Union Forum RECAP
Our first Union Forum of 2025-26 was held on Tuesday 11 November, featuring updates from your elected officers and a discussion about the Library’s opening hours.
Luana Vasconcelos
Tuesday 11 November
The forum was chaired by Sal Fox, our newly elected Union Chair, who opened the session with introductions and gave an overview of the agenda.
Matt Aikin, our Union President, started with a presentation of the 2024-2025 Annual Report, a summary of this report can be found here. This was then followed by a look forward at the 2025-2026 Union Priorities, which can be summarised into four main themes- Academic Influence & Engagement, High Quality Campus Experience, Student-led belonging and Wellbeing and impactful representation and advocacy.
Officer Updates
The session continued with updates from our Union Officers- including a welcome to the several new elected Officers following the recent Bye-Election. All our officers have been hard at work and there was lots of updates about setting up different events, advocating opportunities and lobbying both within their zone and across the University- all working towards their respective manifesto goals. Some highlights include:
· Working with the Pro-Vice Chancellor of Education to introduce a Semester 1 Reading Week
· Launch of reusable coffee cups
· Developing Course Rep support and communications with Course Rep Noticeboards
· Meeting with senior University teams to improve Commuting Students experience
· Dedicated Wellbeing Champion Website page and enhanced support both for and to Champions
· Launch of Black Sports Collective
· This Girl Can Campaign being prepared for 2026
These are just some of the many exciting things our Officers are working on. If you are interested in finding out more about the specific officer updates, full meeting minutes will be available to view on the Union Forum page.
Library Opening Hours
Luana, our VP Voice, led on the discussion about Library Opening Hours. The University of Surrey Library is open daily from 8 am to midnight, with 24-hour access during the core revision and exam periods. It was previously open 24-hours, 7 days a week. This decision left many students feeling dissatisfied and uninformed.
Luana provided an overview of the situation so far and decisions that have been made. Many students shared their personal opinions and those of their course mates and friends. Questions were asked such as What do you think is the best possible outcome for Library opening hours? And Do you think students and staff understand the reasons behind any proposed changes to Library hours? How could communication around this be improved? It was a great discussion with lots of student-led feedback gathered.
A big thank you to all Sabbs, Officers and Students who attended this session and provided their updates and opinions of this matter.
Our Next Union Forum is taking place on Monday 9 March 2026 from 6:30pm-8pm.
Interested to find out what it’s like to be a student officer? Our main Union Election takes place in February 2026; with both paid and volunteer positions available for the 2026-27 Academic Year. Interested? Find out more here.