Campaigns
Funding the Future Campaign- Under the leadership of Jack, the Students' Union has achieved a remarkable transformation in its financial resources, empowering it to better advocate for and support students.
- Initial Increase: The SU Operational Block Grant rose from £15,800 to £24,800—a significant £9,000 increase—providing a greatly expanded campaigning budget to fight for students’ rights.
- Continued Growth: The following year, the grant increased further to £26,800.
- Strategic Investment: Jack also secured an additional £7,000 to fund the development of a new SU website, bringing the total budget to £33,800.
This represents a total budget increase of over 50% since Jack took office, ensuring the SU is better equipped to drive impactful campaigns and deliver meaningful support for the student body.
Know Your Status Campaign- Introduced HIV testing and Sexual Health Advice across all major campuses through partnership with the What?Centre providing regular drop-ins.
Turn Up Campaign- Lobbied the college to introduce Opt-in Voter Registration to automatically register students when they enrol, simplifying the process, making it more accessible. Dudley College is one of the first Colleges to implement this and only 1/3 of Universities have it. Asked for registration links to be added to Induction surveys and democratic education to be included in PIP Sessions.
My Present, Our Future Campaign- puting together a Local and National Student Manifesto, telling politicians want students need from the next Government. Hosted a Big Conversation on Education and launched a What Students Think page on the Duldey SU Website. Jack also spoke on behalf of Further Education in the Houses of Parliament, Westminster.
Politics Made Better Campaign- hosted the first Student Parliament since Covid which is an oppotunity for students to have a say in the direction of the Union, vote on motions and hold Leadership Members accountable. Did a major push on Leadership Elections introducing enhanced support and running a 'Vote for a Coke' and a "Be a FANTA-stic voter" election drive. Oversaw the biggest election in SU history supporting 18 candidates across 6 different exec roles, continuing enhanced support resulting in over 1,000 induvidual students voting and over 6,000 votes cast.
Israel-Palestine Conflict- Lobbied for increased support for all students affected by this Humanitarian Crisis and demanded College took a pro-active approach to tackling Hate Crime.
Trans+ Together Campaign- Strongly influenced the national student response to the Transgender Guidance released by the Government and supported in putting an FE (Further Education) inclusive campaignign together. Lobbied the college to allow name changes on systems such as ID badges and Teams and also successfully lobbied the college to allow both staff and students to display their pronouns on Teams and email. Released a statement condeming the Goverments decision to ban puberty blockers for Transgender and non-binary young people and calling for collective action and solidarity with the Trans+ community launched a Gender Expression Fund to support the Trans+ community.
Students Deserve Better Campaign- worked with the National Union of Students (NUS) to campaign for key rights for students such as including students in the renters rights bill and abolishing guarantors, as part of the campaign we attended the NUS National Lobby Day where Jack lobbied Dudley MP Sonia Kumar and discussed key issues for students such as transport, votes at 16 and BTEC Cuts.
Key Actions
SU Leadership and Participation Reform- Created brand new Leadership roles that targeted the specific needs of students, centralised and consolidated the Liberation Networks and Introduced the SU Crew initiative as a volunteering space for students who want to be involved with the SU but don’t necessarily want to take on a Leadership role and re-branded the Big Student Get Together (Student Council) to Student Parliament.
Strategic Oversight- Introduced the Students' Union Strategic Plan, which focuses on the priorities of the Union for its development and implemented a policy and priority focused approach.
National Policy- Submitted a policy to the National Union of Students (NUS) National Conference around accessibility for Further Education (FE) in National Campaigns and NUS spaces, Jack spoke in front of over 700 Delegates and the Policy successfully passed, guaranteeing a minimum Delegate entitlment for FE Unions of 2.
National Elections- Ran a strong campaign to become the National Union of Students (NUS) Vice President for Further Education to represent and fight for College students and Apprentices across the UK. Jack only fell short by 1 vote.
NUS Democracy Reform- worked with the National Union of Students and other Students' Unions in the UK to make the democracy of the national student movement work for students leading to the creation of NUS England and reform how NUS enage with Unions and how they are accountable to students.
Media and Marketing
SU Website & Digital Platform- Launched a new user-friendly website for the SU which has increased functionality that will benefit Dudley students after using a wix website for over 10 years. We partnered with MSL to develop the new system.
Branding Tools- Introduced and designed new SU Marketing tools including 2 pop-up-shops and 10 pop-up-banners- this is vital for the SU to engage and provide services to all students who find it difficult getting to Broadway.
Social Media Presence- Increased content creation across SU socials to boost digital engagement and raise the SU's brand recognition. Invested in brand-new high tech DJI microphones to support with content creation.
Get Involved Campaign- Launched this campaign to get students involved in SU activities and oppotunities all starting with the Student induction talks, speaking to 3,000 students across 1 week, the SU's key branding message was all about getting involved, we had a major spike in engagement and had over 100 students register an interest in the SU within the first month of the academic year.
Digital Student Noticeboard- successfully lobbied and worked with the college to introduce a master team where every student is auto-enrolled onto so everyone has an equal oppotunity to access the same information at the same time, ensuring effective communication.
Projects
Zen Den Project- lobbied the college to re-start the project and ensured a suitable design was approved to create more social spaces for students, this space is designed for studnets to connect with nature and de-stress. As Project Manager Jack oversaw the implementation of the project from start to finish and managed contactors to to ensure an effective delivery.
Skill Development
Leadership & Management Qualification- started a Level 5 Leadership and Management Qualification with the Chartered Managment Intitute to develop leadership skills and learnb how to better manage an organisation.
Lead & Change- attended a 3 day training event at the University of Birmingham SU, networking and leaning how to build student power.
Small & Specilist Lead & Change- this training was specifically for College SU's and was hosted at Dudley SU 2 years in a row.
Meet the Leadership Teams during Jack's Presidency
SU Leadership Team- Year 1
- Vice President & Chair- Areej Amir
- Assistant President of Union Development- Usman Shahid
- Assistant President of Education- Neve Fraser
- Assistant President of Sustainibility- Ross Pennington-Greatbatch
- Assistant President of Media & Outreach- Estina Munzwa
- Inspired Campus leader- Kaynat Ahmad
- CAT Campus leader- Kyle-James Handley
- Dudley Sixth Campus Leader- Favour A-Matthew
- Broadway Campus Leader- Duncan Barnett
- BAME Liberation Leader- Muhammad Shahid
SU Leadership Team- Year 2