Your Exec’s Response To The University’s Cost Of Living Package

The University of Leeds announced their package of support to students on Friday 11 November. We are glad to see that support for students and staff has been clearly outlined, and we especially welcome the five-fold increase to the Financial Assistance Fund (previously called the Student Hardship Fund) to £1.9million. However, there are a few areas we’d like to see more being done for the student community, or more clarity.

In this statement, we have outlined areas we invite the University to work on with us.

LUU’s support to students

LUU is continuing to work on a range of measures to support our members during the cost of living crisis, such as:

  • Working with the University to highlight and ease additional costs – including costs associated with graduation and resits.
  • Communicating initiatives to support student safety – including ways to get home safely at night and access to our Help and Support services.
  • Developing and promoting ‘saver’ options on menus in our venues that provide good value for money to students while enabling LUU to continue providing opportunities and services to students.
  • Encouraging students to visit our building to access our facilities and services. You can make yourself at home at LUU – we have microwaves so you can heat your own food, spaces to study and socialise in for free with plenty of power sockets, WiFi and showers, as well as access to Help and Support who can provide financial, wellbeing and mental health support.

Subsided hot meals

We are pleased to see the University is subsiding hot meals in its outlets and expanding the Refectory’s opening times. We will be working with the University to explore further options to ensure all dietary requirements are catered for and healthy choices are available on even the tightest budget.

Support for our PGR students

£500,000 of the £1.9m Financial Assistance Fund has been ring-fenced to PGR students. While we welcome the ring-fencing of funds for PGR students, we want to make sure this can be accessed by anyone who needs it.

At LUU, we are working with our PGR members to understand what they need, and to identify further support.

Period products

The University has pledged £3.5k to offer an expansion of free period products across three further locations on campus.

We welcome funding for this important provision but would like to see further investment here. LUU has offered free sexual health and period products since February 2019, when the then Welfare and Equality and Diversity Officers, Matt and Tamsin, initiated the project, which has been developed each year by successive Exec teams. We would like to see a similar level of commitment to tackling period poverty wherever students are on campus. This is in order to tackle period poverty, not just to help people who find themselves without products.

We recognise that the University has committed significant support to students during this cost of living crisis. We believe that they can go a little further by working with us. We’ll keep you updated with our progress.

We’re always keen to hear from you – please get in touch to let us know what you think.

Signed:

Bethan Corner, Education Officer

Ella Williams, Activities & Opportunities Officer

Emily Tabern, Wellbeing Officer

Haryati Mohammed, Equality & Liberation Officer

Maria Papageorgiou, Union Affairs & Communications Officer

Vicky Zhuo, International & Postgraduate Officer