1. Welcome Week Marketing Analysis Report
Written by Luke Norman

2. Executive Summary
This survey was answered by 4021 students and 35% of those experienced the fair. The majority of those who answered the survey were female, UK born, year olds who are based on University Park.
Students felt a positive impact on their university experiences by the SU as well as a positive impact on their wellbeing.
Societies were the activities most students took part in whilst more work is needed to promote volunteering opportunities.
Students voted to keep the same name for the “University of Nottingham Student’s Union” but there was a couple of close contenders such as UoNSU.
There was a fairly good attendance for the welcome fair and those who visited also stated they preferred printed guides to an online version.
Feelings towards communications during Welcome Week were fairly average but students did say they opened most of the s and so more work should be done to point out the relevance of each to students.
Facebook was the most used point of contact and source of information from students.

3. Introduction Total who answered the survey - 4021
Those who experienced the Welcome Fair – 75%
Those who did not experience the Welcome Fair – 25%

4. Tell us about yourself…
Subject Area: Foundation Courses – 0.32% (13) Arts – 15% (608) Engineering – 12% (495) Medicine and Health Sciences – 22% (903) Science – 28% (1130) Social Sciences – 20% (819) None of the Above – 0.40% (16)

5. Tell us about yourself…
The overwhelming majority of students were from the UK (69%), a high proportion were from a non-EU country or territory (22%) and the remaining were from the EU. Most students who answered the survey were aged (66%) and 21% were aged Only 3% of students were a parent/guardian of any children under 16. The distribution of students who answered the survey was quite even. The majority were in either first or intermediate years (59%), the remaining were almost evenly split between final years and postgrad students.

6. Who filled out the survey…?
62% (F) 36% (M)
Total Population
English as 1st language:
Yes – 75%
No – 24%
White – 69%
Asian – 18%
Mixed Ethnic Groups – 4%
Black – 4%
University Park
JB or SB
QMC, Derby, City Hospital
Distance Learner
Other
61%
26%
11% 1%

7. Satisfaction with the SU
When asked to rank their satisfaction towards the SU out of ten, the average score of 7 showed that feelings were generally positive among students.
Only 9% of students gave the SU a “negative” result (1-4).
Your time at Nottingham
Almost half of those who answered had been at Nottingham less than a year whilst the other half were between 1 and 3 years.
A very small percentage (3.5%) had been at Nottingham for over 5 years.
From both sets of data above, it is clear to conclude that first years have got a good impression of the SU very quickly in their short time here so far.

8. Membership Details
Societies had the most involvement from students with 54% stating they had joined at least one and there were only 10% of students who had no intentions of joining a society.
Sports Clubs were less involved with (30%) and interestingly had the highest percentage for students not having any intention to join.
Volunteering was the least joined activity with only 15% getting involved at some point.
Societies generally advertise themselves more and so will generally get more involvement. The aim now would be to try and advertise to students who want to get involved more with volunteering and sports and see what would get them to join.

9. Knowledge of the SU
“SU is a University Department” – Almost half got the question correct.
“SU is a charity” – very close for true and false but more thinking, incorrectly, that the SU is not a charity.
“Income raised is reinvested into enhancing the student experience” – students very clearly knew this was correct with only 2% thinking this was false.
“You have to register and pay to be a member of the SU” – again a high proportion knew this to be false.
“SU represents students on local and national issues” – 83% knew this to be true and thus understood one of the main roles of the Union.

10. Extent of SU help
All 3 aspects “get involved”, “access help and advice” and “make things better” received a score of just over 3.5 and thus were all positively reviewed. The comments helped delve deeper into the thoughts of students on each topic.
Get Involved
More regular info about how to get involved
More information about range of services
Further promotion off campus and in halls
Lots of love for the fair booklet
Access help and advice
Regular drop-in sessions
Q and A talks and events
Make things better
SU Celebration Events
More Union Council sessions
Better integration of satellite campuses

11. Felt at home at Nottingham
Sense of Belonging…
The SU needs to be active on all campuses
Increased involvement for PGs and International students
More daytime events
Increased awareness of opportunities
Felt at home at Nottingham
7.1/10
Belong with the SU
5.2/10
More people feel part of the university than they do with the SU. The next step should be to identify what about the Uni makes them feel at home and how that can be applied to the SU.

12. Impact on University Experience
It is clear to see that the majority of students believe the SU has had an overall positive impact on their university experience. The next slide will look into satisfaction levels of those who felt no impact.

13. Impact on University Experience
For those who declared that the SU had no impact, it was important to decipher if they were still satisfied or not with their SU experiences.
81% of those students said they were satisfied with what the SU currently offers which is a good sign.
For those 19% who were unsatisfied, they had the following comments why…
Not aware of what is offered by the SU – more communications
Less impact on other campuses (SB) – More outreach at satellite campuses
It is good to see that those who felt no impact actually are still satisfied with the SU. The range of services offered should be promoted more as these could help have more of an impact on student’s experiences.

14. Impact upon wellbeing
Most students did feel a positive impact on their wellbeing by the SU, however, a slightly lower percentage felt no impact and this should be addressed. In-depth satisfaction levels will help us understand the situation further.

15. Impact on Wellbeing
Similarly to before, those who declared that the SU had no impact on wellbeing were asked if they were satisfied or not with SU support.
88% of those students said they were satisfied with what the SU currently offers.
For those 12% who were unsatisfied, they had the following comments why…
Run more workshops on support
More “welcome-style” activities at times other than welcome
More icebreaker events to meet new people
These satisfaction levels are very good and shows that those who felt no impact on their wellbeing by the SU, are still satisfied by it. It is clear from the comments that students would like more inclusion events throughout the year and not just during welcome week, in order to meet new people.

16. SU Name Changes
When asked about changing the name of the SU, most students (48%) actually voted to keep the same name that currently exists – “University of Nottingham Student’s Union”
In joint second place were two shorter ideas “Nottingham Student’s Union” – which could be confused with Nottingham Trent. As well as the almost “twitter-handle” like UoNSU which is definitely a more modern choice.
When asked if they had any ideas of their own students came up with…
Notts Union
NUSU (Nottingham University Student’s Union)

17. Transparency of the SU
When asked about how transparent the decision making processes at the SU are, students gave a fairly neutral score of 6.1 which shows only a slight lean towards open.
Surprisingly the most popular answer was “I don’t know enough to answer with confidence yet” with 37%.
This suggests that students would like more evidence shown of what the officers and staff are doing on a regular basis in order to determine for themselves how transparent the SU is.

18. Experiences of the SU
Most students had taken part in activities, visited SU space and browsed social media but not many had volunteered or fundraised through the SU.
Almost two-third of students admitted never fundraising or volunteering with the SU and only 5% taking part regularly.
Reasons for not taking part should be explored, although lack of free time is usually a popular reason. This could be fixed by having more one-off opportunities or ones that students can drop on to at any time. Student Volunteer Week showcased the wide range of opportunities available and more smaller, similar events could be done throughout the year as well.

19. Who runs what?
Most students thought, correctly, that the student volunteer centre is run by the SU.
An overwhelming majority knew societies were part of the Student’s Union.
Course Reps and the Student Advice Centre were both evenly split between “Uni” and “both SU and Uni” but quite low for SU only.
Students may need reminding which services are run by the SU and the University so they know who to contact when they require these services.

20. The SU Officers
44% of students weren’t sure what the officers are here for and so it might be good to promote a section of the website highlighting the officer’s roles.
A particular problem highlighted was not knowing how to contact the officers. The new officer’s office near reception should help with this problem.
Most students would feel comfortable approaching and chatting to the officers and wouldn’t mind more interactions between students and officers.
One of the most popular comments by students was for an “open office” in which on certain dates and times, students could see all of the officers and ask them a quick question.
Another was for more visits to halls to discuss matters about accommodation.

21. Social Media Preferences
The three most popular social media channels used by students were:
UoNSU Facebook Page
Hall’s Facebook Page
UoNSU Twitter
The least popular was the new “wechat” channel but is getting a lot more promotion and should increase in percentage by the end of this academic year.

22. WELCOME WEEK
SPECIFICS

23. Attendance
94% of students who answered this survey were full time students.
There was great attendance for the Welcome Fair as 73% of students either attended as a visitor or helped on a stall, with a further 13% admitting wanting to go but unfortunately couldn’t make it.
This left a very small proportion who didn’t attend the fair because they simply didn’t want to or because they were not aware of the existence of the fair.
In the future, it will become important to understand the reasons for those who wanted to go but couldn’t make it in order to try and make it a more accessible event. As well as find out reasons why students did not go to the fair and ways to advertise it better.

24. Thoughts on the guide
Most students thought the guide given to them was relevant and gave it an average score of 3.8/5. However, around 15% of students failed to receive a copy at all.
The overall look and feel of the document received slightly higher scores at an average of 4/5. Even better was that no students gave the look of the guide a “very poor”.
A clear majority of students thought the guide should stay printed and not be online.
This could be due the ease of taking it with you around the fair.

25. Welcome Week Communication
Students found communications from the SU to be fairly relevant giving an average score of 3.1/5.
The above information can be verified by the fact that students opened or read most of the s with only 5% stating they have never opened an .
Most students read s from the SU but possibly subject headers could be modified to make sure students know if they will be relevant to them or not.

26. Ranking aspects of the fair
Students gave all aspects of the fair at least an average-to-good score of 3.5 or over.
The least rated aspect was the layout and locations of the stalls around campus. Some students stated wanted all stalls under one roof but that would require a large amount of free space.
Very closely rated aspects were “ease of purchasing memberships” and “commercial stands”.
Both “society stands” and “look and feel of the fair” received “good” scores.
The highest score was given to the variety of what was on offer. 48% of students gave a 5/5 for this and so were very pleased at the mix of events and stands.

27. Conclusions and Recommendations
Below are some recommendations based on the comments from the survey:
Better communications to satellite campuses
Find ways to increase awareness of sports teams and volunteering opportunities
Regular drop-in sessions for students who require help and advice
More daytime events
More icebreaking events for students to meet each other throughout the year
One-off volunteering promotions
Visits to halls by SU officers
Make Welcome Fair more accessible to those on other campuses
Printed booklets are preferred to online booklets