General:
- Nominations for the USI officer board elections are open. For information as to how to participate, click here. Nominations close on Monday the 20th of February.
- Nominations for the Student Achievement Awards Ireland 2017 are now open. Click here for more information and to enter.
- President of NUS-USI Fergal McFerran, President of NUS Malia Bouattia and President of USI Annie Hoey met in Dublin and issued a joint statement calling for candidates in the Northern Ireland Assembly election to focus on building a stable future which delivers hope and opportunity for students and young people.
President of NUS-USI Fergal McFerran, President of NUS Malia Bouattia and President of USI Annie Hoey met in Dublin
Policy and Campaigns:
- Assisted National Forum in reviewing funded projects aimed at enhancing teaching & learning in higher education.
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Met with the Irish Survey of Student Engagement (ISSE) to evaluate progress of survey to date and to plan for second phase of field work.
- Met with the project manager of a scoping group aimed at identifying ways in which learning analytics can enhance student support.
- USI met with the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) to discuss protection of student nurses and midwives pay on placement, what further supports are needed and issues to campaign on.
- USI joined other groups calling for immediate action on the cost of car insurance for students.
- USI Vice President for Equality and Citizenship attended a seminar in Brussels with the European Students Union (ESU) on the refugees in higher education campaign.
- USI became involved in a campaign on disability rights with key disability rights groups and service providers led by Joanne O’Riordan.
- USI gained the support of the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) for publicly-funded higher education.
- USI re-launched the Student Summit on Twitter and Facebook with new branding and put a call out for students to take part in regional pitch competitions with USI and Bank of Ireland.
- The USI Vice President for Welfare attended the Youth Mental Health Taskforce meeting with Minister for Mental Health and Older people.
Annie Hoey said she knew of one student who was quoted a price of €6,000 to insure their Volkswagen Polo, and that she herself had recently been quoted a price of €3,000 to renew her own policy.
Campaign Spotlight – Sexual Health And Guidance 2017:
- USI distributed 36,000 condoms across Ireland while visiting DCU, WIT, IT Sligo and QUB with the HSE, Think Contraception, IFPA, HIV Ireland, SpunOut.ie, BelongTo and Man2Man.
- #SHAG17 trended on Twitter for 7 hours in Ireland and reached 1.4 million people.
- The Vice President for Welfare handed out 11,000 condoms to students across 4 campuses.
- USI launched a retro-video arcade shooter called Sexually Transmitted Invaders.
- USI launched shag.usi.ie with information on consent, STIs and information on safer sex.
- USI became official partners with the HSE and Health Ireland this year.
That’s a big SHAG pack!