The results of YUSU’s ‘First Impressions’ survey, released exclusively to Vision last week, reveals a marked improvement in Fresher satisfaction compared to previous years.
The survey, carried out in weeks 3, 4, 5 and 6 of the Autumn Term was completed by 564 of the approximately 3,500 new students York welcomed last year and looked at reasons for choosing York, satisfaction with Fresher’s Week events and YUSU awareness.
When asked to rate their overall satisfaction with YUSU in their first few weeks, over 80 per cent of students judged the union to be ‘good’ or ‘excellent’. 40 per cent rated the SU as ‘excellent’ compared to just under 20 per cent last year.
Awareness of YUSU has improved considerably compared to last year. Though only 64.8 per cent of respondents were aware that they were a member of YUSU, awareness of who the individual YUSU sabbs were topped 85 per cent in each case. Over 94 per cent of freshers knew who Kallum Taylor was compared to the 86 per cent that knew who Tim Ellis was at the same point last year. Graeme Osborn was the least identifiable officer, with only 62 per cent being fully aware of who he is and what his role within YUSU entailed.
Fresher’s week events were viewed positively, though Live and Loud received mixed reviews. Student satisfaction with the ‘mini-festival’ did increase by 13 points compared to last years bash, but the event still received the highest dissatisfaction rating, with 22.3 per cent of students reporting feeling somewhat or very dissatisfied.
Open comments showed that students felt that the event was poor value for money and that entertainment outside of the main stage was limited. One student who wished to remain anonymous told Vision: “Live and Loud was amazing, as long as you were drunk, but drinks were really expensive. They should have been included!”
The Freshers’ fair was the most successful event with a 90 per cent satisfaction rate, though some students did complain that it was overcrowded.
Viking Raid was also rated very positively with less than 5 per cent of students claiming they were dissatisfied.
Many students, particularly international and mature students, said they’d like to see more non-alcoholic events in the future. However, YUSU’s flagship non-alcoholic event – Comedy Night – was attended by only 21 per cent of the sample. Those that did attend largely enjoyed the event.
Vision spoke to YUSU President Kallum Taylor about the survey results. “The results from our First Impressions Survey are quite encouraging, and show some clear signs of improvement across several areas which definitely needed work.
“Big things worth celebrating are how students are more aware of their elected reps and the work they do for them and they recognised the improvement of Live and Loud (though there is still room).
“Further, on the Live and Loud feedback I take that completely on board! Yes, it was a success and achieved its aims in allowing everyone to see all of the acts, and utilising campus much better; but there’s definitely some things which have been highlighted which YUSU will no doubt look to address next time.
“There’s definitely a lot of work to do still, and we’re only scratching the surface of our potential – but it has been a very good opening term for YUSU. We’ve been bigger and better on the events side of things, and we’ve really done our best to stand up for students, celebrate our victories, on and off campus, and help the University improve York’s Student Experience.”