% (97%) would recommend the training to other class reps.

This year’s evaluation figures are equal to or exceed last year’s, shown in brackets.

Demographic

There was almost no change in the demographic. As would be expected the majority were undergraduates at 61% (68%) with 36% (28%) being PG Taught and 3% (3%) PG Research. Only 2% (3%) of trainees were part time. There was double the number of females participating to males (66% to 33%) and 6% (7%) of those participating consider themselves to have a disability. 46% (53%) of students were from the UK, 22% (23%) from the EU and 32% (24%) from the rest of the world. Last year’s figures are in brackets.

Success Indicator: Our Strategy states “We will train an average of 800 class representatives per year over the 5 years of this plan and maintain a satisfaction rating of 95% with the training”. The number trained has risen against last year’s figure, and once again the satisfaction targets were exceeded. We continue to review and develop the training on an annual basis to ensure these standards are maintained.

Class Reps Skills Development:

As well as being agents of change the class representatives responded positively to questions around skills and knowledge acquired during the role. The latest survey (2019) found 76% believing that the role enhanced their communication skills; 53% believed it enhanced confidence and 48% reported an improvement in negotiation and diplomacy skills whilst 41% developed a greater understanding of meeting conventions.

The Class Rep training and role most effective legacy is in development of a plethora of soft skills which it is clear are highly valued by the respondents. In particular communication and listening skills, confidence building, and negotiation and diplomacy skills are all skills that greatly enhance employment prospects and over the last few years it is apparent from the open text responses that these skills are something that the Class Reps appreciate and attaining such a level of accomplishment during their tenure they believe has brought an added value to the role. Again – this is the strongest message to send out when recruiting Class Reps. GUSRC CLASS REPRESENTATIVE SURVEY 2020 – Solomon April 2020

Areas for development

As in previous years, the number of reps elected to their role, rather than selected or being the only volunteer, is low at around 20%. It is hoped that by increasing awareness of the Staff Toolkit to encourage staff to engage with their part in the representative system, combined with improved support and promotion of the role of the representative to students, we will see more competition for representative roles in the future.

As part of the survey, students were asked what else they would want included in the Toolkit – requests included a flowchart for guidance on how to escalate different types of issue, more guidance on how to approach issues with staff and greater promotion of the toolkit.

COVID-19 impact on Class Reps

As noted above, we believe the outbreak had an impact on the response to the Class Rep survey in late March 2020. However, as far as the class representative training is concerned, as it takes place in semester 1 and the early part of semester 2, the COVID-19 outbreak did not really affect the training itself.

Class Representative Training for Online/Distance Learners

Class Representative Training for Online/Distance Learners was delivered via Moodle by members of SRC staff from 24th October to 5th November 2019, and 24th February to 4th March 2020. A total of 9 representatives completed the course, from 13 enrolled..

5 of the students completed an evaluation. Three of them said they had been able to fully participate in the training. It was not clear why the others had not felt fully able to participate but comments about not being able to ‘attend’ suggested that they had struggled to find time to participate in the discussion, even although this was asynchronously designed deliberately to assist with access. Responses to the quality of the training content were 78% positive. Scores for the trainers’ pace, knowledge, ability to create interest, and involve the group were 84% positive. 86% of respondents considered the training ‘useful’ or ‘extremely useful’. 80% of respondents would recommend the training to others.

The scores are lower this year than last year, and one comment from a respondent gives a possible explanation as to why:

“It is difficult to rate the training higher due to poor participation from other class reps”

The content and delivery of the online class rep training was due to be reviewed over the summer of 2020 in any event. However, due to COVID-19, all class rep training required to be revised and delivered differently – this will be highlighted in the 2020-21 annual report.

NB "Students studying at other campuses (e.g. UESTC, Singapore) are provided with class rep training via video-conference and are counted in the statistics for the in-person training.

Class Representative Mixer

As we continue our work to strengthen our links with class representatives and encourage two way communication, we organised our class rep mixer in semester one. This is the fourth year we’ve run this event, and was again evaluated positively, with class reps enjoying the opportunity to meet other class reps and as GUSRC Council members, sharing feedback on their own experience in the role and discussing the work of GUSRC during the semester.

Class Representative Conference:

The 4th annual conference was held in February with over 200 signing up to attend, and with over 100 participating during the day this was the best attended conference to date. The theme for the conference was ‘Changing the face of the University’ to reflect on the estate, strategy and transformation projects being carried out and to involve class reps. The day included consultative sessions on SRC strategy, University strategy, L&T strategy, creating spaces for the new estate, and the WCGT.

We worked with the appropriate University staff to tailor their presentations on their themes and the conference continues to be an effective consultative platform and mechanism for engaging class reps on wider University policy and projects. This conference has understandably focused on taught students (PGT/UG). We aspire to work with the University in developing a similar consultative vehicle for PGRs.

Academic Issues

Student Code of Conduct – Fairness in approach

Initial discussions between the SRC and University in 2018 were revived this year as there remained areas of student conduct procedures where we believed changes should be made to create a fairer

15 process for students These included training for conduct committee members, issues around processes and the hearings themselves, venues for hearings and timescales. A working group to review conduct procedures, chaired by the Deputy University Secretary, has been established with SRC representatives participating in the group. The group has reached agreement on principles to underlie the Code and Senate Office are tasked with revising the current Code for consideration by the group before final proposals are made.

Periodic Subject Reviews

Over the year, student panel members participated in 4 Periodic Subject Reviews (PSRs):

 Economic & Social History  Computing Science  Sociology  Theology and Religious Studies

Student representatives are prepared through a full day ‘mini review’ training event plus considerable pre-course preparation. The session was led by the Senate Office in conjunction with GUSRC and the Academic Development Unit; it provided participants with an overview of PSR in relation to the Scottish Quality Enhancement Framework, as well as highlighting what is expected from student panel members, including how to analyse and interpret documentation, be an effective communicator and plan for the Review. The course evaluation again was extremely positive.

Success Indicator: Our Strategy states: “We will participate in 100% of PSRs and 100% of feedback will agree that the student representative made a constructive contribution to the process”. The Senate Office feedback form showed all seven Clerks (100%) agreeing / strongly agreeing that Student Reps made a constructive contribution to the PSR.

#LecRec

Our #Lecrec campaign began in September 2017, following several years of lobbying for a formal lecture recording policy and further investment in technology to support lecture recording. In June 2019 the new opt-out Lecture Recording Policy was given in-principle approval from the University Education, Policy and Strategy Committee, with final approval to be sought from Council of Senate in the new academic year. Following some further investigations and discussions via Learning and Teaching Committee throughout 2019-20, the SRC President presented the new policy to Senate on 4th June 2020 and it was approved for implementation from academic year 2020-21 onwards.

Content Advice

Initially established at the instigation of the SRC, the Short Life Content Warning Working Group was tasked with developing a Content Warning Policy for the University. The group reached the view that a policy would be overly directive and adopted the term Content Advice Guidelines. SRC representatives on the group were heavily involved in consulting with students and the sabbatical officers were responsible for drafting the Guidelines which were endorsed by Student Experience Committee on 10/03/20.

Student Representation Toolkit

The VP (Education) and SRC staff members worked on creating a Student Representation Toolkit, which was launched in time for the 2019-20 academic year and contributes towards the University’s work on the Enhancement Theme, ‘Evidence for Enhancement’.

There is a version of the toolkit for class representatives, and a parallel one for staff, and it aims to bring together in one place helpful information such as:  Key dates and contacts  Links to the Code of Practice on Student Representation and other relevant policies  Guidance for class representatives on gathering and using information  Guidance for staff on holding class rep elections  A regularly updated selection of good practice from around the University, initially gathered from meetings between the SRC and Schools, and subsequently submitted by Schools themselves once the toolkit is live. Review/Evaluation of Toolkit

Questions about the Toolkit were included in the 2020 Class Representative Survey. The researcher reported that 47% of the class reps in the survey were aware of the Toolkit.

Overall, nearly a third of Class Reps who were aware of the Toolkit have accessed and used it. Reasons for not accessing the Toolkit were generally because:

 They were well-prepared through SRC training  Just did not need the Toolkit  Lack of awareness of Toolkit  Never accessed as term cut short due to COVID-19

94% of those who had accessed and used the Toolkit found it useful, and the most useful part of the Toolkit was stated to be the Class Rep Role Guidance. One respondent commented:

“Going to the class rep training as well as reading through all topics in Toolkit gave me a clear image of what I need to do and how I should do it better. I found that the most interesting part was the guidance for the meeting as I had never done such a thing before…”

Reps are introduced to the Toolkit as part of their Class Rep Training, and it is also signposted from MyClassReps and from the SRC’s class rep webpages.

Student Teaching Awards

This year saw the University’s 10th Student Teaching Awards (STAs). Organised by GUSRC, the STAs are a student-led initiative to recognise excellence at the University and to celebrate the work of teaching staff, support staff, and student representatives. This year’s Awards saw an increase on the number of nominations received from 1144 to 1200, 20% above the target of 1000 nominations.

“We will promote good teaching through running annual Student Teaching Awards with a minimum of one thousand students participating in the nomination process and report and publicise our findings.” GUSRC Strategic Plan 2015-2020

The essence of the STA’s success is that they involve both University staff and students in a wholly positive manner. Students put in the effort to submit meaningful nominations for those whom they consider outstanding members of staff or student representatives. The feedback from those who have been nominated or been successful in their category is truly phenomenal and highlights the positive impact of this acknowledgement of their contribution. Unfortunately, this year the traditional award ceremony was unable to go ahead as intended due to COVID-19. We instead organised a virtual ceremony hosted on our social media with Council members and winners sending in pre-recorded videos. Videos were also provided by (Vice Principal for Education) to highlight how the University values the STAs as well as (Vice Principal Academic Planning & Technological Innovation) who was the previous sponsor of the awards and provided a history of the STAs over the years.

The virtual ceremony was a success, with several nominees saying it allowed them to share the experience with friends and family who otherwise would not have been able to attend the event in person. The swift turnaround and hard work by our Communications team in providing a virtual event did allow the awards to have a wider reach – the event content gained over 30,000 reach and impressions as well as lot of praise from attendees and colleagues.

The video for the award ceremony can found at www.glasgowstudent.net/whats-on/stas/student- teaching-awards-2020/

24/7 Library Access

During 2017 we initiated discussions with the University around the possibility 24/7 opening. With strong support from the University Librarian 24/7 pilots were launched during the exam periods for session 2017/2018.

Demand was considerable and a short survey highlighted a large majority of students’ preference for 24/7 opening all year round. Despite considerable discussions through 2018/2019 and goodwill from most parties the complexities around staff contract alterations proved insurmountable . 24/7 library opening was again in place for the December 2019 exam diet. In early 2020 we again commenced discussions with the University about extending the 24/7 opening to year round. However Covid -19 happened and there was no further progress.

Social and Support Issues Guarantor Scheme

The University Financial Aid service agreed to introduce a Guarantor Scheme to assist students with finding private accommodation. The SRC advice team was consulted on the provisions of the scheme and made several suggestions. Following the introduction of the scheme we then met with the Financial Aid manager to discuss some aspects including low uptake, which we felt may be influenced by some restrictive aspects of the scheme. We will continue to liaise with Financial Aid to monitor demand for the scheme and suggest ways in which this could be improved so that the scheme is useful to students.

Student Carers

A joint effort between GUSRC and the University saw UofG achieving the ‘Going Higher for Student Carers Award’ in December 2019, with the Carers’ Trust commenting that the application showed “a very high standard and conveys strongly how the university is in various aspects sector leading in its policy and practice to identify, support and report on student carers.”

GUSRC’s role in contributing to UofG’s “sector leading” approach is highlighted in the University’s outcome agreement “ Our provision for carers has been enhanced while undertaking this process. We updated our Students’ Representative Council Carers’ Policy (the first of its kind in Scotland when created in 2011” UofG OUTCOME AGREEMENT 2020–21 to 2022–23(April 2020) Black History Month

In a change from the last two years’ panel events for Black History Month, we instead adopted an interview style approach with black students from UofG covering their experience as a black student at University in Glasgow, and also what Black History month means to them. These interviews were promoted over social media/digital platform receiving excellent feedback and engagement. At the end of BHM we arranged a screening with the director of the documentary “Black and Scottish” including a Q&A session with the director .

LGBT History Month

During LGBT history month we supported the GULGBTQ+ society in their annual “Queer Fest” assisting with panels and facilitating other discussions with representatives from a range of organisations. We held an art exhibition on a wall in the library, providing an opportunity for LGBTQ+ artists from Glasgow to express themselves directly to our students. Other events included drop-in sessions with our LGBTQ+ Officer, a flag raising ceremony, a pronoun pledge, a coffee morning, and a film screening with Q&A.

Student Accommodation

The SRC continues to have concerns about Purpose Built Student Accommodation, particularly the deregulation of the terms under which they can offer accommodation to students, (e.g. one instance where a private provider had told a prospective student they would still be liable for a year’s rent, despite the young person being unable to take up a place at University or even enter the UK). The SRC had written to the Scottish Government in 2018 outlining our concerns about PBSA agreements being made exempt from tenancy regulations, and therefore companies being free to impose terms of their choosing. We strongly expressed our concerns with inconsistency, lack of transparency, administration fees, high levels of rent in advance, the relative vulnerability of the target market for this accommodation (international students) and lack of a statutory requirement to supply information to tenants. However, despite our correspondence to and from the Scottish Government, the situation unfortunately remains.

Following the Covid-19 lockdown, our Advice Centre wrote to all PBSA providers in Glasgow to ask if they would follow the University’s lead and allow tenants to end their tenancies early. A number responded to agree to this, however a few continued to say tenants who had left the UK are still liable. These instances were fed into our response to the Scottish Government’s Coronavirus Bill 2 consultation. The Bill was passed and subsequently became the Coronavirus (Scotland) (No2) Act 2020. This led to a positive outcome for many overseas students. Our Advice Team then created a summary page on the website with a template letter students could use to give notice to leave their

PBSA. Through our Advice Centre we continue to represent our students in challenging actions by the PBSAs which disadvantage our students.

Period Poverty: Free Sanitary Products

In response to the growing awareness of the impact of period poverty, we began lobbying the University in 2017 to provide free sanitary products to students. In early 2018, the Scottish Government announced a new policy commitment to fund all education providers in Scotland to roll- out free sanitary protection to all school pupils and HE/FE students. Over the course of the last two years, we worked closely with the University to oversee the roll-out of the campaign and influenced the decision to appoint a supply partner who matched every purchase with a donation to school pupils across the UK who cannot afford to buy products. We were also instrumental in influencing the University to invest in reusable and sustainable products, reflecting, we believe, the values of the student population. The system was brought in with a selection of products available across campus, as well as a series of workshops about period poverty and opening the conversation around sanitary products. It was with the onset of lockdown it was agreed to develop a system for students to continue to receive these products during lockdown via an online system. The selection of the company HeyGirls, which is a buy-one-give-one scheme, also allowed a greater number of products to be sourced, as well as sustainable solutions being implemented. Invisible Disabilities Campaign

We continued the invisible disabilities campaign begun last year in partnership with students in the SRC Disabled Students’ Network (DSN). The campaign’s aim was again to raise awareness of invisible disabilities by placing posters across campus, next to toilets, lifts and entrances to buildings as well as social media. The publicity highlights that not all disabilities are visible and reminded people to be mindful of this. The campaign again received positive feedback from students and staff, and more work continues in this area. International Day of Persons with Disabilities

On international day of persons with disabilities, we held a social lunch for disabled students at the university, in part supported by the Disability Service. We also included drop-in surgeries with the disability equality officer for students to voice their views and have them raised up. We continued with several of these drop-in sessions during the year. The importance of these sessions came through when looking at accessibility issues of many buildings on campus, and around accessibility adjustments measures being available for non-academic meetings. It also highlighted key issues such as dyslexia testing costs, the removal of which is now being explored, showing the importance of the collaboration between the SRC representatives and the services at the university.

Campus Estates Development

The University’s new campus development continues apace. Student representation on the associated Boards and Working Groups continues to be in high demand, placing considerable pressure on SRC Office Bearers and internal staff support framework.

Mental Health Take a Break

The SRC continues to lead on the coordination, development and delivery of an exam destress program, recently rebranded as ‘Take a Break’. The program is normally run over both semesters during the exam period and continues to expand as concern over student mental health increases. The program includes mindfulness and meditation sessions, arts and crafts workshops and a high- profile social media mental health awareness campaign. We also engage with and assist Clubs and Societies to deliver their own events during this period.

De-stress at a Distance

With the emergence of Covid our existing plans to continue our ‘Take a Break’ campaign were altered to accommodate the temporary norm of virtual teaching and online content. Re-named ‘De-stress at a Distance’ we developed and implemented new ideas which enabled us to engage with the student population on a daily basis. From online “Zumba” sessions to “How to make your own Scrunchie” Workshops, there are a wide range of activities being created. From fun and light-hearted videos to guidance on where to seek help or advice, we received positive feedback for our efforts and will continue to develop new ways of engaging students in online de-stress activities. Mental Health Action Plan

UofG, along with many Universities throughout the UK and beyond, has reported sharp rises in students experiencing mental health issues during their studies. We continue to work closely with UofG on the implementation and review of the University’s Mental Health Action Plan, which has a clear focus on providing greater support for those impacted by mental health issues, minimising the associated stigma, and improving the quality of interventions for staff and students who require support. During the plan’s development in 2017 we were key in ensuring that the action plan placed a strong emphasis on peer-led and early-intervention initiatives, and that it presents a holistic view of wellbeing as something which should be prioritised throughout the student experience, not just at crisis point - all points we continue to make and which have manifested through a range of joint initiatives.

Mind Your Mate (Phase 4)

National Lottery funding assisted GU Volunteering to facilitate student trainers to deliver 25 Mind Your Mate (MYM) mental health and suicide prevention workshops over the year. This included sessions for GUSA, SRC and QMU Freshers’ Helpers, School of Education, PGRs, GULGBTQ+ Society, GU Positive Minds Society, Centre for Virus Research, Peer Wellbeing Support Service, and MVLS.

A total of 505 students and 16 staff attended (previous year 315 students over 16 sessions). All participants received a UofG “Mental Health Champion” certificate signed by the Chief Operating Officer/Secretary of Court and SRC President.

We surpassed our target of 500 trainees over the year, although this figure would have exceeded 600 had we not had to cancel training sessions in March and April due to the pandemic.

Given the ongoing success of the programme we hope to continue to run it in the coming year. We are in the process of adapting the sessions to enable an online delivery format (in anticipation of continuing lockdown requirements). Although in the past we relied on volunteer trainers, we plan to

21 revise our budget to incorporate payments to the student trainers, especially considering the collapse of the part time jobs market that assists so many students through their studies.

MYM Evaluation/Feedback

PGRs

Many Postgraduate Research Students (PGRs) work in isolation. To assist in mitigating some of the psychological effects of working alone, we were asked to run monthly MYM sessions for PGRs over the year (following two successful pilot sessions last year). Again, the sessions were well received and we’ve been asked to continue with the sessions in the coming year.

“"Mind Your Mate is a highly valued component of the wellbeing support offered to UofG PGRs. The uncertainty, isolation, and changes to research plans caused by the pandemic are all challenges which make the support that this course provides essential. Feedback from Mind Your Mate participants is amongst the most positive for any of the courses that are offered to PGRs, with all respondents reporting themselves satisfied or highly satisfied. We continue to be grateful to the SRC for providing this training to researchers." , Researcher Development Adviser

General feedback

From the participant evaluation sheets completed we are able to ascertain the following:

 84% were more likely to ask for help if they were feeling down or depressed  96% were more likely to help a friend if they were feeling down or depressed  96% would recommend other people attend the programme

Feedback Comments:

“The program was very useful in learning how to help people dealing with mental health issues. Before the course, I was always worried of saying the wrong thing to people in a bad headspace, but after the course I feel more confident in knowing how to help.”

“I think this programme has been very helpful and I think this would be a useful course for everyone, and it could possibly be part of something everyone should come along to when first coming to university in Freshers' Week.”

Gender Based Violence “Collaborating for Change”.

Collaborating for Change: Transforming Cultures to End Gender-Based Violence in Higher Education was published in 2020 by Oxford University Press as part of their Interpersonal Violence series and comes at a time when there is unprecedented attention on tackling gender-based violence. The book builds upon existing scholarship and practice, reflects on the #MeToo movement, and explores grassroots activism, in order to contribute to the broader discussion about GBV in universities across the world. In recognition of our sector-leading Let’s Talk About Sexual Violence campaign and ongoing student-led GBV activity, the SRC were invited to contribute to this publication.

The 2018-19 SRC President and VP Student Support co-authored a chapter alongside partners from the University of Glasgow and Rape Crisis Scotland. The chapter, ‘Building Authentic Partnerships for Responding to Gender-Based Violence in Universities’, explores the challenges and opportunities presented by genuine partnership working between students, universities, and specialist organisations like Rape Crisis, to examine the benefits of a “whole-university” approach to preventing and responding to GBV. To complement the release of the book, a podcast series is planned for later in 2020, which will feature contributors discussing their chapters in more detail and reflecting on what has changed between the book’s development and publication.

Let’s Talk About Sexual Violence

We continue to work in partnership with Rape Crisis Scotland to develop and co-deliver comprehensive Sexual Violence Prevention training tailored to University students. The first of its kind in Scotland, we offer a cascading ‘train the trainer’ model where students are trained to deliver the workshop to their peers.

Over this year our student trainers delivered 24 Let’s Talk About Sexual Violence workshops to 366 students (as at February 2020) this brings the total trained by the SRC over the last four years close to 1,400. We anticipate maintaining the numbers at approximately the same level in the coming year as we adapt the training to an online environment. At the moment, we are exploring how we can increase our capacity and target the training at Office Bearers of SRC and GUSA affiliated clubs and societies, perhaps finding a way to make this training compulsory for all office bearers.

Although the student trainers are currently volunteers, we believe that paying them would resolve some of the complexities around management of this group, thereby increasing our capacity to organise and deliver sessions. We are also exploring the potential of delivering an online module that may complement the existing training with reduced delivery costs.

GBV Training - Evaluation

A total of 338 UofG students attended the training from September to February, with sessions for March and April cancelled due to Covid 19. A new online training programme was developed in May and June for the start of the new semester.

Feedback from 327 students showed, after completing the training:

o 88% were confident about how to support survivors of sexual violence o 91% know how to access support if they are affected by sexual violence o 96% were more likely to intervene if they saw that a friend felt unsafe o 99% think the programme will have a positive impact on students at the University of Glasgow

Examples of feedback from participants, on what was most useful:

“Discussions to get a broader idea of people's opinions/feelings as it is ultimately very objective - I found this very useful”.

“having detailed discussions about different scenarios, providing info about the law and procedures to take with police and/or uni “

Rape Crisis Scotland: Campus Based Surgery

During the year the SRC began discussions with Rape Crisis Scotland with a view to provision of a campus-based surgery for victims of GBV one day per week. We plan to offer a 1-year pilot project based 1 day per week in our Advice Centre. We were in the final stages of setting the parameters of Rape Crisis’ role and agreeing costs when COVID-19 hit, and discussions were put in abeyance. We plan to finalise the agreement once there is greater clarity on a physical return to campus.

Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG)

GUSRC is a member of CPAG’s ‘Students and Benefits Network Group’. This project aims to increase the number of low-income students who are able to access further and higher education. It also aims to reduce the impact of poverty on students who access such educational opportunities.

The membership of this group is wide-ranging; the project has a Scotland-wide remit and includes representatives from the Scottish Funding Council. GUSRC’s participation provides an opportunity to input into CPAG’s national campaigning and information activities, as well as keeping up to date with national policy developments which may impact on students.

Postgraduate Engagement and Representation

An ongoing priority continues to be strengthening our engagement with postgraduate students. The Postgraduate student population is particularly diverse incorporating students from over 130 countries, mature students, part-time students and those undertaking their degrees at a distance, either online or in professional settings such as the NHS and industry. During the last year, with input from GUSRC, the oversight of postgraduate taught students (PGTs) has been moved under the auspices of the University’s Learning and Teaching governance framework, which has robust and longstanding GUSRC involvement. However, with postgraduate research students (PGRs), the governance structures are not as clear and the federal nature of the graduate schools and research institutes makes PGR representation incredibly opaque, as highlighted through the recent ELIR. “The SRC acknowledged that, while arrangements for the majority of undergraduate students were very good, representation and engagement among postgraduate research (PGR) and mature students would benefit from improvement. The SRC is undertaking work with the Deans of Graduate Schools and PhD groups, to gain a full overview of the PGR student experience in order to develop more effective representative structures which will work alongside existing activities being undertaken within Colleges and through the PhD society.”

S23 Enhancement-led Institutional Review of University of Glasgow, Technical Report, March 2019

During 2019-20 the SRC President, VP Education, PhD Convenor and Senior Advice, Policy & Training Officer met with representatives of each of the University’s Graduate Schools to begin the process of mapping out what PGR representative structures exist within the Colleges and Schools. It quickly became apparent that no single model of PGR representation exists within the University, and it is possibly not appropriate to prescribe one representation model. Much appears to be devolved to individual School level and, had the COVID-19 pandemic not interrupted this work, the next stage would have been to meet with administrators from different Schools regarding their local arrangements for PGR representation. It is hoped that, resources permitting, this work can be re- started in 2020-21. We continue to work in partnership with the newly-revived PhD Society, led by PGR students from across the institution. By working with PhD students to identify priorities and areas for improvement, we hope to develop a more structured and transparent approach to representing

24 the 2700+ postgraduate research students. This work is at a very early stage however and much depends on the will of the graduate schools themselves to buy into this effort. Gilchrist Postgraduate Club: Postgraduate Welcome Fortnight:

This is the sixth year we have organised Postgraduate Welcome Fortnight which runs during Freshers’ Week and the week after. The programme of events is intended to offer an attractive alternative to the Unions by reflecting the slightly more mature and international demographic of the Glasgow Postgraduate community.

We incorporate questions on Welcome Fortnight in our Freshers’ Week survey. This year we had a drop in postgraduates responding to the Freshers’ Week Survey, from last year’s 47% to this year’s 29%. However, the events themselves were as well attended as in previous years, so this drop can not necessarily be linked to PG Fortnight itself, overall the feedback from this survey was very positive. Of postgraduate respondents who had attended events – 32% was a slight increase on the previous years, those aware of PG Welcome Fortnight but not attending (from 27% - 22%) and it was static for those with no awareness: As highlighted in the tables below1:

Figure 7-1 Postgraduate Welcome Fortnight Awareness

2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

80% 62% 60% 46% 46% 37% 39% 33% 40% 30%30% 30% 32% 27% 28% 20% 22% 18% 20%

0% Unware of PG Welcome Aware - did not attend Attended PG Welcome Fortnight any events Fortnight Events Axis Title Base = 849 (2015); 1,139 (2016); 771 (2017); 1,542(2018); 642 (2019)

1 Source - Freshers’ Week 2019 Key Findings – Solomon December 2019

Figure 7-2: Attended PG Welcome Fortnight

40% 40% 39%

34% 34% 32% 30% 31% 30% 30% 28% 29% 29% 28% 27% 28% 26% 25% 26%

22% 20% 19% 20% 18% 18% 18% 18%

15%

0% OVERALL Male Female Home - Scotland Home - Rest of EU Students Outside EU UK

2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

The majority of our events were at full capacity. They were generally held in the evening to combat the loneliness and isolation reported by many postgraduates, especially in the early stages. The purpose of the events ranged from orientation to entertainment with many combining both. These events included PG LGBT+ meet up, tea tasting, whisky tasting, drag night, murder mystery, traditional live music, comedy nights, a quiz night, live jazz music, free cake tastings, lip sync battle, knitting, coffee tasting, gin tasting, speed mating and an SRC meet and greet, which is the largest line up of events to date.

Events Feedback

Amongst those that attended a specific SRC Postgraduate Welcome Fortnight event the majority were viewed in a positive light. This year the Traditional Music Night and the Free Cake Tasting were rated the highest. As is illustrated in the chart below very few students rated any event Poor / Very Poor:

Figure 7-4: PG Welcome Fortnight Events 2019: Ratings

Traditional Music Night 5% 24% 72%

Free Cake Tasting 4% 28% 68%

Meet the SRC Drop In 3% 30% 67%

Lip Sync Battle 5% 28% 67%

Gilchrist Pub Quiz 5% 29% 66%

Drag 101 4% 30% 66%

PG LGBT+ Meet up 1% 33% 66%

Jazzco: Jazz Night 3% 31% 65%

Gilchrist Mystery Night 3% 32% 65%

Whisky Tasting 1% 35% 64%

Knitting for Fun 3% 33% 64%

Free Coffee Tasting 3% 33% 63%

PhD Society Speed Mating 0% 37% 63%

Comedy Night 4% 33% 63%

Gin Tasting 8% 33% 58%

Poor / Very Poor OK Good / Very Good Base=201

Support for International and Culture Based Societies at the Gilchrist In general terms the Gilchrist is a popular venue for international and culture-based societies. Even if they only contact the SRC initially about hiring the space, this is usually the first stage in a mutually beneficial relationship as we are able to offer free room hire, general events planning advice, admin support, hosting of ticket sales, liaison with University staff, and free publicity which they might not otherwise have access to. We benefit through being able to offer an even more diverse range of events, cultural exchange and creativity than we had before.

We work closely with the Chinese Students and Scholars Association; the success of the all-day Chinese New Year celebration, which in 2019 spanned the entirety of the café, resulted in an expansion of the celebrations this year, being based in the Wee G over several days. The 2020 Chinese New Year was especially impactful, as it was at the height of the COIVD-19 epidemic in China. We worked with the Chinese community at the University to ensure these events were running for those who wanted to attend them. We also held our first week-long Chinese Cultural celebration in October 2019. This event had similar aims as our Chinese New Year event, in that we wanted to engage the non-Chinese community via cultural exchange, as well as engage with the Chinese community to make them feel welcomed. The events included calligraphy sessions, traditional dumpling making, traditional performance and dress, tea art and tasting, and paper cutting. We also decorated the space with traditional Chinese decorations, and a number of students from the Chinese Students and Scholars Association were stationed throughout the venue, ready to share their culture with whomever approached them.

Our bi-weekly knitting event isn't specifically international, however many international students attend, to practice their English skills and make friends. This is also the case for our Murder Mysteries, the PhD Society's coffee and speed networking, and our various tastings (wine, cheese, gin, whisky). We purposely design our events so that an international student, where English might not be their first language, can come along on their own and have a chance to interact with other postgraduate students.

GUSRC in the Media

GUSRC once again enjoyed positive coverage in the national media areas of coverage include student debt, student mental health and student accommodation issues.

Traditionally, GUSRC has maintained a positive working relationship with both local and national media outlets. Independence from the National Union of Students ensures GUSRC has freedom to comment on matters independently, thus reflecting the interests of the particular students it represents. Some of the media in which GUSRC featured include:

The Times Radio Scotland The Scotsman The Guardian The Herald Daily Record BBC Scotland Common Space The Journal STV Evening Times

STRATEGIC AIM 2 – SUPPORT and WELL-BEING

GUSRC aims to contribute to and promote the well-being of all students. The organisation delivers a number of services to support the range of students it represents. This section covers some of the work undertaken throughout the year under this heading.

Welcome Point

The Welcome Point remains the key contact point for events such as Offer Holders’ Day and Open Day. It is an ideal showpiece for new visitors to campus with our student staff team happy to engage and inform visitors. We open the space at weekends for University run events as well as Freshers’ Week and other events where required. The Welcome Point handled 40,501 enquiries over the year, a rise of 2.5% on 39,385 the previous year. The space is also used for small exhibitions and displays.

Success Indicator: Our strategy states: “We will work with the University to increase the number of ‘campus visitor’ Welcome Point enquiries by 5% per annum over the life of this plan”. Despite meeting this target over the last 3 years we only reached 2.5% this year, most likely due to the impact of Covid and lockdown.

The Advice Centre

GUSRC’s Advice Centre employs 4 FTE staff members and provides high quality, impartial advice and advocacy on a range of welfare and academic issues to students and prospective students of the University. The Advice Centre also plays a key role in informing and legitimising our policy development and campaigning work. This section focuses on the casework element of the Advice Centre. The rest of the work is incorporated into other sections of this report.

Casework Activity

Client contact: During the year, the advice team dealt with 1968 cases (6% increase against last year’s figures of 1872). The Advice Centre suspended its drop-in facility during the Covid-19 lockdown and moved to an email advice service from 17th March 2020 as the team worked from home. Between that date and the end of the reporting period the team recorded 563 new enquiries (a 9% drop on the 621 new enquiries recorded over the same period in 2019; this means that prior to lockdown the team had seen a 13% rise in enquiry numbers against last year’s figures).

Time Spent: 86,400 (88,855) minutes were spent in direct contact with clients during the year. A further 56,727 (43,122) minutes were spent on non-contact casework (e.g. researching information for clients, contact with third parties on clients’ behalf and so on). Last year’s figures are in brackets. This equates to around 9.5 hours per day spent by the team on advice work, compared with just over 9 hours per day last year (and 7 hours per day in 2017-18).

27% of cases were classed as ‘Quick Advice Given’, which meant they were dealt with in a single interaction. Conversely, therefore, 72% of cases required more work to resolve. (The equivalent figures for 2018-19 are 35% quick advice given/65% more work to resolve).

Student Origin/Fee Status: Figures are roughly the same as last year - Scottish domiciled students 34% of those identified (33% last year); international students 36% (39%); EU students 19% (18%); rUK students 11% (12%). These figures should be treated with caution as around half of our clients did not provide information about their origin/fee status, so this is not a complete picture.

Type of Student: Of those identified, 48% were undergraduates (50% last year), 33% were postgraduate (taught) students (29%) and 9% were postgraduate (research) students (11%). The remaining 10% of our client group includes staff, students’ parents, former students, prospective students and members of the public. Again, however around two-fifths of our clients did not provide this information, so this is not definitive.

Case Types: As in previous years, University/Academic issues (818; last year 835 cases), Housing (603; last year 455 cases) and Finance (170; last year 156 cases) are the most common types of enquiry.

Case Types

The top ten case topics (by number of cases) were:

1. Academic Appeal 6. House to Let

2. Student Conduct (Plagiarism/Collusion) 7. Housing – Disrepair/Environmental Health

3. Other University /Study Issues 8. Complaint (academic)

4. Leaving Private Accommodation Early 9. Academic Progress

5. Finding Accommodation 10. Student Finance

Outcomes and Gains:

Over the year there were • 35 appeal outcomes, of which 22 were successful; (2018/19: 38/23) • 102 conduct cases of which 72 were successful; (2018/19: 112/66) • 4 complaint cases, all successful. (2018/19: 3/2) • 34 financial gains, totalling £81,752 (2018/19: £55,019) • 655 Non-financial gains (2018/19: 253)

Non-financial gains included over 600 cases where the student was provided with information they needed to make a decision about how to proceed. Other gains included the matter being resolved by the advice centre’s involvement, advising students on funding and housing rights, assisting with council tax exemptions, advice as the result of checking leases, students being accepted back onto courses (8 cases), resubmissions or resits being granted (30 cases). In addition, 16 students had a grade reviewed/revised, 5 were allowed an uncapped re-sit and 1 received an apology. Homelessness was prevented in 5 cases and a health and safety risk averted in a further 2.

As always, there were potentially many more positive outcomes, but we can only record confirmations from students when they choose to inform us. 564 cases were closed in 2019-20 because the student did not make contact with us again.

As we have done for the last few years, the Advice Team again made efforts to reach a wider audience, working with the SRC communications team and using a programme of social media output to publicise our range of web-based information at relevant times of year for particular topics. In doing this we aim to make information available to students at the most likely point of need. We have also reviewed and updated sections of our website and added new resources as the need becomes apparent – see section 3.1 of this report. We are confident that many more students benefit from information downloaded from the advice section of the website or from the range of rights-based leaflets we produce, although we have no way to quantify this.

Case studies

Student A’s ill-health meant they were unable to complete their studies before their funding ran out. They became homeless and approached the Advice Centre for help. Our advice worker was able to

30 speak with University Accommodation Service to arrange some emergency accommodation, and also contacted Financial Aid to support the student’s application for crisis and hardship funding. The advice worker attended a hardship fund meeting with the student which was successful and the student was awarded in excess of £1800, with an offer of further funding if required.

Students B & C were both facing Fitness to Practise proceedings on their different professional degree programmes. Our advice worker helped to hone their statements, gave information on what to expect from the process and what to focus on. In both cases the outcome was that the students were allowed to continue with their degree programmes. The advice worker commented that having experience of attending Fitness to Practise hearings is really invaluable in helping the students in these situations.

Student D had overpaid credit on their library print card by mistake, totalling almost £75. The student had asked for a refund from the library, but because of a technical hitch, the money was not forthcoming. After contacting the Library several times, the student then contacted the SRC Advice Centre to ask for help. The advice worker contacted IT Helpdesk to find out what had gone wrong with the account. Eventually the hitch was sorted out and the full amount was reimbursed to the student. This case required considerable persistence as no one person in the University seemed to be taking responsibility for resolving the issue.

Student E had moved out of their flat on a Friday afternoon during the lockdown period. The agency had issued instructions about vacating the flat, which included posting the door keys to the agency. The students left the flat and posted the keys on Friday afternoon accordingly. Because it was the weekend, and the postal system had slowed for lockdown, the keys took 7 days to arrive. The agency told the students they were going to charge them an additional week’s rent to cover this time. The SRC Advice Centre told the students that this was an unreasonable charge, and the students should query the demand for extra rent. The students acted on this advice and the agency backed down, waiving the extra charge.

The Advice Centre was approached by the Widening Participation Team on behalf of Student F, who had deteriorating mental health and was trapped in a contract for a 3 bed flat on their own just after the Covid-19 situation deteriorated – the other 2 tenants had left and gone home. F was being asked to pay full rent or leave. The SRC adviser gave information about housing legislation and worked with WP to draft an email to the letting agent. Following this the landlord agreed to allow Student F to remain in the flat and just pay their share of the rent for 2 months, giving them time to source somewhere else to live.

Student G was a 2nd year student who had underperformed in first semester due to illness. They had been told they could not progress to 3rd year in relation to the No Detriment Policy / Covid-19 situation as the University had cancelled 2nd year assessments after 15th March, which meant that there was nothing of substance on which to make the decision to progress to 3rd year. The Advice Centre referred the student to points within the NDP highlighting the possibility of further assessment later in the year in exceptional circumstances, and made contact with Senate Office on the student’s behalf to clarify. After highlighting these points again to their School, the student was advised that they could get further reassessment via an online aptitude test, with a view to progression if they performed well.

New and updated information resources – Web Based

GUSRC’s website continues to be the “go to place” for accurate and up to date rights-based information and advice for students on a host of topics unavailable elsewhere on University platforms. During the year our advice team reviewed and updated website information resources on the following topics, available at https://www.glasgowstudent.net/advice/the-advice-centre/

 Sexual Violence Support and Resources (to include information on sharing of intimate images without consent)  Transport  ‘Leaving early and sub-letting’ (new webpage) and updates to Flat-hunting webpage  Health & Safety  Working & Spending  Benefit claims in the summer (to raise awareness of the pitfalls of switching from legacy benefits to Universal Credit)

Our advice team added new information regarding the Brexit Settlement Scheme, following several enquiries from students who were unsure where to find information. A new webpage was created to cover next steps in the academic appeals process.

Information relating to Covid-19 was added to our housing, social security and academic appeals pages. A separate Covid-19 FAQ page was created specifically to gather together issues around the outbreak – this was updated several times to keep pace as the situation unfolded, and an additional page was created to advise on students’ new legal rights to leave their accommodation under the Coronavirus (Scotland) (No2) Act 2020.

The team also drafted guidance for potential users of the SRC Flatshare service, to encourage compliance with government coronavirus social distancing and safety measures.

In addition to the web-based information, we published a new guidance leaflet, Repairs in Private Rented Housing. Information leaflets on Housing Scams and Employment Rights were also updated and re-printed.

Partnership Working with UofG

Respect Advisers’ Network

Advice Centre staff take it in turns to attend the network meetings and feed any information back to the rest of the team. The meeting on 27th August 2019 centred on discussion of a follow-up to the previous ‘Full Stop’ campaign and sharing anonymised case studies to improve practice when dealing with such cases.

Senate Student Conduct Committees Training

During the year the Advice Team were invited to take part in training for new convenors of the Senate Student Conduct Committee. One of the team attended this session to provide a presentation and discussion on the role of the Advice Centre in advocating for students accused of misconduct, and what we consider helps or hinders the fairness of a hearing for the student.

No Detriment Policy

Between March and June 2020, a considerable portion of the Advice Centre’s time was taken up with reading and understanding the frequently updated and expanded No Detriment Policy, in order that

32 we could advise students on how the policy would affect them. On many occasions students were asking us about aspects of policy that had not yet been written, and we had to contact Senate Office multiple times throughout this period for clarification.

Additional ‘Money Saving’ Services

Second Hand Bookshop

GUSRC’s second-hand book trading facility contributes to the alleviation of student financial hardship through providing cheap course texts, whilst affording an opportunity for students to gain some financial return on texts which they no longer require. We continue to operate this service on a break- even basis. Bookshop sales revenue fell by just over 30% during the year; this is the fourth year sales have fallen, we suspect this is due to the amount of course material available online and there being no sales from early March due to the lockdown period. This has also had an impact on us being unable to take in new stock during this period, (Normally take in 5,000 during Apr to June). A total of 3431 books were sold over the year against 4199 in 2018/2019. Total estimated savings to students buying the second-hand books is approximately £14,600 against full price whilst those students selling books generated income of £19,000 from the sales. Total financial benefit to students using the service over the period is £33,600 (against £48,000 in 2019 and £53,000 in 2018).

Photocopying, Printing and Binding

GUSRC continues to offer high quality printing and photocopying facilities to all students at a considerably lower rate than commercial high street agencies, however the introduction of the University pull print service at comparable rates has impacted on demand over recent years. Photocopying unit sales dropped by 4.5% to 98,245 against 102,801 units in the previous year. There is a significant downward trend with a 61.5% drop in sales over the last five years. However, the service is still cost effective to deliver and will remain an essential service for many students as long as the demand for our binding service continues its upward trend. For the period July 19 to March 20, sales increased by 12% but due to the lockdown and dissertations being submitted online the year- end sales for the service fell by 25%. Inevitably, digital innovations will continue to reduce demand for these services, and we will keep the situation under review.

Jobshop/Employment Rights

Jobshop is a free ‘job and skills’ matching service, provided to all students and employers. Employers contact GUSRC with employment opportunities which are then advertised to students through GUSRC’s website.

GUSRC also produces information for students about their employment rights and joining trade unions in order to prevent/minimise employer exploitation. Our employment rights booklet, ‘Wage Slave or Winner’ can be found at : www.glasgowstudent.net/advice/working-and-spending/employment-rights/

Student Guide

The Student Guide, produced by GUSRC, has long been seen as the key introductory document to life in Glasgow in general, and the University of Glasgow in particular. Produced to high quality print and

33 design standards, normally 7,000 copies of The Guide are distributed directly to new undergraduate and postgraduate students as part of the registration process.

The Guide is not produced as a “throwaway” document. The high standard of presentation, quality of writing and range of information ensures that The Guide is kept and used as a reference book throughout the year. As with last year, we reviewed all aspects of The Guide, including design, content and structure in order to produce a stylish and up to date document which will hopefully serve as a useful introduction to life at the University and the city itself.

Freshers’ Week

GUSRC continues to carry the responsibility of coordinating and administering Freshers’ Week, working with the University and facilitating linkages with the other student bodies. We have responsibility for the marketing and administration of the Freshers’ Pass (now ‘Wristband’) Programme as well as development, operation and maintenance of the wristband sales system.

Wristband sales for 2019 saw a 5% fall in ticket sales from 2803 to 2675. Although there was a 5% drop in tickets sold, revenue only fell by less than 1%, due to an increase in ticket price from £40 to £45. Savings made on top slice expenses allowed us to increase the cross-campus revenue pot which only dropped from £80,598 in 2018 to £80,498. Glasgow University Union and Queen Margaret Union each received an allocation of £25,357. Glasgow University Sports Association and GUSRC each received £14,892. This percentage split is historical and has no particular rationale.

Creating an inclusive SRC Freshers’ Week

We continue to develop ways to ensure more marginalised or non-traditional groups have the opportunity to participate in the week, although there is some way to go, below are some examples of our inclusive approach.

Freshers’ Fair

The 2nd most popular event according to the Freshers’ Week Survey. 165 Clubs and Societies, as well as University Departments and commercial organisations marketed themselves through stalls in the Bute Hall, Kelvin Galleries, and a Marquee in the Quads. We introduced a “Quiet Hour” for students who felt unable to deal with the excessive stimuli of noise and crowds at the event. Our meet and greet teams were on hand to accompany/assist students round the fair if required.

Tours

We organised a range of tours including Campus Tours and ‘Students View’ Tours of the West End. We also ran “Accessible Tours” designed to assist students with mobility issues to gain access to key sites on campus.

Student Lunches

We ran lunches targeted at Mature Students (in conjunction with MSA), Student Parents, Disabled Students and Student Carers.

Give it a Go

We supported 21 Clubs and Societies (from 34 applications) in facilitating Give it a Go sessions, e.g. Vegan food fair (one of our busiest events); a Dance masterclass with GSDC. The “Give it a Go” label encouraged students to try new experiences.

Early Evening Events

A range of sessions 5-p.m. to fill a gap in the programme and to cater for students who were unlikely or unable to participate in the late-night events run by the two Unions. This included: Headphone Disco in The Cloisters; International Ceilidh (Bute Hall) and RejecTed Talks. All the events were oversubscribed. Reviewing the week

In recent years GUSRC have commissioned and funded an independent evaluation of Freshers’ Week and have proposed changes based on the findings; the full report can be accessed through our website. Responses in terms of value for money have stayed fairly consistent, as the short extract below highlights. It also outlines lack of clarity on the offer as a key factor in students drawing more negative conclusions:

Although value for money perceptions of the Wristband have stayed similar across the lifetime of the survey, this year they have dropped slightly. Furthermore, across the years, confusion has persisted around what is included in the cost of the band – specifically around their perceptions that the Wristband includes entry to weekend events. GUSRC FRESHERS’ WEEK SURVEY 2019 Key Findings; Solomon November 2019

STRATEGIC AIM 3 - VOLUNTEERING and COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Volunteering

The SRC’s very essence is rooted in social action and bringing about change. We currently facilitate almost 3500 volunteers’ participation in a range of opportunities, both on and off campus. From our student media teams, to those who volunteer in the local communities to our class representatives, council members and our societies’ office bearers, there are many students who freely give up their time to benefit others.

GUSRC is acknowledged by the University as the key partner organisation for progressing and supporting extracurricular activity at UofG.

“In partnership with the SRC and student services, we are increasing engagement with extracurricular activities through societies, volunteering, internships, enterprise, to promote skills development”. UofG Outcome Agreement 2020–21 to 2022–23 (April 2020)

GU Volunteering

GU Volunteering is our small department that has a particular focus on developing external links and volunteering opportunities throughout the City and beyond. It is a key component in our volunteer offers with a particular focus on civic engagement, assisting UofG students and GUSRC itself in bridging the gap between the University and some of the communities it serves. Through GU Volunteering many students can find and pursue new interests whilst developing themselves as individuals and learning about life beyond the University and the structured learning environment.

Volunteering and Social Justice Fair:

October 2020 saw our first Volunteering & Social Justice Fair. The aim was to promote the third sector as a relatable and ethical vehicle through which to pursue a career. Exhibitors at the fair included partners from the community; charities, neighbourhood projects and social enterprises, as well as clubs and societies who volunteer and provide support to the student and/or public community. 1000+ students attended, 1200+ student contact details were recorded, 35 partners exhibited and feedback from exhibitors was completed at 83% with 62% grading the event as ‘excellent’.

Service Promotion

We again organised a stand-alone volunteer information session during Fresher's Week and attracted well over 90 first year students to hear the experiences of existing volunteers and receive information about available options. Promotion of volunteering was also incorporated within the induction script delivered to all first years by GUSRC sabbatical officers. The GU Volunteering team were also invited by some departments to talk to students about particular volunteering opportunities, communicating directly with over 2,000 students.

Civic Engagement: Project Examples

Glasgow University Environmental Task Force (GUETF)

As a means of developing a more positive student identity in the West End, we linked with Community Safety Glasgow, local community residents’ groups, Hillhead Community Council and Friends of the River Kelvin, to establish GUETF. This project started at the end of 2018/2019 with our first neighbourhood environmental clean-up/litter picking initiative run as a pilot. Students wearing SRC high visibility bibs work shoulder-to-shoulder with local residents, improving the local area and building new community links. We had 8 UofG students participate in the first event. This year we planned to run these events monthly, we had run 6 events with 15 to 20 students attending each session before they were stopped in March due to Covid 19 and lockdown. We currently have 38 volunteers registered for this project.

Climate Change Tree Planting Day of Action

The SRC-led action is part of a national campaign to plant one million trees across the UK, through the Woodland Trust, the UK's largest woodland conservation charity. The hard work of passionate volunteers delivered 2,600 native Scottish trees planted near Muirhead, North-East Glasgow including: Sessile Oak; Rowan; Aspen; Bird Cherry; and Juniper. Every four trees planted – once mature – offset one metric ton of carbon per year. That means 650 metric tons of carbon will be offset each year, equivalent to the annual carbon impact of the non-recyclable waste produced by the University. The milestone was marked with the planting of a semi-mature Sessile Oak – as depicted in the University’s crest in the University grounds by University Avenue, between Pearce Lodge and Memorial Gate. The Sessile Oak was planted by our University Principal Sir Anton Muscatelli who said:

“As a University, we are committed to playing a leading role in the fight against climate change. This excellent initiative underlines that commitment and I would like to congratulate the SRC – and all those who have backed the project – on reaching this important milestone. As we continue to explore ways of reducing our carbon footprint University-wide, this tree planting initiative stands as a shining example of what can be achieved through hard work, collective action, and common purpose.”

Get on Board

In the early part of the year we collaborated with CoSS Employability and external partners to undertake this first Get On Board workshop (training students to become active participants on charity boards), with more planned, once Covid restrictions are lifted:

“RSM, Santander Bank, Anderson Strathern, and Inspiring Scotland – supported by GU Volunteering and GU College of Social Sciences Employability - have set up an initiative to encourage students to find out more about how charities are governed and what they do, and provide relevant training to enable them to become charity board members.”

Glasgow’s Improvement Challenge

We strengthened our partnership with the GIC, increasing our collaborations with primary and secondary schools across the city, supporting the Scotland Reads and Classroom Support volunteer programmes. We have also helped facilitate collaboration between the GU Female Engineers (FemEng) society and the GIC, to open up more community volunteering.

Refuweegee

We continued our partnership with Refuweegee and we have provided many GU Volunteers, helping support Refuweegee’s efforts to welcome and settle refugees and asylum seekers to Glasgow; letter writing, volunteering in the Refuweegee charity shop, distributing welcome packs, and helping sort donated items.

Riding for the Disabled

We continue to support Riding for the Disabled (RDA), a local charity based to the North of Glasgow. Our volunteers have been unable to contribute to this project since March 2020 due to RDA suspending their on-site operations. But GU Volunteers will return to help, once activities recommence. RDA offers children and adults with disabilities the chance to ride, relax and have fun. Although we offer volunteering opportunities to all students we also target relevant clubs and societies, in this instance, GU Riding Club, for appropriate activities. Our volunteers remain essential to the running of RDA, supporting riding lessons, maintaining equipment and facilities, and building relationships with service users, their families and RDA staff.

Basketball Outreach

Many of our societies are involved in community outreach. We have linked with GU Basketball Club, who provide a social outreach program, reaching out to young, vulnerable children and teenagers in the wider community of Glasgow, using basketball as a means of facilitating their development. Student players and coaches volunteer each week, to deliver basketball sessions to pupils in SIMD schools in need of extra support. This year, GU Basketball Club delivered coaching sessions to children in their final year of primary school within the Govan High School catchment area, 1-2 times per week, to inspire and enthuse young children about the sport. This activity was suspended in March due to Covid 19 but we hope to have volunteers back there next year.

Charity Shops

We continue to offer a range of local charity shop volunteering opportunities including Oxfam, Shelter, Save the Children, and British Heart Foundation Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland, Starter Packs Glasgow,. We have students volunteering at 11 local stores. These opportunities are particularly attractive to students who are seeking to build their skills and confidence in spoken English.

Glasgow University Service to Homeless people (GUSH)

This still proves to be a highly popular project and is a great way for students less fluent in English to be involved in a task-based activity, where they can work alongside native English speakers who can assist them to overcome any language issues. This year there were 72 students active with GUSH, this was a fall on last year but we feel the impact of Covid 19 reduced the number of volunteers.

Volunteering, Clubs and Societies Awards

Our Volunteer, Clubs and Societies’ (VCS) awards are held annually with the aim of promoting volunteering and celebrating the many UofG student volunteers who work on campus and in the local communities to make people’s lives better. Once again, the event was held in the University’s

38 prestigious Kelvin Gallery and was attended by many of the University’s Senior Management Group, several of whom presented awards.

Engagement with the awards was high with over 504 nominations being submitted. It was clear that the successful nominees placed great value on the awards with emotional and heartfelt speeches on the evening of the awards.

The awards were presented by the GUSRC Executive Officers.

VCS Award Winners - 2020

GU CHARITABLE GIVING AWARD Mary’s Meals OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO VOLUNTEERING AWARD Kieran Dowling GU Basketball Outreach programme GU Volunteering COMMUNITY OUTREACH AWARD GU Basketball Club Social outreach programme GU CAMPUS STUDENT COMMUNITY Let’s Talk Workshop trainers GU CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR AWARD GUVMA – Feel good February BEST CLUB OR SOCIETY EVENT OF THE YEAR AWARD GU Charity Fashion Show - Jailbreak NEW CLUB OR SOCIETY AWARD Walking Club GU WORKING TOGETHER AWARD GU German Society CLUB OR SOCIETY OF THE YEAR AWARD Glasgow Student Dance Society GU CLUB MEMBER OF THE YEAR AWARD Ketong Zhang Chinese Students and Scholars Association

The continuing profile and investment in the VCS awards reflects our aspirations to further develop the profile of volunteering amongst our students and increase the numbers engaging in volunteering, whether it be as office bearers of clubs/societies, class representatives, or volunteering in the community.

Graduate Attributes

The University is currently working in partnership with GUSRC to review and develop its approach to Graduate Attributes. The Graduate Attribute Working is was originally established as a short term group group that was looking how to better integrate and engage with Graduate Attributes across all members of the University Community. Whilst there has been some progress it has been fairly limited, in part due to the impact of the pandemic. Whilst the group had developed recommendations to increase staff engagement with Graduate Attributes our VP Student Activities considered that more work was required on engaging with students and conducted a consultation exercise with Council Members subsequently submitting a paper to the working group around engaging students with Graduate Attributes and developing their understanding around transferable skills

UofG Tours

The tours provide an opportunity for University of Glasgow Students to work as tour guides, develop their communication skills and share their pride in the University with visitors from around the world. We continue to promote the tours through local guidebooks and websites such as Visit Scotland.

We undertook a re-branding exercise in the previous year and increased the number of tours on offer during the months of April to October. This saw last year’s sales increase by 18.5%. We were on target for a 32% uplift in revenue this year, however the impact of Covid saw considerable cancellations, then the tours being stopped altogether. As a consequence we saw a drop in revenue from £20,593 to £14,399 with the number of attendees falling by 283, from 4305 to 4022.

We encourage tour participants to leave feedback which is generally very positive. Less positive comments generally relate to disappointment at the lack of access to internal spaces of the University. Current University space usage levels mean it isn’t possible to access areas such as the historic Bute Hall. We have now revised the text in our marketing materials to be more explicit that our tours are external, in the hope that managing expectations will reduce any negative comments. This year the guides have had less negative feedback but some visitors are still disappointed when they cannot gain access to Bute and Randolph Halls.

Feedback from Private Group Tours

“Thanks so much for all your help with facilitating the tours for the school pupils that we had visiting yesterday. I managed to make it along to one of them and it was great! The pupils thoroughly enjoyed them.”

“ I wanted to let you know that Viljami’s tour on Wednesday was fantastic and he was a great manner and tour style. I’ve been on a few tours with visiting partners and, whilst the tour guides have always been friendly and knowledgeable, I would say that Viljami is the best guide I’ve had to date. He took us on a slightly different route than usual and also incorporated the Hunterian Museum which was a nice addition”

“They enjoyed the tour and archive visit. Please pass on our gratitude to all the people involved and thank you again for arranging everything.”

Clubs and Societies

Affiliation and Support

Clubs and societies are a key element of the student experience. The Clubs affiliating to GUSRC for 2019/2020 totalled 328, slightly down on last year’s 337, the normal late affiliations during March and June will account for the drop in numbers when students went home during the lockdown in March. Total student membership of affiliated clubs and societies was 18,975, an increase of 3,277 on last year’s figure of 15,698. Affiliated clubs and societies continued to benefit from advice and support on issues as diverse as governance, constitutional frameworks, charity registration, risk assessments, publicity, and event management. GUSRC continues to provide free minibuses to facilitate trips in the UK and travel to conferences and meetings, as well as free room hire, photocopying and IT access.

Interclub Forums

Following on from last year’s success we’ve increased the number of interclub consultative forums with the aims of bringing societies closer to the SRC, highlighting particular issues and concerns and enabling those societies with similar objectives to network and work more closely together.

Storage Space

We have sought to maintain a dialogue with Estates and Commercial services to encourage momentum around this issue. We’ve consulted with students through focus groups in reference to the Thurso Street facility and helped redesign the spaces to enhance accessibility. In addition, we are working with Estates and Commercial services to consider how we best shape the QMU space.

Room Booking Policy

Concerns and frustrations regarding room bookings are constantly raised by societies at our consultative forums. The issue has worsened following the loss of access to the last flat floor space of reasonable size (at the QMU) which is impacting on some of our largest and more successful societies. Following the submission of an SRC paper on room booking and issues with charging policies, we have been able to advise societies that these issues are being considered.

Office Bearers and HEAR

GUSRC notifies all eligible office bearers about HEAR, collects completed forms and updates student records accordingly. This year 777 office bearers applied to have this activity recorded in their HEAR, a 62% increase on last year’s figure of 478. Online submission and lockdown has encouraged more students to take the time to apply for this recognition.

Support with Promotion and Recruitment

Clubs and societies remain an integral part of the GUSRC Freshers’ Week, with 225 stalls allocated to clubs and societies each day of Freshers’ Fair, an increase of over 38% on last year’s figure of 165.

Grant Awards

Our grant allocation system seeks to balance accountability with ease of access. Clubs and societies are required to advise on potential outcomes that grant funding will enable them to achieve, and to make a verbal presentation to the members of the Clubs & Societies Committee. The system is one tier and straightforward and there has been a year-on-year upsurge in applications from clubs.

The sheer volume of active clubs and societies at UofG means that our capacity to provide direct support is limited. We seek to empower Clubs and Societies through a range of online materials offering guidance on many of the issues highlighted above, though we will offer additional assistance if possible. We stress to office bearers that they have responsibility for the running of their society and, whilst we will assist where possible, we are unable to take responsibility for, and decisions pertaining to, the running of the society, internal disputes, discipline etc.

With Covid19 and lock down restrictions it has been extremely difficult for Societies; we have been helping them with various questions regarding such things as online meetings, online voting, change of bank account signatories remotely, and online grant application and grant payments. We have also

41 completely revised our affiliation and grant application processes to enable the process to be completed online. This will be finalised for the beginning of the new academic session.

Student Media

GUSRC continues to support a range of student media, attracting around 500 volunteers per annum and providing a host of personal development opportunities whilst promoting student engagement and encouraging discourse and debate. Guardian

The Glasgow Guardian published 5 issues of 32 pages over the year, with a print run of 3000. The paper is entirely volunteer run, with over 300 volunteers involved in its development and production. Volunteer roles include editors, writers, photographers, illustrators, social media staff, and advertising and business staff. Social media output and online readership is continuing to build and develop.

Glasgow Guardian continues to prove itself an excellent training ground for aspiring journalists with one recent co-editor being allocated a position on the Telegraph’s two-year Graduate Programme and another being accepted for an internship at the Telegraph once they graduate. Other Glasgow Guardian team members have completed work experience at major Glasgow-based publications, such as BBC Scotland, the Scottish Times and the Herald. It is apparent that the Glasgow Guardian remains extremely well respected in the industry, and editors from this paper continue to go on to impressive careers in journalism. This is, of course, excellent publicity for both GUSRC and the University.

Glasgow University Magazine – GUM

GUM is the oldest student publication in Scotland and offers a mix of fashion, art and politics. Over the year three issues were produced with a circulation of 3,000 distributed at the University and throughout the West End.

Each issue of GUM is developed through weekly meetings, online discussions, and monthly workshops to enable optimal contributor engagement.

The increase in online articles ensured online support for GUM increased considerably, with following tripling across platforms. The, still relatively new, creative writing section has now gained great popularity across campus, with corresponding workshops and activities.

Subcity Radio

Subcity Radio is GUSRC’s student-led radio station, broadcasting from Glasgow to the world via the subcity.org website. The station is known for its community, inviting not only students, but those outwith the GU student bubble, to be part of its operations.

Subcity Radio boasts over 100 shows broadcast at various times, ranging from 8am until midnight, 7 days a week. Subcity has also made a concerted effort to engage and promote those from the LGBTQ+ community, with shows such as Queer Creative represented on the station.

Glasgow University Student Television (GUST)

This was a challenging year for GUST, particularly after lockdown when they had to operate off campus. Nonetheless, GUST enjoyed great success at the National Student Television Awards where

42 they won the award for Best Freshers' Coverage as well Best Technical Achievement - the latter for a report written by the GUST Controller, which was accompanied by a grant of £500 for the station from the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. Apart from the prestige of the award, the grant will also be of great help to the station which operates on a very tight and limited budget.

GUST also continued its partnerships with various bodies within University of Glasgow, producing videos with SRC, Adam Smith Business School and various clubs and societies. Despite issues associated with some dated equipment and a limited budget, GUST continue to deliver high quality output.

Activity During Early Lockdown: March 16th to June 30th 2020

Following lockdown in March we quickly identified ways to continue our services and activities The demands on many areas of the organisation increased with virtually all of staff and officers still working their normal hours (at least) from home.

Below are examples of the various activities and campaigns run by GUSRC during the early lockdown period.

Communicating the Crisis

GUSRC tried to complement University communications by maintaining lines of communication through our own student friendly channels to assist in keeping them informed, updated, and engaged

Coronavirus Guidance & Advice

At the start of the outbreak, as the University began publishing guidance for students about COVID- 19, we promoted and complemented this advice with a web page of our own guidance. The page included links to the official University of Glasgow guidance – emphasising that this should be students’ main source of information – as well as important information for clubs & societies regarding events, guidance on looking after one’s mental health, and guidance regarding discrimination and how students could support members of their community facing it. Content on the GUSRC social media channels was limited initially, to allow for re-sharing of University updates to ensure that the vital information reached as many students as possible. We continue to re-share updates as and when the University releases them.

Weekly Updates

2 weeks into lockdown we published our first instalment of our weekly updates from our sabbatical officers. These were designed to keep students abreast of what we are doing to support and represent them during this time, and intended to contribute to some sense of normality and reassurance. The updates are posted on our website, social media, and are also recorded as video clips and posted to YouTube.

Live Q&A

GUSRC held a live Q&A featuring our 4 sabbatical officers. The livestream has over 4.2k views and has reached upwards of 8,000 people. Upwards of 50 questions were submitted on a range of issues from

43 exams and assessment, to support for students with additional needs. View the video here. Our President also took part in the University’s Student Q&A session featuring the Principal.

Student Support

Our Advice Centre and Welcome Point and Administration team did their best to provide guidance, advice and support in responding to a slew of enquiries relating to COVID-19 from anxious students and parents on top of the considerable range and diversity of enquiries normally received)

The Welcome Point / SRC Administration

Whilst we furloughed most of our student frontline student staff (on full pay) our administration team continued to deal with a constant stream of enquiries. Over 1,000 Clubs and societies queries were resolved between lockdown commencing and the June 30th. The Administration Team triaged Advice Centre queries as well as dealing with several thousand general enquiries through email and social media whilst continuing to function as the ‘engine room’ of the SRC.

The Advice Centre

The SRC’s Advice Centre continued to operate as close to normal as possible in an online environment. Like the rest of the organisation the switch was relatively painless with Zoom and Teams substituting for what may normally have been face to face visits and the number of email enquiries increasing. Despite being initially concerned that students may think the service was closed, there was an upsurge in enquiries between the beginning of lockdown and June 30th.

Community Engagement During the Crisis

Through our volunteering service GU Volunteering, we publicised and coordinate access to the various volunteering opportunities that remained available to UofG students during early lockdown.

Whilst, the number of students engaged in volunteering during the early lockdown period reduced against the previous months, this is normal for this time of year when students are studying, and was higher than we would normally expect. Anecdotally it appeared that a significant number of students were engaging with our work but were not necessarily tracking their volunteering activities via our database.

During the early lockdown period we promoted volunteering through highlighting two separate strands

1) promoting and facilitating the Scottish Government’s ‘Ready Scotland / Scotland Cares’ campaign to gather volunteers from across the country to help on the frontline against COVID-19.

2) continuing to support our local community partners such as Marie Trust, Glasgow’s Golden Generation, Refuweegee and anyone who asks for assistance, as well as assisting University schemes such as the call for students to help operate 3D printers producing visors for the NHS. Below is a summary of their activities:

Viral Kindness

This campaign links in with the initiative started by in Southampton. Our students send postcards to people who have to self-isolate to say that they can help with a range of activities: from picking up vital supplies, to posting a letter, or just being available for a friendly phone call. GUSRC distributed 3,000 cards in key University Buildings and afterwards made the card downloadable for printing at home. The campaign reached upwards of 20,000 people on social media and was replicated by a number of other student organisations including the Edinburgh University Students’ Association.

Scotland Cares – University of Glasgow Cares

GUSRC promoted the Scottish Government’s initiative through our social media channels asking the UofG community to support the initiative, encouraging all ready, able and willing folk to pitch in and help out during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Marie Trust

This Glasgow-based charity offers support to homeless people. We have supported initiatives to help this disadvantaged group for a number of years; on this occasion, students volunteered to put together food parcels and deliver them to people in temporary tenancies.

Glasgow’s Golden Generation #springhope

We worked with existing partners, Glasgow’s Golden Generation to support their #SpringHope campaign, sending artwork and poetry to the city’s elderly, lonely and isolating population. Student engagement was excellent with over twenty UofG students participating

Food Train – Telephone Befrienders

GU Volunteering’s partners at Food Train Scotland and Meal Makers recruiting volunteer Telephone Befrienders, who could spare 2-3 hours per week from home. All the volunteers received training and ongoing support throughout their role.

Representing Students During the Crisis

Our sabbatical officers continued to be involved at the highest levels of University decision-making, in a demanding and fast moving environment where territory was uncharted and decisions had often to be made quickly.

Virtual Teaching

As government advice swiftly changed and social distancing became more common place, our officers were involved in discussions to stop face-to-face teaching to ensure the safety of students and staff.

Move to Online

The SRC were involved early on in discussions around making the move to online assessments and exams, and were directly consulted during this decision. We moved to make as many of our services

45 as possible available online, including information for clubs & societies e.g. affiliation forms and information on running online AGMs.

Library

Prior to the decision to close the Library, we worked with the University to try to ensure some kind of service was available for those who really needed access to materials or computers. As guidance changed across the country for non-essential services to shut, the library closed.

University Accommodation

We worked with the University to resolve the complex issues around students wishing to terminate their University Accommodation contracts early in order to get home, as well as highlighting the need for ongoing pastoral support for those remaining.

Private Accommodation

As stated previously we had been campaigning and lobbying government for a change in the law that would require Private Sector providers of Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA), to permit students to terminate their contracts early, as many students were ‘locked in’. Whilst early on some providers proved slightly sympathetic to students’ plight, many others were less so, through our Advice Centre we therefore continued to represent the many students who wished to leave their accommodation but were being forced to continue to pay rent by profit driven private providers. (later on in the year, beyond the period of this report we were delighted when the law was changed to force providers to be more sympathetic)

Financial Hardship

With the loss of job income and the possibility of many students falling into financial hardship, we continue to work with the University with the University in making sure funds have been in place to help aid students that need it.

Assessments & Exams

We contributed to the development of the University’s ‘No Detriment’ policy and continued to work with them to ensure that the policy was implemented across all schools as consistently as possible.

Engaging & Positive Social Media Content

As well as communicating the vital facts about the outbreak, we tried to share positive and light- hearted content to raise the spirits of staff and students and showcase the creativity and inventiveness of those within the University.

De-stress at a Distance Campaign

As mentioned earlier we rebranded our annual exam de-stress campaign to ‘de-stress at a distance’ and publicised a calendar of activities and content via our website intended to provide a relaxing distraction for students.

The Virtual Conversation Café

This is a revamp of the face-to-face conversation café which allows confident English speakers to meet with International students and help them with their conversational language. This now takes place in groups of five, also involves staff, and was carried out via Zoom. This proved to be very popular with international students.

#IsolateNotProcrastinate

We produced a motivational video from our VP Student Support intended to get students active by showing them a 30-minute fitness workout they can do at home.

Sharing the Experience of Key Workers

We shared the story of one of our representatives, , whose part-time job at Tesco made him a key worker. This was intended to give students an idea of the key workers within their community.

GUETF (Glasgow University Environmental Task Force) is staying green

A video montage was put together by members of GUETF filming themselves, to encourage the UofG community to stay green at home. It features students sharing tips for saving electricity, recycling, planting etc. It was released on World Earth Day, Wednesday 22 April 2020 and shared via the GUSRC and UofG channels. View it here.

FINANCIAL REVIEW

GUSRC recorded a surplus this year of £128,571 (2019 – £18,190). Whilst we sought to improve or maintain our performance across the organisation there were inevitable barriers to improvement a result of the Covid pandemic and lockdown. Our unusually large surplus this year is in part due to a suspension in recruitment/replacement of two key positions. as well as pausing the implementation of two key projects where the University committed funding from its strike fund (Rape Crisis Campus Based Surgery and Mental Health Training). Considerable savings were made around the costs of running training and events post lockdown particularly associated catering costs. Total reserves at 30th June 2020 stand at £583,803 (2019 - £455,232). The block grant from the University was £690,700, a 1% uplift on funds received in 2019. There is an additional £27,000 included in this heading as the University’s notional building rental charge.

Reserves Policy

GUSRC is dependent on an annual block grant from the University, which amounts to around 67% of its required annual income. GUSRC does not have the capacity to generate income through trading activity to the extent required to support its activities through any other means. The nature of the organisation is such that it is unlikely to be able to secure grant funding from other sources. Ongoing dependence on grant funding from the University is a reality acknowledged by the Trustees. In order to minimise the risk to the organisation, dependent on a sole source of funding, the Trustees have agreed the following: It is the policy of the organisation to maintain unrestricted funds, which are the free reserves of the charity at a level to provide sufficient costs to cover contractual liabilities should the organisation have to close. This includes redundancy pay, amounts due to creditors and commitments under leases. To cover six months’ full costs in order to prevent sudden withdrawal of specialist support services to students and to ensure an ordered “wind up” of the organisation. To meet unexpected costs like breakdown of essential office machinery, staff cover re illness, maternity leave, parental leave, and legal costs defending the charity’s interest. To contribute to the costs of the replacement of equipment as it wears out. To provide funds which can be designated to specific projects/campaigns to enable these projects to be undertaken at short notice. To cover administration, fund-raising and support costs without which the charity could not function. To avoid the necessity of realising fixed assets held for the charity's use. In order to meet the objectives of the stated policy the Trustees aspire, in the long term, to hold free reserves of £550,000 on an annual basis. Current free reserves stand at £583,803, but this figure holds funding for the next three years of £93,334.

Grant Making Policy

Clubs and Societies GUSRC makes grants to affiliated clubs and societies based on the following criteria:  Whether the aims and activities of the club or society are commensurate with GUSRC’s aims and objectives.  Compliance with the GUSRC’s Equal Opportunities Policy.  The degree of need for the project, activity or capital item requiring funding.

Risk Management Policy

The trustees have assessed the major risks to which the organisation is exposed, in particular those related to the operations and finances of the Council. We are satisfied that our own financial controls, augmented by external monitoring from the University Court Office, effectively mitigate our exposure to risk.

Future Plans

The Trustees strategic document establishes the organisation’s long term aims through to 2020 (however this has been extended for 1 year due to the Covid 19 outbreak) whilst ensuring a degree of flexibility to accommodate elected officers’ shorter-term objectives. Energies will be focussed on ensuring that operational activities relate to objectives outlined in the plan.

GUSRC will continue to consult and engage with Glasgow University students and represent the interests of individual students and, through campaigning activity and participation in the University’s committee structures, the interests of the broader student body. GUSRC will continue to provide services which provide for the safety and wellbeing of Glasgow University students. GUSRC will continue to provide services which have the potential to enhance employability through increasing access to volunteering and employment opportunities for students. GUSRC will actively pursue the continued professional development of staff and elected officers in order to enhance the effectiveness of the services and the organisation as a whole.

STATEMENT OF TRUSTEES’ RESPONSIBILITIES

The Trustees are responsible for preparing the Trustees' Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice). The law applicable to charities in Scotland, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) and the provisions of the charity's constitution requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and of the incoming resources and application of resources of the charity for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the Trustees are required to:

 select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;  observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP;  make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;  state whether applicable accounting standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements.  prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in operation.

The Trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) and the provisions of the charity's constitution. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities. The Trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the charity's website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions. Auditors A resolution proposing that Alexander Sloan, Accountants and Statutory Auditors, be reappointed as auditors of the charity will be put to the Executive Committee.

This report was approved by the trustees, on 18th February 2021, and signed on its behalf by:

SRC President

INDEPENDENT AUDITORS REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES’ OF GLASGOW UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

Opinion We have audited the financial statements of Glasgow University Students’ Representative Council (the ‘charity’) for the year ended 30 June 2020 which comprise the statement of financial activities, the balance sheet and the notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion, the financial statements: - give a true and fair view of the state of the charity’s affairs as at 30 June 2020 and of its incoming resources and application of resources, for the year then ended; - have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and - have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and regulation 8 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended).

Basis for opinion We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the charity in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Conclusions relating to going concern We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the ISAs (UK) require us to report to you where: - the Trustees' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is not appropriate; or - the Trustees have not disclosed in the financial statements any identified material uncertainties that may cast significant doubt about the charity’s ability to continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting for a period of at least twelve months from the date when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Other information The Trustees are responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the information included in the annual report, other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.

In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether there is a material misstatement in the financial statements or a material misstatement of the other information. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

We have nothing to report in this regard.

Matters on which we are required to report by exception We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) require us to report to you if, in our opinion: - the information given in the financial statements is inconsistent in any material respect with the Trustees' report; or - proper accounting records have not been kept; or - the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records; or

- we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit.

Responsibilities of Trustees As explained more fully in the statement of Trustees' responsibilities, the Trustees are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the Trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the Trustees are responsible for assessing the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the Trustees either intend to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements We have been appointed as auditor under section 44(1)(c) of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and report in accordance with the Act and relevant regulations made or having effect thereunder.

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor's report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: http://www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor's report.

Use of our report This report is made solely to the charity’s Trustees, as a body, in accordance with regulation 10 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charity's Trustees those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor's report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charity and the charity’s Trustees as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Alexander Sloan 25th February 2020

Accountants and Business Advisers Statutory Auditor 180 St Vincent Street Glasgow G2 5SG

Alexander Sloan is eligible for appointment as auditor of the charity by virtue of its eligibility for appointment as auditor of a company under of section 1212 of the Companies Act 2006

GLASGOW UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30TH JUNE 2020 Unrestricted

General Designated Restricted 2020 2019 Funds Funds Funds Total Total

£ £ £ £ £ Income from:

Donations and Legacies 6 690,700 - 690,700 682,500 Other trading activities 7 59,562 59,562 59,652 Investments 8 6,875 - 6,875 5,171 Charitable activities 9 184,084 101,893 16,395 302,372 259,070

Total income 941,221 101,893 16,395 1,059,509 1,006,393

Expenditure on:

Raising funds 10 14,224 - 14,224 14,157 Charitable activities 12 876,986 23,333 16,395 916,714 974,046

Total Expenditure 891,210 23,333 16,395 930,938 988,203

Net Movement in funds 50,011 78,560 - 128,571 18,190

Reconciliation of funds Total funds brought 435,612 19,620 - 455,232 437,042 forward at 1st July 2019

Total funds carried 485,623 98,180 - 583,803 455,232 forward at 30th June 2020

The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses this year. All income and expenditure derives from continuing activities.

The notes on pages 56-78 form an integral part of these financial statements.

GLASGOW UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

BALANCE SHEET

AS AT 30TH JUNE 2020 Notes 2020 2019 £ £ £ £

TANGIBLE FIXED ASSETS 2 7,599 10,640

CURRENT ASSETS Stock 3 319 169 Debtors 4 27,662 20,381 Cash at Bank and in Hand 707,878 595,474

735,859 616,024

LIABILITIES

CREDITORS – Amounts falling due within one year 5 159,655 171,432

NET CURRENT ASSETS 576,204 444,592

TOTAL NET ASSETS 583,803 455,232

FUNDS Unrestricted - General Funds 15 485,623 435,612 Designated Funds 15 98,180 19,620

583,803 455,232

The Financial Statements were approved and authorised for issue by GUSRC Council on the 18th February 2021 and are signed on their behalf by:

The notes on pages 56-78 form an integral part of these financial statements.

GLASGOW UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

CASHFLOW STATEMENT

AS AT 30TH JUNE 2020 2020 2019

£ £

Cash flows generated from operating activities Net cash used in operating activities (see below) 117,195 50,121

Cash flows from investing activities

Purchases of fixed assets (4,791) -

Change in cash and cash equivalents in the year 112,404 50,121

Cash and cash equivalents brought forward at 1st July 2019 595,474 545,353

Cash and cash equivalents carried forward at 30th June 2020 707,878 595,474

2020 2019

£ £

Reconciliation of operating cash flows Net movement in funds 128,571 18,190 Depreciation 7,832 6,335 (Increase) / decrease in debtors (7,281) 523 (Increase) / decrease in stock (150) 665 Increase / decrease in creditors (11,777) 24,408

Net cash used in operating activities 117,195 50,121

GLASGOW UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30th JUNE 2020

1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES

1.1. Accounting convention

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the charity's Memorandum and Articles of Association, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and "Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)" (as amended for accounting periods commencing from 1 January 2019). the charity is a Public Benefit Entity as defined by FRS 102.

The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the charity. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.

The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention. The principal accounting policies adopted are set out below.

1.2. Going Concern Policy

The Trustees’ have a reasonable expectation that the charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. Thus the Trustees’ continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the financial statements. Despite COVID-19 the Trustees’ have assessed the organisations reserves and continued funding by the University and therefore the Trustees consider the going concern basis remains appropriate despite the challenges and impact of the Pandemic.

1.3. Estimates and Assumptions

In preparing the financial statements the Trustees’ are required to make estimates and assumptions which affect reported income, expenses, assets, and liabilities. Use of available information and application of judgement are inherent in the formation of estimates, together with past experience and expectations of future events that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances. Actual results in the future could differ from such estimates.

GLASGOW UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Contd.)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30th JUNE 2020

1.4. Charitable Funds Policy

Funds are classified as either unrestricted or restricted funds, defined as follows.

Unrestricted funds are expendable at the discretion of the Trustees in furtherance of the objects of the charity. If parts of the unrestricted funds are earmarked at the discretion of the Trustees for a particular purpose, they are designated as a separate fund. This designation has an administrative purpose only and does not legally restrict the Trustees' discretion to apply the fund.

Restricted funds are funds subject to specific requirements as to their use which may be declared by the donor or with their authority or created through legal processes, but still within the wider objects of the charity.

1.5. Income

Donations and grants from the University that provide core funding of general nature are recognised where there is entitlement, where receipt is probable, and the amount can be measured with sufficient reliability. Such income is only deferred when the donor specifies that the grant or donation must only be used in future accounting periods, or when the donor has imposed conditions which must be met before the charity has unconditional entitlement.

Income from investments is included in the year in which it is receivable.

Income from charitable activities includes income received under contract or where entitlement to grant funding is subject to specific performance conditions is recognised as earned (as the related goods or services are provided). Grant income included in this category provides funding to support performance activities and is recognised where is entitlement, where receipt is probable, and the amount can be measured with sufficient reliability.

1.6. Expenditure

Expenditure is recognised on an accruals basis when a liability is incurred. Expenditure includes any VAT which cannot be fully recovered and is reported as part of the expenditure to which it relates.

Charitable expenditure comprises those costs incurred by the charity in the delivery of its activities and services for its beneficiaries. It includes both costs that can be allocated directly to such activities and those costs of an indirect nature necessary to support them.

Raising funds are those costs incurred in attracting donations, and those incurred in activities that raise funds.

GLASGOW UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Contd.)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30th JUNE 2020

1.7. Governance Policy

Governance costs (which are included as a component of support costs in accordance with SORP) comprise all costs involving the public accountability of the charity and its compliance with regulation and good practice. These costs include those related to constitutional and statutory requirements, external scrutiny (audit or independent examination), strategic management, and other legal and professional fees.

1.8. Taxation

The SRC is a registered Scottish Charity and is not liable to United Kingdom Corporation Tax or Capital Gains Tax on its charitable activities. The charity is registered for VAT.

1.9. Activity based reporting Analysis is provided within notes 13 & 14 of the financial statements.

1.10. Tangible fixed Assets and depreciation

The cost of minor additions or those costing £2,500 for computer equipment or £2,500 for other assets are not capitalised but are charged to the Statement of Financial Activities in the year or acquisition. Depreciation is provided at rates calculated to write off the cost less residual value of each asset over its expected life, as follows:

Computer Equipment 33.33% per annum straight line Other Equipment and Fittings 25.00% per annum straight line Photocopiers 20.00% per annum straight line Motor Vehicles 25.00% per annum straight line

1.11. Stocks

Stocks have been valued at the lower of cost and net realisable value, after making, due allowance for obsolete and slow, moving stock.

1.12. Cash and Cash Equivalents

Cash at bank and cash in hand includes cash and short term highly liquid investments.

GLASGOW UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Contd.)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30th JUNE 2020

1.13. Creditors

Creditors are recognised where the charity has a present obligation resulting from a past event that will probably result in the transfer of funds to a third party and the amount due to settle the obligation can be measured or estimated reliably. Creditors are normally recognised at their settlement after allowing for any trade discount due.

1.14. Pension

The charity operates a defined contribution pension scheme. The pension costs charged through the financial statements represent the contributions payable by the charity during the year.

1.15. Employee Benefits Policy

The cost of any unused holiday entitlement is recognised in the period in which the employee’s services are received.

1.16. Donated Services and Facilities

Donated services and donated facilities are recognised as income when the charity has control over the item, any conditions associated with the donated item have been met, the receipt of economic benefit from the use by the charity of the item is probable and that economic benefit can be measured reliably. On receipt, donated services and donated facilities are recognised on the basis of the value of the gift to the charity which is the amount the charity would have been willing to pay to obtain services or facilities of equivalent economic benefit on the open market; a corresponding amount is recognised in expenditure in the period of receipt.

GLASGOW UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Contd.)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30th JUNE 2020

1.17. Financial Instruments Policy

The SRC has elected to apply the provisions of Section 11 ‘Basic Financial Instruments’ and Section 12 ‘Other Financial Instruments Issues’ of FRS 102 to all of its financial instruments.

Financial instruments are recognised in the charity's balance sheet when the charity becomes party to the contractual provisions of the instrument.

Financial assets and liabilities are offset, with the net amounts presented in the financial statements, when there is a legally enforceable right to set off the recognised amounts and there is an intention to settle on a net basis or to realise the asset and settle the liability simultaneously.

Basic Financial assets Basic financial assets, which include debtors and cash and bank balances, are initially measured at transaction price including transaction costs and are subsequently carried at amortised cost using the effective interest method unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the transaction is measured at the present value of the future receipts discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial assets classified as receivable within one year are not amortised.

Basic Financial Liabilities Basic financial liabilities, including creditors and bank loans are initially recognised at transaction price unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the debt instrument is measured at the present value of the future payments discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial liabilities classified as payable within one year are not amortised.

Debt instruments are subsequently carried at amortised cost, using the effective interest rate method.

Trade creditors are obligations to pay for goods or services that have been acquired in the ordinary course of operations from suppliers. Amounts payable are classified as current liabilities if payment is due within one year or less. If not, they are presented as non-current liabilities. Trade creditors are recognised initially at transaction price and subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.

Derecognition of financial liabilities Financial liabilities are derecognised when the charity's contractual obligations expire or are discharged or cancelled."

GLASGOW UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Contd.)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30th JUNE 2020

2 TANGIBLE FIXED ASSETS Equipment Motor and fittings Vehicles Total

£ £ £

Cost As at 1st July 2019 30,112 16,246 46,358 Additions 4,791 - 4,791 Disposals (2,410) - (2,410)

As at 30th June 2020 32,493 16,246 48,739

Depreciation As at 1st July 2019 19,472 16,246 35,718 Charges for the year 7,832 - 7,832 Disposals (2,410) - (2,410)

As at 30th June 2020 24,894 16,246 41,140

Net Book Value

As at 30th June 2020 7,599 - 7,599

As at 30th June 2019 10,640 - 10,640

GLASGOW UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Contd.)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30TH JUNE 2020

3 STOCK 2020 2019 £ £

General 319 169

319 169

4 DEBTORS

Trade Debtors 2,957 6,801 Prepayments and Accrued Income 24,196 13,580

Vat debtor 509 -

27,662 20,381

5 Creditors

Trade Creditors 69,016 70,002 Accruals and Deferred Income 90,639 101,430

159,655 171,432

6 DONATIONS AND LEGACIES

University Block Grant 690,700 682,500

7 OTHER TRADING ACTIVITIES

Fundraising Income 59,562 59,652

8 INCOME FROM INVERSTMENT

Bank Interest received 6,875 5,171

GLASGOW UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Contd.)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30TH JUNE 2020

2020 2019

9 INCOME FROM CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES £ £

University Grants - Glasgow University Crichton Grant 10,796 11,211 - External Relations VCS Awards Grant 4,574 4,400 - Volunteering & Club & Society engagement grant 100,000 25,000 Government Furlough Grant 16,395 - Big Lottery Fund – Student Wellbeing Workshops - 21,930 Santander Clubs & Societies Grant 1,500 - Postgraduate Engagement Sponsorship 3,205 3,578 Sales Income ( Printing & Binding, Tours and Bookshop ) 57,601 80,571 Media Department Income 7,719 8,176 Vending Commission 3,802 5,434 Cash Line Machine Commission 279 797 Miscellaneous Income 9 133 Freshers’ Conference Fees 95,852 96,485 Information & Publicity Sponsorship 640 1,355

302,372 259,070

10 EXPENDITURE ON RAISING FUNDS

Management & staff costs 14,224 14,157

11 NET INCOME / (EXPENDITURE) FOR THE YEAR

Is stated after charging:

Depreciation and other items written off tangible assets 7,832 6,335 Auditors’ Remuneration 5,600 5,610

GLASGOW UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Contd.)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30TH JUNE 2020

12 EXPENDITURE ON CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES 2020 2019

£ £

Direct Costs Clubs and Societies Grant 30,846 28,153 Printing & Binding Services 9,580 10,161 Second-hand Books 31,005 43,071 SRC University Tours 13,900 16,183 Freshers Programme 109,393 106,625 Media Departments 10,504 15,398 Student Representation 180,546 193,713 Advice Centre 131,953 131,665 Student & Visitor Welcome & Support Point 43,732 45,421 GU Volunteering 90,170 73,257 Student Wellbeing Workshops 4,525 23,461 Postgraduate Engagement 27,242 30,201 Marketing 5,316 8,783 Crichton Campus 11,439 11,211

Support Costs

Staff Costs - Employment Costs 70,442 64,313 - Recruitment and Training 491 1,090 - Governance 49,263 50,362

Premises costs - Property Rent 27,000 27,000 - Repairs & Improvements 6,223 11,580

Running Costs - Insurance 6,158 5,396 - Printing, Stationery and Advertising 2,796 2,727 - Telephone and Postage 2,551 2,239 - Sundries 2,343 1,749 - Affiliations and Subscriptions 615 616 - Bank Charges 84 81 - I.T. Support costs 24,850 33,825 - Professional Fess 15,915 28,110 - Bad Debts - 1,320 - Depreciation 7,832 6,335

Total costs of charitable activities 916,714 974,046

GLASGOW UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Contd.)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30TH JUNE 2020

13 ANALYSIS OF CHARITABLE EXPENDITURE BY ACTIVITY

Activities Grant Support Cost Total Undertaken Directly Making 2020 £ £ £ £ Clubs and Societies - 30,846 9,926 40,772 Printing & Binding Services 9,580 - 9,926 19,506 Secondhand Bookshop 31,005 - 19,852 50,857 SRC University Tour 13,900 - 5,955 19,855 Freshers’ Programme 109,393 - 18,047 127,440 Media Departments 10,504 - 19,852 30,356 Student Representation 180,546 - 45,659 226,205 Advice Centre 131,953 - 19.851 151,804 Student & Visitor WP 43,732 - 19.851 63,583 GU Volunteering 90,170 - 19,852 110,022 Student Wellbeing Workshops 4,525 - 3,970 8,495 Postgraduate Engagement 27,242 - 19,852 47,094 Marketing 5,316 - 1,985 7,301 Crichton Campus 11,439 - 1,985 13.424

Total 669,305 30,846 216,563 916,714

14 ANALYSIS OF SUPPORT BY CHARITABLE ACTIVITY

Staff Costs Premises Running Depn Total Costs Charges 2020 £ £ £ £ £ Clubs and Societies 5,509 1,523 2,535 359 9,926 Printing & Binding Services 5,509 1,523 2,535 359 9,926 Second-hand Bookshop 11,018 3,045 5,071 718 19,852 SRC University Tour 3,305 914 1,521 215 5,955 Freshers’ Programme 10,016 2,769 4,609 653 18,047 Media Departments 11,018 3,046 5,070 718 19,852 Student Representation 25,341 7,005 11,662 1,651 45,659 Advice Centre 11,018 3,045 5,070 718 19,851 Student & Visitor WP 11,018 3,045 5,070 718 19,851 GU Volunteering 11,018 3,046 5,070 718 19,852 Student Wellbeing Workshops 2,204 609 1,014 143 3,970 Postgraduate Engagement 11,018 3,045 5,071 718 19,852 Marketing 1,102 304 507 72 1,985 Crichton Campus 1,102 304 507 72 1.985

Totals 120,196 33,223 55,312 7,832 216,563

Staff costs total includes £49,263 (2019 £50,362) associated with governance activities.

GLASGOW UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Contd.

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30TH JUNE 2020

14. ANALYSIS OF SUPPORT BY CHARITABLE ACTIVITY (Continued)

The allocation of support costs across the difference activities of the charity includes an element of judgement. The allocations shows are the best estimate of the costs incurred in providing the central services for the organisation. Cost allocation has been attributed on the basis of the estimated time spent on each activity or, of this is not appropriate, then on a basis consistent with the use of resources.

15 FUNDS

Unrestricted

General Designated Restricted Total Total Funds Funds Funds 2020 2019 Funds £ £ £ £ £

At 1st July 2019 435,612 19,620 - 455,232 437,042 Incoming 941,221 101,893 16,395 1,059,509 1006,393 Resources Outgoing resources 891,210 23,333 16,395 930,938 988,203

As at 30th June 2020 485,623 98,180 - 583,803 455,232

Represented by:-

Tangible Fixed 7,599 - 7,599 10,640 Assets Stock 319 - 319 169 Debtors 27,662 - 27,662 20,381 Cash at the Bank 609,698 98,180 707,878 595,474 and on Hand Creditors 159,655 - 159,655 171,432

As at 30th June 2020 485,623 98,180 - 583,803 455,232

Unrestricted - General Fund The General Fund represents the unrestricted funds of the Charity which the Trustees are free to use in furtherance of the Charity's objectives.

Designated Funds: Media income designated for equipment repair opening balance £2,953 plus surplus income for the period of £1,893 equals closing balance £4,846. (2019 opening balance £4,427 less purchases of £1,474 equals closing balance of £2,953)

GLASGOW UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Contd.)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30TH JUNE 2020

15 FUNDS CONTINUED

Additional funding for volunteering projects of £25,000 received in 2019 Balance at the start of the year £16,667 used in the period for support costs £8,333 balance of £8,334 carried forward. £100,000 received from University Strike fund for Club& Societies engagement to be used over the next four year as projects require additional funding. £15,000 was allocated this year for training and development costs, balance of £85,000 at the year end.

Restricted Funding: During 2019/20 grant income was claimed via the Government Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. The income together with the associated funded staff costs are reported through the restricted funds above.

16 AFFILIATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS

The following affiliations and subscriptions were paid by the Council during the year and are incorporated in the Financial Statements:- Association Total £ ACOSVO 120 SCVO 371 CPAG 124

17 RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS

Glasgow University Students' Representative Council was established to represent the students of the University of Glasgow in all matters affecting their interests.

The University of Glasgow provides the charity with the use of premises within the John McIntyre Building, University Avenue, Glasgow free of any rental charges. The University of Glasgow has placed a notional annual rental value of £27,000 (£27,000 - 2019) on the premises. This amount is included within the total grant income receivable from the University as noted below.

In the year to, 30th June 2020 grants totalling £795,275 were received from the University of Glasgow (2019 - £711,900)

Other income receivable from the University of Glasgow amounted to £24,686 (2019 - £22,253) and payments made in respect of the recharge of expenses (which are processed by GU Finance), administration and support costs amounted to £577,997 (2019 £617,054).

The closing debtors and creditors figures at 30th June 2020 are £227 (2019 £4,531) and £44,963 (2019 - £49,522) respectively.

GLASGOW UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Contd.)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30TH JUNE 2020

18 STAFF COSTS AND NUMBERS 2020 2019 Number Number

Average Number of Employees - Full Time 18 16 - Part Time 16 16

34 32

£ £

Wages and Salaries 550,553 539,701 Social Security 43,129 41,263 Pension Costs 30,956 29,256

624,638 610,220

One staff member received remuneration within the bracket £60,000 to £70,000. (2019 – one)

Key Management remuneration Key management of the charity are its Trustees and the Permanent secretary. Total remuneration of key management, including salaries, employer’s national insurance and pension contributions for the year end 30th June 2020 was £164, 989 (2019 £156,187)

Pension costs The charity operates a defined contribution scheme, and its assets are held by independent managers. The pension charge represents contributions due from the Council and amounted to £23,692 (2019 - £29,256).

19 TRUSTEES REMUNERATION AND EXPENSES

The following trustees received the following remuneration for their work as sabbatical officers.

Salary Pension Salary Pension 2020 2020 2019 2019

20,069 1,235 17,585 1,173 18,199 1,212 - - 19,705 1,212 - - 19,705 912 - - - - 18,106 1,196 - - 17,585 881 - - 17,585 490

GLASGOW UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Contd.)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30TH JUNE 2020

19 TRUSTEES REMUNERATION AND EXPENSES CONTINUED

Employers National Insurance Contribution payments for trustees in 2020 are £5,578 (2019 £5,052) 8 trustees received reimbursement of expenses for travel, meals, accommodation, and other similar expenses incurred in carrying out SRC activities and promotion amounting to £3,747 (2019 - £4,860 reimbursed to 9 trustees).

20 AUDITORS’ REMUNERATION 2020 2019 £ £

Auditors’ Remuneration for Audit Services 5,600 5,610

21 CLUBS AND SOCIETIES GRANTS

Grants Made 7,630 7,642 Clubs Minibus expense 1,434 1,630 Administration & support costs 14,427 12,137 VCS Awards 7,355 6,744

Total Expenses 30,846 28,153

Grants awarded up to £50 2 4 Grants awarded between £51 – £199 15 11

Grants awarded between £200 – £399 11 13 Grants awarded between £400 - £999 7 5 Grants awarded between £1000 - £1500 - -

Total grants awarded 35 33

GLASGOW UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Contd.)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30TH JUNE 2020

22 PRINTING & BINDING SERVICES

2020 2019 £ £ Income Sales Revenue 12,982 16,253

Expenses Consumables 1,878 3,675

Gross Profit 11,104 12,578

Deduct: Employment Costs 7,159 5,992 Expenses 543 494

Net Income 3,402 6,092

23 SECONDHAND BOOKSHOP

Income Sales 30,220 43,725 Less : Cost of Sales 19,523 26,528

Gross Profit 10,697 17,197

Deduct: Employment costs 10,855 15,272 Expenses 627 1,271

Total Expenses 9,238 16,543

Net Income (785) 654

GLASGOW UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Contd.)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30TH JUNE 2020

2020 2019 £ £ 24 UNIVERSITY TOURS Income : Tours sales Revenue 14,399 20,593

Expenses Contract Labour 7,132 8,471 Training & Development 2,197 2,185 General Expenses 1,521 1,587 Management Costs 3,050 3,940 Total Expenses

13,900 16,183

Net Income 499 4,410 4,410 Net Income 499 4,410

25 FRESHERS’Net Income PROGRAMME 499 4,410 Income Conference Fee 95,852 96,485

Expenses Entertainment 65,220 65,222 Helpers Expenses 1,678 1,355 Postage and Stationery 1,078 273 Printing & Advertising 5,132 6,160 Day time events 10,429 9,563 Coach Hire 5,850 5,850 Freshers Admin support & training 20,006 18,202

Total Expenses 109,393 106,625

Net (Deficit) (13,541) (10,140)

GLASGOW UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Contd.)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30TH JUNE 2020

26 MEDIA DEPARTMENTS 2020 2019 £ £

Guardian Advertising Income 1,585 2,292 Les: Expenditure 4,521 4,774

Net Cost (2,936) (2,482)

GUM: Advertising Income 1,810 580 Less: Expenditure 2,914 3,844

Net Cost (1,104) (3,264)

GU Radio: Advertising Income 3,555 3,851 Less: Expenditure 2,068 4,820

Net Income/ (cost) 1,487 (969)

GUST: Advertising Income 769 1,453 Less: Expenditure 626 1,960

Net Income / (cost) 143 (507)

Media Training (375) -

Total Net Cost (2,785) (7,222)

GLASGOW UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Contd.)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30TH JUNE 2020

27 STUDENT REPRESENTATION 2020 2019 £ £

Income: Publicity & Information 640 1,355

Expenses Student Campaigns 2,425 10,591 Council Administration 55,395 63,897 Publicity & Information 18,195 20,934 Sabbatical – Employment Costs and Council Expenses 104,531 98,291

Total Expenses 180,546 193,713

Net Costs 179,906 192,358

28 ADVICE CENTRE

Expenses Employment costs 128,046 125,961 Training & Development 91 1,241 Conference & Travel expenses 76 27 Expenses 3,740 4,436

Total Expenses 131,953 131,665

29 STUDENT & VISITOR WELCOME POINT

Expenses Staff costs 40,742 41,252 Training & Development costs 41 61 General Expenses 2,579 2,914 Job Shop & Flatshare costs 370 1,194

Total Expenses 43,732 45,421

GLASGOW UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Contd.)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30TH JUNE 2020

30 GU VOLUNTEERING 2020 2019 £ £ Expenses Employment costs 79,749 60,506 Training & Development 9 119 Database Management 1,818 2,550 Travel and Subsistence 47 253 Advertising 2,934 5,649 Volunteering Fair 1199 - Environmental Task Force 1860 200 Classroom Support 25 55 GUSH 1,175 1,699 Cultural Club 85 - Nightline 739 982 Stationery & General Expenses 530 1,244

Total Expenses 90,170 73,257

31 Marketing

Expenses Marketing Generating Income 8,634 8,713 General Expenses 47 70

Total Expenses 8,681 8,783

32 POSTGRADUATE ENGAGEMENT

Income: From Event Sponsorship 3,205 3,578

Expenses Employment Costs 21,628 21,813 Stationery and Printing 59 267 Events and Hospitality costs 4,845 5,474 General Expenses 710 2,647

Total Expenses 27,242 30,201

Net Costs 24,037 26,623

GLASGOW UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Contd.)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30TH JUNE 2020

33 STUDENT WELLBEING WORKSHOP 2020 2019 £ £ Income Big Lottery Funding - 21,930

- 21,930

Expenses

Training expenses - (19,200) Admin support costs (4,525) (4,261)

Net Costs (4,525) (1,531)

34 CRICHTON CAMPUS Income University Grant 10,797 11,211

Expenditure Employment costs (11,438) (11,211) Travel & general expenses -

Net costs (641) -

35 FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS

Financial Assets Financial assets measured at amortised costs 735,540 615,855

Financial Liabilities Financial liabilities measured at amortised costs 159,655 171,432

Financial assets measured at amortised cost include cash at the bank, trade debtors, other debtors and accrued income. Financial liabilities measured at amortised cost include trade creditors, other creditors and accruals.

GLASGOW UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Contd.)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30TH JUNE 2020

36 PRIOR YEAR ANALYSIS OF INCOME AND EXPENDITURE

General Funds Designated Restricted 2019 2018 Funds Funds Total Total

£ £ £ £ £ Income from:

Donations and Legacies 682,500 - 682,500 610,316 Other trading activities 59,652 - 59,652 65,001 Investments 5,171 - 5,171 4,796 Charitable activities 212,140 25,000 21,930 259,070 229,386

Total lncome and endowments 959,463 25,000 21,930 1,006,393 909,499

Expenditure on:

Raising funds 14,157 - 14,157 13,710 Charitable activities 942,309 9,807 21,930 974,046 890,969

Total Expenditure 956,466 9,807 21,930 988,203 904,679

Net Movement in funds 2,997 15,193 - 18,190 4,820

Reconciliation of funds Total funds brought forward 432,615 4,427 - 437,042 432,222 at 1st July 2018

Total funds carried forward at 435,612 19,620 - 455,232 437,042 30th June 2019

Under Charities Statement of Recommended Practice (FRS102), comparatives for each class of funds are required for each line on the Statement of Financial Activities (SoFa). This note above illustrates the SoFa for the year 30 June 2019.

GLASGOW UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Contd.)

THE YEAR ENDED 30TH JUNE 20

37 PRIOR YEAR ANALYSIS OF CHARITABLE EXPENDITURE BY ACTIVITY

Activities Grant Support Total Undertaken Making Cost 2019 Directly £ £ £ £ Clubs and Societies - 28,153 10,850 39,003 Printing & Binding Services 10,161 - 10,851 21,012 Second Hand Bookshop 43,071 - 21,702 64,773 SRC University Tour 16,183 - 6,510 22,693 Freshers’ Programme 106,625 - 19,729 126,354 Media Departments 15,398 - 21,702 37,100 Student Representation 193,713 - 49,913 243,626 Advice Centre 131,665 - 21,702 153,367 Student & Visitor Welcome Point 45,421 - 21,702 67,123 GU Volunteering 73,257 - 21,702 94,959 Student Wellbeing Workshops 23,461 - 4,338 27,799 Postgraduate Engagement 30,201 - 21,702 51,903 Marketing 8,783 - 2,170 10,953 Crichton Campus 11,211 - 2,170 13,381

Total 709,150 28,153 236,743 974,046

38 PRIOR YEAR ANALYSIS OF SUPPORT BY CHARITABLE ACTIVITY

Staff Premises Running Depn Total Costs Costs Charges 2019 £ £ £ £ £ Clubs and Societies 5,306 1,768 3,486 290 10,850 Printing & Binding Services 5,306 1,769 3,486 290 10,851 Second Hand Bookshop 10,612 3,536 6,973 581 21,702 SRC University Tour 3,183 1,061 2,092 174 6,510 Freshers’ Programme 9,647 3,215 6,339 528 19,729 Media Departments 10,612 3,537 6,972 581 21,702 Student Representation 24,407 8,134 16,036 1,336 49,913 Advice Centre 10,612 3,536 6,973 581 21,702 Student & Visitor Welcome Point 10,612 3,536 6,973 581 21,702 GU Volunteering 10,612 3,537 6,972 581 21,702 Student Wellbeing Workshops 2,122 707 1,394 115 4,338 Postgraduate Engagement 10,612 3,536 6,976 581 21,702 Marketing 1,061 354 697 58 2,170 Crichton Campus 1,061 354 697 58 2,170

Totals 115,765 38,580 76,063 6,335 236,743

Staff costs total includes £50,362 (2018 £46,731) associated with governance activities.

GLASGOW UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Contd.)

THE YEAR ENDED 30TH JUNE 20

38. PRIOR YEAR ANALYSIS OF SUPPORT BY CHARITABLE ACTIVITY (Continued)

The allocation of support costs across the difference activities of the charity includes an element of judgement. The allocations shown are the best estimate of the costs incurred in providing the central services for the organisation. Cost allocation has been attributed on the basis of the estimated time spent on each activity or, of this is not appropriate, then on a basis consistent with the use of resources.

39. PRIOR YEAR FUNDS

Unrestricted

General Designated Restricted Total Funds Funds Funds 2019

£ £ £ £

At 1st July 2018 432,615 4,427 - 437,042 Incoming Resources 959,463 25,000 21,930 1,006,393 Outgoing resources 956,466 9,807 21,930 988,203

As at 30th June 2018 435,612 19,620 - 455,232

Represented by:-

Tangible Fixed Assets 10,640 - - 10,640 Stock 169 - - 169 Debtors 20,381 - - 20,381 Cash at the Bank and on Hand 575,854 19,620 - 595,474 Creditors 171,432 - - 171,432

As at 30th June 2019 435,612 19,620 - 455,232

Unrestricted - General Fund The General Fund represents the unrestricted funds of the Charity which the Trustees are free to use in furtherance of the Charity's objectives. Designated Funds Media income designated for equipment repair opening balance £4,427 closing balance £2,953 Additional funding for volunteering projects of £25,000 received £8,333 used in the period and a balance of £16,667 carried forward Restricted Funds

Big Lottery funding of £21,930 received for Suicide prevention training, two programmes run in the year.