What matters to you?
The climate crisis? Human and civil rights? Safety in our city? Campus facilities and spaces? Inclusivity within our community?
Our time at university is when we encounter new ideas, grapple with new problems, and learn about ourselves and other people. Exeter students go on to careers in politics, media, academia, charities, and industry to make the world a better place.
We see your vision and motivation to make real change in this world and in our university community.
Your Students’ Guild has always been here to help you make a difference, but our democratic structure shave been stuck in the past for too long.
We’ve listened to you, we’ve consulted you, and now we’re excited to share with you our new approach for empowering student-led change.
For next year we’re going to retire the traditional Guild Council structure which was focused on processes, and we’ll adopt a ‘community organising’ approach. We will help you to make the changes you want to see, start the conversations you want to have, and influence decisions that matter to you.
There’s going to be a portfolio of tools to use for our Guild to listen to all of us and to empower you – there’s no ‘one size fits all’. We don’t know what issues or situations we will face next year – our toolbox of options will enable us to respond in the best way possible each time.
We’re going to champion you– our student communities and campaigns. We’ll provide bespoke support for societies, networks, and campaigning groups to help you realize your social action potential.
As controversial topics arise throughout the year, we’ll facilitate discussion and debate. University policy, social issues, free speech – we’ll focus on what everyone has to say.
We will be proactive in listening to you – finding out what is important to you. We will always be student-led - you have a role in how your Students’ Guild works and in holding the officers to account.
We’ve published more detail online and you can let us know what you think. We’re going to intentionally evolve – learning and experimenting as we go – so we continually improve how we work for you.
We know it’s taken as awhile to get here, but it’s worth doing it right. We can’t wait to collaborate with you to help bring positive change.
If you have any opinions or comments you'd like to make around these changes, please do so through the feedback button below.
If you want to read more about the changes we are making to democracy, you can do so here.