#HWUnion

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Uni got HODOR from game of throne to dj in our union club you jel yet ;) #heriotwatt #hwunion (at Heriot-Watt University)

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The Vision Survey

Vision is something that we know frustrates everyone - For far too long, it has crashed on a regular basis, lecturers haven't used it correctly (or at all!) and it just really wasn't fit for purpose. However, when we learnt last year that the university was planning on upgrading Vision, we were hopeful that it would bring about change, and a renewed interest in making Vision something that is a really useful tool for learning.

So, over the summer, we started to plan a campaign - a campaign to engage with you about Vision, and to find out what students actually think about vision, and more importantly, what they want vision to be used for. We've just completed the first stage of this campaign - which was the Vision Survey.

We received 1246 responses, and had respondents from every course, in every school, on every campus of Heriot-Watt - this has been the biggest survey ever undertaken by the union! We were truly astounded by the response, and we now have some work to do!

The Results

"Have Any Of Your Lecturers Had Problems With New Vision That They Have Informed You About?"

The headline results from the survey were that the new vision is a vague improvement over the old one, but that lecturers are having problems with the new system, with 41% of you reporting problems. You also told us that you want more Feedback and News Articles on Vision, whilst those of you who have used the new app, like it.

Overall, Do You Think "New" Vision Is Better Or Worse Than Before?

We will now sit down with your School Officers (find your School Officer in our nifty new finder, hwunion.com/repfinder), and go through the nitty-gritty details of everything you have told us, before in the New Year we write a policy to take to the University.

This policy will propose Minimum Standards, which will be enforceable through the Universities quality systems - essentially this means that if your lecturer is not adhering to the standard, your Class Reps and School Officers will be able to go and say "You're not doing a good enough job here". This will obviously not change everything overnight - but we believe this is one of the most important steps we can take to make sure you can expect a higher standard of content on Vision in the future.

We'll keep you up to date on this blog as we go through this campaign - but thank you to everyone who filled in the survey, and if you have any questions about Vision, you can email Mike on president@hwunion.com 

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Unpaid Internships - our first protest and win!

Internships are talked about a lot throughout a students’ time at University, people tell you that they are a great way to kick start your career and make your CV stand out from the rest. Great if you are working within engineering, there are lots of paid summer internships out there and they can open up lots of doors. What happens if your chosen industry has an acceptance of getting students to work for free during their holidays. Fashion and Textiles if one of these industries, it is a competitive career path and students will do whatever it takes to get to the top even if that means working for free. This puts more strain on parents to provide for their children all year round and even pay for their summers in expensive cities. 

Heriot-Watt Students’ Union thinks that this is not on and big companies should not be taking advantage of enthusiastic students.

Jonathon (your new SBC Exec member) and me - Katie (your “new” SBC President) took a trip to London a couple of weeks ago. We went to a protest about long term unpaid internships. It was a very long day but a great way to start one of our main focuses for the Scottish Borders Campus Students’ Union. 

The National Union of Students invited us and the whole day was a huge success, through all the hard work NUS have put in, Arcadia one of the biggest highstreet fashion franchises announced they are going to back pay all the unpaid interns from the last year and from now on are going to pay all their interns - this is a HUGE success!

One of the worst examples of unpaid internships was from Calvin Klein, they were advertising a year long internship, boasting that it wasn’t a coffee collecting job for £0 for the duration - pretty sure that isn’t far off slave labour!

Not only did we get involved in our first protest, but we also spoke to Radio 1 about the issue and I am sure you will hear our lovely Scottish tones amongst all the posh English ones in September.

In the meantime watch this wee video we put together here:

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Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen Would be Proud

This year we have been fortunate to receive a very generous sum of money from our Principle Steve Chapman and the University to continue our refurbishment of the Union. Last year's work was very much behind the scenes, this year I'm sure you will all notice a great difference.

We have had various meetings to discuss what we would like to do; which includes a massive overhaul of Zeros and a refurb of Geordies - but first on our list was getting rid of the terrible 70's swimming pool floor!

Already the place looks a bit more 2012 a bit less 1978! Next we are planning to give Zeros a new ceiling and lick of paint - you can vote for your favorite colour on our Facebook page. 

We have also been sourcing furniture from far and wide to refurbish Geordies and make it feel a bit more homely. I think eclectic would be the correct term to use. Personal favorites are the old airplane seats and a retro patterned coffee table. Keep an eye out for pictures of our pick and mix furniture coming soon! 

Your Union should be a place you feel at home, a place you can relax and blow off some steam. We are constantly working to improve your surroundings but don't forget HWUnion is so much more than just a building!