Change it

“I’m a postgraduate based at the Exton campus, so a microwave in the research center in the library would be an amazing addition. Or even potentially in the new student common area in the library! It would be great to be able to bring in our own food and have the option of heating it up!”

In the mean time, you can use the microwaves in the CSU building on Exton Park 🙂

“Students who started on a PGCE course in September found themselves unable to access any non-academic induction week events due to all activities happening within their first week of placement. The only induction week activities were a library introduction and international student sign up. Please considering hosting events pre-induction that align with the PGCE core schedule, or work with the school of education to offer activities that align with scheduled on campus days or during the compulsory ITAP weeks, meaning all PGCE students are on campus.”

Our Opportunities team at CSU are happy to work with any PGCE students on events pre-freshers week! Just get in contact with us via email, or pop into the office to organise these.

“Students who are parents are already feeling the pinch over each half term. Considering hosting family friendly activities that student parents could bring children to on campus, allowing them to balance studying and family life.”

The Opportunities team at CSU are looking into whether it is possible to host family-centred events on campus. If this can’t be facilitated, we will look into off-campus events instead.

Students at Warrington have asked for there to be a private space on campus for them to express milk. The lecturers at Warrington are looking into creating this. There are currently lactation rooms on other campuses.

“This is my third year in this accommodation and hot water has always been an issue. I feel like we should have some sort of compensation for this. We pay for facilities to work and it hasn’t been up to the standard. I am writing for a few students who agree with me on this and there is most probably more. I feel like we should have some rent reduced or something that is substantial for the inconvenience caused. I am not saying they aren’t trying to fix it, I’m saying that I believe we should be compensated for the inconvenience.”

We have heard you (loud and clear!) and have released an initial statement about your concerns. We’re still inviting conversations, though – do get in touch if you want to be a part of this.

The Seaborne sensory room space will be developed over the summer and will re-open in the new academic year. We will share more information when we receive it!

UPDATE: the sensory room in Seaborne library seems to have been repurposed. We are trying to find out whether a replacement sensory space has been created elsewhere, or this is still considered the sensory space.

Students have requested that there shouldn’t be mandatory AI use in degree assignments; it should be optional only.

We are taking your feedback to the University, and this will form part of our work around AI policy. Students may face the working world requiring them to use AI, so being able to use AI usefully and responsibly may be useful for their future careers, but we do believe that AI shouldn’t be used when not needed – for example, emails with students and generating images for lecture slides. We will feed this back to academic staff.

“Given their current plans to train their models on present/future works prepared by students (not to mention what they might do with past work), I think it’s imperative that the university consider alternatives. Students at UoC have a right to privacy when it comes to their own works, and should get a choice in whether their submissions are used to train AI. If the University of Southampton can do it, then so can we.”

“[UoC should] use a different assessment program to turnitin, as they are planning to use students work to train its own ai models.”

Turnitin has agreed to delay the release until September 2027 and are redrafting the agreement. The Officers are asking questions to the University about their stance and have released a statement (find this on their instagram!). The University have released their own statement (check your student email to find this) and are looking at alternative providers.

A student has requested some different types of University of Chester merch, with different colours added (not more blue!!).

The University don’t currently have plans to increase their merch offerings.

CSU are working with students to create more of our own merch (coming soon!), and our current merch has now moved into the campus shop so you can browse in person.

“I am requesting a change for there to be lights on all night by the NOWfood building and pathway to Parkgate Rd. I study at the library late at night and it feels unsafe when I have to walk to my accomodation in the pitch black”

We’ve spoken to Facilities about this and they are investigating the lighting in that area!

We have spoken to Kingsway staff, and they are contacting a supplier to get a pop-up shop back on Kingsway campus. More updates soon!

We will be speaking to the Estates team to see if signage for the ‘cut through’ route can be implemented. However, we understand that the university may not want to encourage the general public to use Hollybank as a cut through as well. We will keep you updated!

“I would prefer that music in the student gym on Exton Park be altered to a more updated playlist with a wider genre of songs or even to have the choice of a radio station. The gym is a place to go and be motivated and music is a big part of that experience.”

We’ve messaged the Sports and Active Lifestyle team about this and we’ll let you know what they say!

“As students at University Centre Warrington, we regularly commute between Sarah Parker Remond House and Time Square for lectures, skills sessions. Currently, the lack of organization at the SIP Arpley Road car park has escalated into a major problem for both students and local workers. Because it is an affordable local option (£2.50 cash / £3.40 via the app), it is heavily relied upon by everyone. However, the complete lack of painted bays has created a chaotic environment where vehicles routinely double-park and block each other in. As the university previously highlighted in their email, if a student, member of staff, or member of the public had an emergency and needed to leave urgently, they would be completely trapped. I am launching this petition to ask the Chester Students’ Union and University Facilities team to engage with SIP Car Parks to make the site safer for everyone. Proposing, that the university either looks at funding to rent a partial block of the car park via a corporate lease or establishes a clearly designated Student Zone. By organizing our student parking into one clear area, it will restore structure to the rest of the lot, ensuring that both the public and students can park safely without facing gridlock.”

We are sending a letter/email to the local Council and car park management company to request this. We will update you if and when we receive a reply.

Great news! A budget has been secured for this Change It idea, and the branded UoC lanyards have been designed. These will launch with the new academic year. New starters will be given theirs as they arrive and continuing students will be able to exchange theirs from the helpdesks as they start coming back! Unfortunately they are yellow instead of red because of the University’s branding design, but they are at least UoC branded.

There is now a CSU tile that links to our website under ‘Community’ on the UoC app. Our icon has also been updated from a beer emoji to the CSU logo!

Unfortunately this isn’t something CSU can host (the Sports and Active Lifestyle team cover all things active/sports) BUT we have spoken to the MMA club and they said all students at any levels can join in, and they teach a lot of techniques similar to self-defence. You can find their details on Portal, under Sports & Active Lifestlyle, or they have an Instagram account.

You’ve told us there aren’t enough charging ports in seminar rooms for everyone with laptops!

The new teaching spaces in Binks have much better access to charging ports. They will continue to work on other spaces over the next academic years, but it is not financially viable to put the new charging ports across all classrooms at once, so some rooms may not be as connected as others.

There is a large recreational cycle network attached to Exton Park campus (the Millennium Greenway), one of the most senior ranking officials in British Cycling studied at Chester, and cycling is a very widely used method of mobility within the local area!

Want to adopt this idea? Get in touch, or contact the Sports and Active Lifestyle team directly on sal@chester.ac.uk.

A student has suggested that there should be a Doctor Who society, but is unable to run it themselves. Do you like this idea? Head to chestersu.com/create for all the info on starting your own society.

“I would like to suggest that the Chester Students’ Union consider expanding visible recognition of the Lunar New Year across campuses. Increasing campus-wide recognition of the Lunar New Year would feel culturally relevant and locally meaningful. Collaboration with departments such as Chaplaincy, Sport & Active Lifestyle, and student societies could create inclusive activities that promote cultural exchange and belonging across the wider student body.” Do you like this idea? Email us on studentvoice@chester.ac.uk for more information.

“I would like the Chester Students’ Union to consider offering a CSU badge to all elected and appointed student volunteers, including committee members, as a visible recognition of their contributions.” If you agree, let us know by emailing studentvoice@chester.ac.uk.

A student sadly suffered from a pulmonic embolism due to the contraceptive pill, and wants to raise awareness for the symptoms of blood clots and campaign for people to be tested for this more frequently. We invited the student in to chat with us but did not get a response.

The Officers do work closely with the University on app/Moodle changes, and always look to embed student feedback into any changes that are made but we understand this is frustrating for you to constantly adapt to. Hopefully with the big improvements this year, the app and your Moodle will change less often. We’ll still feed back any issues you’re facing to the right teams at the University about these!

LIS has updated us with this statement: “There are no plans to add a check in option to Portal. The reason we cannot do this is that attendance monitoring requires verification by GPS to ensure that students are in the correct location when checking in. The vast majority of laptops do not include GPS technology.”

If you do not own a smartphone (or don’t want to bring one with you), you can ask your lecturer to manually check you into lectures instead – they are able to mark you as attended even if you don’t check in yourself.

We gathered student input about this, but there didn’t seem the appetite from students themselves to make this happen. If you disagree – let us know by submitting a Change It or sending us an email.

In an ideal world, of course we would have more parking for students on all campuses. Unfortunately, there just isn’t the space to add this in, and the University are working towards a more sustainable future instead of encouraging more cars on campus too. We will be working with the local community and Council to see if there’s anything that can be done about nearby parking, though.

There are bursaries and financial support for students via the University’s Your Money team (find them on Portal). The University have unfortunately declined to offer guarantor assistance.

Unfortunately, due to Martyn’s Law, the Inpost lockers cannot return to campus. This is due to members of the public driving or walking onto campus to use the lockers. Instead, we will be contacting Inpost to see if there’s any spaces in the Garden Quarter for the Inpost lockers to go, so they can still benefit students in or around Exton Park campus.

We’d love to hire a third Advisor for our Advice team, but unfortunately we do not have the funding to pay for this. We know that getting an advice appointment a little further away than you’d like is frustrating, but please do not worry – our current Advisors will guide you through the whole process before any deadlines – just make sure to book yourself in or contact us as soon as you can. Don’t leave it til the last minute! Find more information here: chestersu.com/advice

A student wanted us to host some short course qualifications. We unfortunately cannot expand our offerings of qualifications (outside of First Aid training and our skills workshops) due to financial constraints, but please do contact the Careers team and/or look short courses in places like the Open University or University of Chester’s Micro Credentials.