► Vision, Mission & Values
UPSU feels that this vision has two meanings:
1. That it is through the experience that we have in delivering for students that we are able to move forward and deliver a quality service.
2. It is fundamental to our existence that we deliver for our members by involving them in all that we do and giving students a valued experience in a positive way.
UPSU’s mission…
“Our mission is to be a students’ union of excellence delivering our members needs”
Again, UPSU has sought to position itself within its working environment by stating its mission to complement that of the university. The university mission is “…to be a university of excellence serving the region.” The mission statement of upsu reflects our desire to also be an organisation of excellence, but additionally reflects that our driving force is the engagement of our members in order to deliver whatever their needs may be.
Our values by which we will operate are…
Democracy and student leadership
Passionate about student rights Developing capability
Continuous improvement, professionalism, innovation and quality
Embracing diversity and challenging inequality
Fun! Best value
Corporate and individual social responsibility
Mission objectives…
We will achieve our mission by:-
1. Increasing engagement and participation
It is recognised that we can only truly achieve any of our objectives if the first aim is to engage our members as often and as much as possible, and in a way that enables them to feel that they can participate in our work as much as possible. Without this engagement we cannot achieve our mission effectively. We must therefore know our members needs first and foremost.
2. Effective representation
Without effective representation we would not be a student’s union; we would just be another service delivery organisation. Our role as a representative organisation is what makes us unique. We must focus on representing the views and needs of our members as widely and effectively as possible.
3. Campaigning to promote equality and student rights
Without campaigning action to make our members lives better we would not be leading our members effectively. Our campaigns will therefore form the backbone of our work to deliver our members needs.
4. Developing leadership and employability
UPSU is a student led organisation. This goes beyond the leadership team of the executive committee and into all areas of UPSU work. Clubs, societies, volunteering and the student parliament tare all examples where our organisation is led by students in many capacities. We will develop these areas and improve our members’ employability by giving them the leadership skills and experience that they need both with us and for their future careers. UPSU values its staff team as well as its members and will constantly seek to develop leadership and improved employability throughout its staff team as well.
5. Providing and developing diverse activities
We will continue on developing extra-curricular activities of interest to our ever increasing diverse membership. This will include but not be exclusive to the areas of sport, art, culture , politics, education, volunteering and the overall celebration of our multi-cultural organisation.
6. Emotional and practical support
A fundamental role of the students’ union will be to respond to the needs of our members who need further individual and collective support. At present this is principally through the work of our advice team.
7. Facilitating personal development
In addition to the development of leadership and employability skills, UPSU is also committed to providing space and resource to help people grow for growth’s sake. As an organisation we are committed to education for education’s sake and will invest in all our people for their personal development.
8. Community partnership, engagement and development
UPSU does not operate in a vacuum. We will seek to strengthen our relationships and working with our community for the benefit of all. We recognise our position as a part of society and the active role we can take in promoting enterprise and innovation in our community partnerships.
9. Focussing on quality
Without a sound business, with quality present in all departments, we will not be able to deliver efficiently and effectively for our members. Quality will remain a focus of all our work and something by which we will measure ourselves across the board.
