Your Union Your Say 2019

1. Introduction

Disclaimer
The results of Your Union Your Say (YUYS) 2019 are presented here. Currently, only the high level data is provided (i.e. the data has not yet been compared by demographics, year, or against other questions).

Background
YUYS is run on an annual basis, however the larger version of the survey is only undertaken every two years (of which this years falls into). Extensive modifications were undertaken for this years survey compared to YUYS 2017, in an effort to make data gained is more useful and reliable. However because of this, many questions will not be comparible to previous years (although at this stage of analysis this is not relevant).

Methodology
The survey consisted of 34 - 50 questions (due to the inclusion of conditional questions), as well as 22 demographic and segmentation questions. Data collection was solely conducted online through survey monkey, and was collected between 25th March 2019 and 17th May 2019.
A total of 3802 responses were recieved. Of these, 771 responses were incomplete, and a further 278 responses were duplicates (i.e. the same person filling in the survey), making a final sample size of 2753.

Presentation
The results are displayed in the same order as the questions were presented in the survey. Because the data has been rounded, percentages may not round up to exactly 100%.
The table of content on the left side of the page can be used to navigate to each section. Additionally, the questions listed at the start of each section can be clicked and will take you directly to the appropriate figure.

A short discussion on the format
Large surveys generate huge volumes of data, especially when demographic data is collected and surveys are conducted annually. For instance, this page contains 43 figures for 49 questions, however figures could be created for each question for each demographic, which would results in 516 figures, and this is not even considering comparisons between years, or between other questions. Consequently, static outputs such as long word documents, and even this html page, are ineffective methods of displaying such information, as it can be difficult to locate the relevant data, and it is likely the author may not have analysed the specific data you would like to know. Because of this, I will be developing a web application that will allow any user to easily be able to extract data and develop a figure themselves for the information they want to know (across any demographic or year) through just a few clicks of a button. However, building this application will take a few weeks. Therefore, this html page serves as an intermediatary approach to displaying the high level data, as it allows for easy navigation between sections, and is more effective at displaying large amounts of figures (that do not require much commentary) than a word or pdf document.

2. Demographics

Data for each of the twelve demographics collected has been displayed in tables and compared to YUYS 2017 and the University where possible. If data has not been compared between either of these, it is because the data was not available or comparable.
“YUYS difference” refers to the difference in percentage of demographics between YUYS 2019 and YUYS 2017, whilst “University difference” refers to the difference between YUYS 2019 and demographic data from the University taken on the 12th June 2019.
Because the University data is the true population, the option “prefer not to say” is not relevant for this data, therefore NA values have been placed in the relevant rows.
NA values may also appear where data from other subcategories of demographics was unavailable.

The twelve demographics information was collected for were:
1. Gender
2. Age
3. Study level
4. Year of study
5. Study mode
6. Faculty
7. Campus
8. Nationality
9. Residence
10. Employment status
11. Carer
12. Tribes

Table 1: Gender.

Gender	YUYS 2019	YUYS 2017	YUYS difference
Male	42.5%	40.4%	2.1%
Female	53.9%	55.8%	-1.9%
Other	1.6%	2.2%	-0.6%
Prefer not to say	2.0%	1.6%	0.4%

Data on Gender was not available for the University.

Table 2: Age.

Age	YUYS 2019
Under 18	0.4%
18 to 19	22.3%
20 to 21	35.9%
22 to 25	25.5%
26 to 30	7.3%
31 to 40	4.5%
41 and over	2.8%
Prefer not to say	1.3%

Data on Age was not available for the University. Additionally, Ages were categorised differently in YUYS 2019 and 2017 so was not comparable.

Table 3: Study level.

Study level	YUYS 2019	YUYS 2017	University 2019	YUYS difference	University difference
Foundation	4.2%	2.4%	3.9%	1.8%	0.3%
Undergraduate	73.0%	80.2%	67.0%	-7.2%	6.0%
Postgraduate taught	13.9%	11.7%	18.9%	2.2%	-5.0%
Postgraduate research	6.0%	4.5%	2.7%	1.5%	3.3%
Other	1.4%	0.9%	7.5%	0.5%	-6.1%
Prefer not to say	1.4%	0.4%	0.0%	2.1%	NA

Table 4: Year of study.

Year of study	YUYS 2019	YUYS 2017	YUYS difference
1st	42.8%	30.4%	12.5%
2nd	22.8%	29.3%	-6.4%
3rd	21.0%	25.3%	-4.3%
4th	8.8%	10.9%	-2.1%
5th	2.0%	3.9%	-1.9%
Prefer not to say	2.5%	0.2%	2.3%

Data on Year of study was not available for the University.

Table 5: Study mode.

Study mode	YUYS 2019	YUYS 2017	YUYS difference
Full time	91.6%	93.9%	-2.3%
Part time	5.3%	4.8%	0.5%
Other	1.5%	1.1%	0.5%
Prefer not to say	1.5%	0.2%	1.3%

Data on Study mode was not available for the University.

Table 6: Faculty.

Faculty	YUYS 2019	YUYS 2017	University 2019	YUYS difference	University difference
Art, Design and Social Sciences	19.9%	19.2%	15.4%	0.7%	4.6%
Business and Law	25.8%	22.2%	27.8%	3.5%	-2.0%
Engineering and Environment	23.7%	20.6%	19.8%	3.1%	3.9%
Health and Life Sciences	28.2%	36.5%	34.4%	-8.4%	-6.2%
Central departments	0.0%	0.0%	2.7%	NA	NA
Don’t know	0.0%	1.3%	NA	NA	NA
Prefer not to say	2.4%	0.1%	NA	2.3%	NA

“Central departments” was not presented as an option for respondents within YUYS 2019 or 2017.
“Don’t know” was not presented as an option for YUYS 2019 and was not relevant to the University.

Table 7: Campus.

Campus	YUYS 2019	YUYS 2017	University 2019	YUYS difference	University difference
Coach lane	10.5%	17.3%	19.4%	-6.8%	-8.9%
Distance learning	1.9%	1.1%	5.7%	0.8%	-3.8%
London	2.1%	1.0%	4.0%	1.1%	-1.9%
Main city	80.7%	78.1%	58.7%	2.6%	22.0%
On placement	1.1%	0.7%	0.0%	0.4%	NA
Other	1.2%	1.0%	12.1%	0.2%	-10.9%
Partnership institution	1.1%	0.5%	0.0%	0.6%	NA
Prefer not to say	1.4%	0.2%	0.0%	1.2%	NA

“On placement” and “Partnership institution” options were not part of University data regarding Campus.
The Amsterdam Campus is included within the category “Other”.

Table 8: Nationality.

Nationality	YUYS 2019	YUYS 2017	University 2019	YUYS difference	University difference
UK	75.8%	87.3%	69.7%	-11.5%	6.1%
EU	8.5%	5.4%	4.6%	3.1%	3.9%
International	14.2%	6.8%	25.5%	7.4%	-11.3%
Prefer not to say	1.5%	0.5%	0.0%	1.0%	NA

Table 9: Residence.

Residence	YUYS 2019
Not moved away from home and commute from home	10.9%
Not moved away from home and live locally	13.8%
Moved away from home	72.4%
Prefer not to say	2.9%

Data on Residence was not available for the University and was not asked in YUYS 2017.

Table 10: Employment status.

Employment	YUYS 2019	YUYS 2017	YUYS difference
Employed (1 to 5 hours per week)	6.1%	9.6%	-3.5%
Employed (6 to 10 hours per week)	9.2%	14.4%	-5.2%
Employed (11 to 15 hours per week)	11.7%	13.6%	-1.9%
Employed (16 to 20 hours per week)	10.2%	11.9%	-1.7%
Employed (21 to 30 hours per week)	3.8%	4.8%	-1.0%
Employed (31+ hours per week)	3.4%	4.3%	-0.9%
Not working whilst studying	45.4%	40.9%	4.5%
Placement	4.1%	0.0%	NA
Self-employed	3.0%	0.0%	NA
Prefer not to say	3.1%	0.5%	2.6%

Data on Employment status was not available for the University.
“Placement” and “Self-employed” options were not present in YUYS 2017.

Table 11: Carer.

Carer	YUYS 2019
Yes	7.5%
No	86.7%
Prefer not to say	5.8%

Data on Carers was not available for the University and was not asked in YUYS 2017.

Table 12: Tribes.

Tribe	YUYS 2019
Independent	16.8%
Professional	39.7%
Socialite	17.7%
Trailblazer	22.2%
Wanderer	3.7%

Data on Tribes was not available for the University and was not asked in YUYS 2017.

3. Student life

Respondents were asked three questions:
1. What is your level of involvement in Northumbria Students’ Union?
2. How much of your time do you spend on campus outside of your lectures/seminars?
3. To what extent have you struggled with the following?

Figure 1: Level of involvement in NSU.

Figure 2: Time spent on campus.

Figure 3. Student concerns.

4. Role and impact of NSU

Figure 4: Value of NSU roles.

Figure 5: Performance in NSU roles.

Figure 6: KPI’s.

Figure 7: Recommendation of NSU.

Figure 8 & 9: Awareness and access of NSU advice service.

Figure 10: Awareness of Nightline.

Figure 11: Dissatisfaction with course.

Figure 12 & 13: Environmental impact.

5. Representation

Respondents were asked two questions:
1. Are you aware of the following:
1.1. Your Sabbatical officers (President, Vice presidents)
1.2. One or more of your Student Representatives (e.g. Course rep, Programme rep, etc.)
2. For each of the following, please rate how effectively you feel they represent your views:
2.1. Northumbria Students’ Union
2.2. Your Sabbatical officers (President, Vice presidents)
2.3. One or more of your Student Representatives (e.g. Course rep, Programme rep, etc.)

Figure 14 & 15: Awareness of Sabbatical officers and Course reps.

Figure 16: Representation of views.

6. Student activities

Respondents were asked six questions:
1. Are you currently involved in any of Northumbria Students’ Unions Societies or volunteer activities?
2. How satisfied are you with the Society and/or the Voluntary activity you are engaged in?
3. Why have you never been involved in any Northumbria Students’ Union Socities or voluntary activities?
4. Why are you no longer engaged in any of Northumbria Students’ Union Societies or Voluntary activities?
5. Do you participate in any Non-Students’ Union hobbies or volunteering activities?
6. On average, how frequently do you participate in these Non-Students’ Union hobbies or volunteering opportunities?

Figure 17: Involvement in NSU Societies or Voluntary activities.

Figure 18: Satisfaction with NSU Societies or Voluntary activities.

Figure 19: Reason for never being involved in NSU Societies or Volunteering.

Figure 20: Reason for no longer being involved in NSU Societies or Volunteering.

Figure 21: Participation in Non-NSU hobbies or volunteering.

Figure 22: Time spent on Non-NSU hobbies or volunteering.

7. Communication

Respondents were asked five questions:
1. To what extent do you agree with the statement: “Northumbria Students’ Union keeps me well informed about what it does for its students”? (presented with the other KPI’s in Role and Impact of NSU)
2. Which Northumbria Students’ Union communications are you aware of?
3. Which Northumbria Students’ Union communications have you used or engaged with?
4. How useful did you find these communications?
5. Do you want to recieve communications from Northumbria Students’ Union?

Figure 23: Awareness of NSU communications.

Figure 24: Use of NSU communications.

Figure 25: Usefulness of NSU communications.

Figure 26: Respondents that want to recieve communications from NSU.

8. Sport and activity

Respondents were asked four questions:
1. How often do you participate in Sport and Activity?
2. Where do engage in Sport and Activity predominantly?
3. In which ways are/would you be interested in Sport and Activity while at University?
4. What are you main motivations for the activities you selected?

Figure 27: Participation in Sport and Activity.

Figure 28: Where respondents engage in Sport and Activity.

Figure 29: Interest in Sport and Activity at University.

Figure 30: Motivations for activities selected.

9. Habita and events

Respondents were asked five questions:
1. How frequently do you visit Habita?
2. How satisfied are you with the following aspects of Habita?
3. Are you aware of Northumbria Students’ Unions gig programme?
4. Would you be interested in attending any events held by Northumbria Students’ Union?
5. What events would you like to see from Northumbria Students’ Union?

Figure 31: Frequency of visits to Habita.

Figure 32: Satisfaction with Habita.

Figure 33: Awareness of NSU gig programme.

Figure 34: Interest in attending NSU events.

Figure 35: Specific events respondents would be interested in attending.

10. Accommodation

Respondents were asked five questions:
1. Have you lived in privately rented accommodation whilst studying at Northumbria University?
2. Which of the following did you use when searching for accommodation?
3. Are you aware of Northumbria Students’ Unions accommodation service NU:Lets?
4. Have you used Northumbria Students’ Unions accommodation service NU:Lets?
5. Please rate your experience of the following aspects of NU:Lets?
6. Why have you not used NU:Lets?

Figure 36: Respondents that have lived in privately rented accommodation.

Figure 37: Services used when searching for accommodation.

Figure 38 & 39: Awareness and use of NU:Lets.

Figure 40: Satisfaction with NU:Lets.

Figure 41: Reason for not using NU:Lets.

11. Wellbeing

Respondents were asked five questions, four of which came from the Office for National Statistics four wellbeing indicators:
1. Overall, how satisfied are you with you life nowadays?
2. Overall, to what extent do you feel that the things you do in your life are worthwhile?
3. Overall, how happy did you feel yesturday?
4. Overall, how anxious did you feel yesturday?
5. What roles would you like to see from Northumbria Students’ Union in regards to Wellbeing?

Figure 42: Wellbeing indicators.

The data from YUYS 2019 has been compared to the data from the Office for National Statistics which was collected between January 2018 to December 2018 (whilst YUYS data was collected only between March and May 2019).
Figure 42 identifies students to have lower scores in life satisfaction, feeling life is worthwhile, and happiness, and a higher score in anxiety, thus identifying the wellbeing of the student population to be worse than that of the general population.