Leeds Beckett Students’ Union is run by and for students like you! From supporting student communities and student-led projects to offering free, confidential and independent advice for all Beckett students, our aim is to make your student experience the very best it can be.

Read on to find out about all our work together this year and the impact we’ve made on your student experience!

 

 

Making your voice heard 

Here at Leeds Beckett Students’ Union we’re run by students, for students. Over the last year loads of you have gotten involved and made your voice heard to help shape our work for you!  

Over 40 students stood for officer roles in the Leadership Elections and another 40 put themselves forward to represent Beckett students at NUS Conferences.  

We’ve spent the last year researching and talking to our students about what they’d like our priorities to be here at LBSU. From focus groups to diary studies and lots of conversations, we know we need to make some big changes to serve you the best we can. Thanks to the Big Student Survey, we also heard from over 3,300 students about your experience at Beckett. Over the year we collected insightful data that’s informed our brand-new strategy that is all about building communities and connecting our students.  

 

Celebrating Leeds Pride 2024 

We had a great time at Leeds Pride this year in the heart of the city centre! We teamed up with students and staff from both LBSU and the University to celebrate LGBT+ pride.  

While we love Leeds Pride and always look forward to marching in the parade, we work to make sure all our students are represented and supported throughout the entire year – not just during Pride. Your elected Community Organisers have done an amazing job of representing your student voice and organising exciting campaigning activities! 

 

Student Leadership 

Leeds Beckett Students’ Union is run by and for you! Each year you elect an Officer Team to represent your collective voice both within the University and the wider community. From events on campus to larger campaigns and so much more, they’ve made a big impact for Beckett students over the last year.  

Student and Academic Representation  

LBSU supports Course Reps, Student Academic Representation Assistants (SARAs) and Student Community Organisers to lead impactful work both on campus and beyond. This year our student leaders engaged with over 550 students in community organising on campus! Whether our students are leading at the National NUS Conference or lobbying officials to improve services for students, you told us about your university experience, and we worked together to create positive change for our students.  

Our student leaders took their own asks and shared your stories at the West Yorkshire Citizens Assembly. There they pushed the West Yorkshire Mayor and local MP Alex Sobel to work with us on improving the consistency of student bus fares across the region and to work with a whole host of local organisations to improve work and placements options in Leeds for students – wow!  

 

We bleed purple! LBSU goes to Varsity 2024 

It was another great year for Beckett at Leeds Varsity! LBSU cheered on our teams with you at the Varsity Rugby Finale at Headingley Stadium this spring. From attending press days at the stadium with our student athletes to celebrating as they lifted their trophies in victory, Varsity is always one of the highlights of our year!  

Your Students’ Union got to be involved throughout the process, and your Officer Team worked to take the student voice into even more Varsity planning spaces to help make the event the very best it could be for you. We are already counting down until next year! 

 

Indian and Nigerian Independence Day 

Here at Leeds Beckett, we have a diverse and vibrant community of international students. This year your Officer Team hosted a series of events to help build international students’ sense of belonging on campus. We kicked off the year with events like Indian Independence Day and Nigerian Independence Day with food, music, and friends. It was a great way for students far from home to come together for a day of community and connection.  

 

Diwali  

Your Activities and Events Officer Harsh hosted a vibrant Diwali Celebration in our events hall with the help of SU President Dhruv, the INSA Society and LBSU staff. Hundreds of students attended and even Beckett’s Vice Chancellor came along to the event. The celebration began with a prayer, or pooja, and the festivities continued into the night with lots of amazing performances from students and even an after party! 

 

Festive Fair  

After a super successful Festive Fair last holiday season, we brought back our student-led market again this year! Beckett students with budding businesses were invited to come along and participate in the fair as vendors with their own stalls. We had students with bring amazing bakery, jewellery, art stalls and loads more! Whether students stopped in for a sweet treat to get them through lectures or picked up a gift for a loved one, our Festive Fair had lots to offer! 

 

Stressbusting and University Mental Health Day 

University can be overwhelming sometimes, and it can be hard to find time to take a breath and unwind. This year to help you de-stress and look after your wellbeing while studying, your Welfare Officer Blessing led a series of Stressbusting events! Blessing ran workshops across campuses where students could drop in and unwind during exam season and to celebrate University Mental Health Week. With activities like drawing, crafts and even yoga, there was something for everyone to enjoy.  

 

Eureka: We found Beckett’s newest entrepreneurs! 

Silas, your Academic Experience Officer, created and led Eureka, a dragon’s den-style competition for Beckett students to pitch their best business ideas for a chance to win support from Leeds Business School. Students came, pitched some fantastic ideas, and received feedback from an expert panel of judges. This was a great way for our Officers to find new ways to support and encourage students to try new things and develop their skills and confidence. Well done! 

 

Chai and Chit Chat  

Your Activities and Events Officer Harsh and SU President Dhruv worked together to bring you Chai and Chit Chat: a series of drop-in events throughout the year at City and Headingley Campus. These were a great opportunity to share a cup of tea and chat with your Officers and friends about your experience at university. Whether you wanted to meet new people or talk to a student leader about change you’d like to see, we loved seeing you all get involved! 

 

Empowering students through advice  

LBSU’s Advice Service is here to support you throughout your time at university! Student life can have its ups and downs, and everyone could use a little advice from time to time. We’ve had your back over the last year!  

This year our Advice Service offered free, confidential and independent advice to 2365 students on 3133 cases covering everything from academic to housing and financial matters. Overall, we got back a whopping £27,937.00 for our students!  

Students who used the Advice Service said “The student union advice service has been instrumental in guiding me through academic queries and offering valuable support, creating a positive and empowering experience throughout my university journey. I had a great experience being able to talk to someone who knows how I feel and it really helped me to understand I’m not alone.” and “I was incredibly stressed and thought that I wouldn’t be able to go back to university, but they took me through the process step by step and made it clear what I had to do and I was able to get the outcome I wanted thanks to the Students’ Union.”  

Every year the Advice Service sees lots of students who have been accused of poor academic practice. This year the Advice Service worked with the Academic Librarians to deliver sessions on good academic practice to over 300 students!  

 

Another great year for communities on campus 

It’s been a fantastic year for our student communities! From the buzz of Freshers Fair to the excitement of socials throughout the year, your Students’ Union has supported more than 70 student-led groups this year!  

Getting involved with a student group is a great way to meet new people and try new things, and this year over 3,200 students joined communities on campus. Wow! 

Whether we’re offering support and guidance for our growing student publications and radio or helping to facilitate events and end of year balls for student groups, we’re thrilled to help you make your societies an exciting part of your university experience.  

 

  

Breakfast Bite 

We’re always open to new student-led projects and campaigns and this year you ran the Breakfast Bite project! Breakfast Bite provided students with pay-as-you-feel breakfasts every Thursday morning during term-time at City Campus last year. The student-led project was set up at Eco Soup and hungry students could grab instant oats, tea, coffee toast and even Idli (Indian rice cakes).  

We know the Cost-of-Living Crisis is still putting additional strain on students’ finances, so we were so excited to help support you lead impactful initiatives on campus!  

 

An exciting year of events!  

It’s been an exciting year on campus – from gigs to vintage clothing sales, student fairs and so much more, there was always something to get involved in. We hosted 23 gigs this year and welcomed some incredible artists – including Sundara Karma, Friendly Fires and even Noah Kahan (who found out he was nominated for a Grammy in our venue!).  

This isn’t just great news for Leeds music lovers, but for our students too. All the proceeds from our gigs and events go right back into funding initiatives and support for you!  

 

Fueling your study sessions at The Hive 

From serving up tasty bites to eat to offering a comfy social space on campus, The Hive has it all! Whether you stopped in between lectures or wrapped up your day with friends at the bar, you came back to The Hive again and again.  

• The Hive was your go-to coffee spot with 7,832 coffees served this year. 
• The Hive pulled 4,397 pints at the bar this year. Students also stopped in for a whopping 21,562 soft drinks. 
• Beckett students know it’s the most important meal of the day! You started your day with a breakfast in the Hive 2,446 times.  
• It’s a campus classic for a reason – The Hive grilled up 1,213 burgers for hungry students this year.  
• This year we introduced some new items that became fast favourites! You ordered jollof rice 753 times and filled up on Indian snacks 1501 times. Our classic panini is still a popular choice with 4,397 ordered, and of course, the comforting jacket potato was your go-to 475 times.  

 

 

From supporting student-led projects, leading campaigns, supporting exciting student-led events to offering all LBU students free, confidential and independent advice, our aim is to make your student experience the best it can be!  

Leeds Beckett Students’ Union is run by and for you! Thank you for shaping our work over the past year! Whether you’ve made your voice heard by voting in the Leadership Elections, stood for a position, led a project, or got involved in academic representation, we couldn’t have done this without you. 

While this report has highlighted a lot of the great work you’ve done, we haven’t been able to mention all of the amazing things you’ve achieved this year. And a huge thank you goes to our wonderful student leaders – without you, LBSU wouldn’t have a purpose.  

If you’ve been inspired by some of our students’ great work, make sure to check out our website to find out how you can get involved! We can’t wait to see how you’ll make an impact here at LBSU next year.