Welcome to FIVE THINGS FOR A FRIDAY
My name is Tony Foster and I am the new Chief Executive Officer of Edinburgh Napier Students’ Association.
1) Every Friday I aim to bring you our highlights of the week and inside stories about what is going on at your Students Association. I won’t be alone. Over the next couple of months staff and sabbaticals hope to do the same, sharing the stories of what goes on behind the scenes and highlighting issues you may encounter before they happen. This will hopefully give you a greater insight into future activities and why decisions are made. You can see our staff team here.
2) I have been here for six weeks and I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who has been so welcoming and met me during what is a busy time for all students, sabbaticals, staff and university staff. I already have so many stories to tell but here is just a few to start with!
3) It was also my ‘Welcome Week’ and I was tasked with pub crawls, museum visits and walks up Arthur’s Seat! Approx 3,300 students attend, fostering a sense of community, a critical factor in both the student experience and retention. 74.4% of events were accessible to under 18s (29 of 39 events) compared to 61.1% last year. 23 of the events were in non-alcohol facilities, important for under 18’s and International Students.
Coupled with Welcome Week activity is, of course, sports/clubs and societies development, ably spearheaded by Craig, Murray and sabbatical Ryan. This is a key peer-to-peer element of Welcome Week which is also useful for recruitment to the University, retention, health and wellbeing, skills for future employment and simply having fun! 16 ENSA stalls, 17 University departments, 37 commercial/charity stalls and 61 sports and societies attended the Welcome Fair, regarded as one of the biggest in Scotland. Thanks to Zsuzsanna for these figures in our Welcome Week report and Patrycja for the survey results which informed our Welcome Week debrief. I hope you all made at least one new friend for life and had a good time.
4) This week was also Course Rep training with Daniel and your Sabbatical Chika. Over 150 reps were able to meet in person and online, helping to enhance your learning experience at Edinburgh Napier, with many more taking the time to do the online training. I was particularly impressed how you would all deal with the scenarios presented to you, which really brought the event alive.
5) Also this week I was fortunate to open the ‘Networks for Inclusion ‘event for Equate Scotland in Merchiston (who are based at Craiglockhart) and alongside all the speakers had two minutes to do so! It was a great event to meet everyone, hear about the good work being done in this area, the challenges and hopefully most of the participants from Edinburgh Napier and other local universities, colleges and organisations went away with some ideas for their future activities. Find out more here Equate Scotland - Women in Science Engineering & Technology
The 9th October was a busy day with Mental Well Being activities and Stalls also taking place, a welcome opportunity for everyone to take a breath and take the time to look after themselves. With so much going on (far too much to mention here) make sure you take some time this semester to look after yourself.
TONY FOSTER