By Beds SU
Wednesday, 29 May 2024
Beds SU is here for you, our student community and one of our favourite ways to support you is through creating engaging, fun and memorable events. This year has been no exception, we’ve delivered your favourites and debuted new events and activities thanks to your feedback. It has been wonderful to watch so many of you come together, so here’s a look back on a really great year.
Events, events and more events!
Since we opened our doors for Welcome in September approximately 10,983 students have joined us at one or more of our 241 events, across campuses.
Our late night and club events have included the popular UV parties, Afrobeats, Desibeats and Karaoke and the launch of new evenings from Your Music Your Night, Old Skool Favourites, Frat Sport Special and Battle of the Decades where you came, danced, sang and made memories.
We listened to your calls for earlier evening events launching weekly Film and Toast Tuesday/Games Nights which quickly established themselves as must attend events and now regularly attract 35 to 100 students respectively in Luton. Word of these events spread and in December and February respectively they launched in Bedford. In Bedford students also asked us for an earlier evening social on Wednesdays and Mid-Week Madness was born, offering drinks and music to get you ready for a night out!
Afternoons have become the home to celebrating our cultural events and sampling culinary delights. From the hugely successful Bhangra event in February where a staggering 340 students, danced, ate and celebrated together, to the South East Asia Social, Diwali, breaking fast together at our Eid-Iftar event and our St Georges Day Street party. We also saw the debut of cheese and wine and curry and rice events, where students queued in their numbers to sample a variety of dishes.
Events for families and to create a place for inspiration
We have also been keen to celebrate our parent/carer students by offering free Christmas and Easter family events for adults and children alike to enjoy. It was lovely to see so many take up these opportunities!
We acted when you asked for more educational and speaker sessions. Your Sabbatical Officers passionately delivered panels sessions that bought together inspiring individuals to share their career and life journeys, from ‘Her Story – Celebrating Inspiring Black Women’ as part of our Black History Month campaign, a Nigerian Independence Day panel session with individuals including Afrobeats regular - DJ Holy and finally an ‘In Conversation with former student Megan Murphy’ for International Women’s Day.
Smaller sessions have included Budget workshops, a Domestic Abuse session as part of No More Week, dance and drum workshops to guided meditation, mental health walks and Tai Chi sessions.
Events to support students everyday and try new skills!
The ongoing Cost-of-Living crisis also continued to challenge students here at the University and in a bid to support you through this we delivered a number of events and activities. The Food drive where a 192 students benefited from our support packs with more planned for June in Birmingham, London Bridge, Milton Keynes and Aylesbury, to a Winter Coat Giveaway and a Swap Shop.
Societies were in full swing
Societies have always been a key element to the extra-curricular opportunities on offer and we have loved seeing so many of our societies offer new and existing members the chance to come together in our social spaces. There were regular meets throughout the year arranged for Fresh Start 24 – Christian, Islamic Sisters, Nigerian societies with other well attended sessions from the Law, Computing, South Asian, Beer and Conversation, Aviation and Tourism and the AFE societies. We were also delighted to hold both a societies 'Meet and Greet' early in the term and farewell end of term event in May.
We loved coming out to Campuses
Your input has also pushed us to work harder on the opportunities we offer to those of you studying on campuses away from Luton and Bedford and so this year we doubled our efforts to deliver social activities that fitted in with your commitments such as lunch socials, festive crafts, World Teachers Day and International Nursing Week and Midwifery Day events. We have thoroughly enjoyed delivering and being part of these activities and welcome your ideas on what else you would like to see from us on our your campus and in your classroom.
Celebrating you
It feels fitting that one of penultimate events this year was our annual Beds SU Awards evening. Over 45 students joined us with family and friends to celebrate. This was the biggest awards ceremony post pandemic and we were delighted to see so many students attend and offer a live stream to those further a field.
Although our events calendar is quieter over the summer months we will for the first time be offering some of our early evening activities such as Film Night and Toast/Games Tuesday on our Luton campus in support of the students just starting their academic year or staying on campus for the summer. We will also continue to welcome students whose block starts from June to join us for tea, cake and a taste of what we can offer. To date we have welcomed 251 new students to these gatherings!
We need your feedback
While we have a dedicated team working tirelessly to bring students all of the above and more we couldn’t do it without your feedback. So please keep sharing your thoughts on how we are doing and what you would like to see more of by emailing us at help@bedssu.co.uk.
If you are interested to know more about the work we have done on your behalf this year, you can read our latest Impact Report and keep an eye out for our Annual Members Meeting and end of year survey coming soon, offering you more ways to feedback.