Sheffield Students’ Union has once again earned the title as the best Union in the UK for the 11th year in a row.
President Lilian Jones said: “This award is a testament to the massive collective effort to ensure our students have the best possible time at University, through representing their interests, offering advice and support, and providing amazing facilities. We are powered by students, and it is thanks to the ambitious work of them and our dedicated staff that we have secured our place at the top for another year. I am immensely proud.”
The Student’s Union, located at the heart of the University’s campus, acts as a hub for over 350 clubs and societies. It also houses the Sheffield Volunteering office, the Student Advice Centre, the Film Unit, Forge Press and the Foundry, as well as a number of restaurants, coffee shops and bars, making it a buzzing centre for its students.
Over the years the Students’ Union has steadily progressed towards important developments and has endorsed campaigns focused on improving students’ experience. More recently it has supported an anti-racism campaign by the BME committee in order to spotlight microaggressions directed at Black and Minority Ethnic students on campus. It has also promoted the Positive Poster competition in collaboration with Mental Health Matters Society and also organised Our Mental Health Week to raise awareness and bring attention to positive mental health habits.
The Students’ Union has also vigorously promoted their sustainability strategy, promoting alternatives to unsustainable organisational practises, encouraging students to do the same through different ways such as its Zero Waste shop. Its impressively ambitious green agenda also includes driving the University towards being a zero-carbon campus by 2034. Their victory, then, comes with no surprise. It’s truly evident that the Sheffield Student’s Union has progressively worked on improving itself and it’s brilliant that its efforts to become and open and inclusive place for its students, have not gone unrecognised.
