Why complete KHYS Survey?

It's time for you to have your say in KSU's annual Kingston, Have Your Say! Survey. Your responses are used to help inform KSU what we're doing well and where we can improve, from our student groups to rep support, to elections and our academic advice support.

When you have had your say, you will be entered into a prize draw to win one of four prizes, including our main prize of a £250 voucher!

But what have we done since last year's annual KSU Survey?

• KSU website accessibility 

4.1% of you said that the KSU website was inaccessible. Whilst this was a marked improvement from 2024, we wanted to further improve this. Comments included: 

• Difficult to navigate website structure 

• Login issues 

“And we’re listening...” 

1. Reshaped parts of our website to improve usability on phones. 

2. We have an accessibility button where you can use text-to-speech and change text font and size.  

3. Continue working to resolve login issues as they arise.  
    

• How do you stay up to date with what we’re doing?

The top three ways you stayed up to date with KSU in 2024/25 were via our:

• Website 

• Instagram 

• Emails  

We have continued to use these as the primary means to communicate news and opportunities.  

Please let us know if there are any other ways you would like us to keep you informed! 

• Paid work alongside studying 

“You said...” 

28.1% of you said that you’re doing paid work alongside studying. We know that work commitments can clash with studying. 

“And we’re listening...” ​

This Autumn, we launched our Students Who Work research project. This has been designed to better understand the relationship between studies and work, so we can ultimately provide more tailored support.  

 

• ​Joining a society or sports club 

“You said...” 

95% of you said you’ve had a good or excellent experience with a society last year.

“And we’re listening...” ​

Our Student Communities and Events team have worked really hard this year to make being part of a society even better. They have: 

• Introduced a new society accreditation scheme, designed to support society committees to make sure they’re doing everything possible to make their society run as smoothly as it can.  

• Set up the Kingston Belonging Fund, designed to provide financial support to students who can’t access student groups due to financial pressures. 

• Made it even easier for society committee members to speak with us about any issues they might have. 

And we’re delighted that this has had a positive impact. There are now 46% more of you part of a society than last year. 

The same is true for our brilliant sports teams, too! We celebrated This Girl Can in February, encouraging more women to get active, break barriers, and feel confident in sport.  

In March, we WON Varsity for the first time in seven years! It was great seeing hundreds of you take part and cheer on our teams at Tolworth.  

 

• Finding out about our campaigns 

“You said...”

16.8% of you stated that you didn’t trust the previous Officer team.

“And we’re listening...” ​

Our brilliant Student Officer team of Hamza, Ckyra and Canon have led KSU campaigns this year. We wanted to make sure they’re building your trust. This year, the Officers have worked really hard to: 

• Improve communications on what they’re doing. Every month, each Officer has published a blog outlining everything they’ve done that month.  

• Reduce the prevalence of financial pressures experienced across the student community. This has included: 

• Pushing for changes to the international student fee payment plan. 

• Engaging with local MP Sir Ed Davey to fight against the Government’s proposal to introduce an international student levy. 

• Submitting a response to Parliament’s Treasury Select Committee regarding student loans, ensuring your experiences are represented at a national level. 

• Tailor events and opportunities to provide more opportunities to Black students, after publishing our Black Student Experience Project. 

 

• More opportunities across all campuses 

“You said...”

Whilst the KSU office is situated at Penrhyn Road, we acknowledge that most of you utilise our other brilliant campuses. In our final question last year, we asked for suggestions on how we can improve.  

The most common response related to greater representation across Kingston Hill, Roehampton Vale, and Knights Park.

“And we’re listening...” ​

This year we implemented the following: 

• KSU Elections – ran voting stalls on all campuses across each day of voting, rather than just at Penrhyn Road like previous years.  

• Kingston, Have Your Say! Week – we ran engagement stalls across all campuses to ensure we were speaking with all of you about your uni experience.  

• Student Council – we scheduled meetings at each campus, rather than defaulting to Penrhyn.  

• Community Hub – after a successful pilot at Penrhyn Road in January, we successfully launched our Food Community Hub at Kingston Hill every Tuesday (term-time only). Look out for this again next year! 

 

One final question remains: Are YOU going to Have Your Say again this year?