OUSA Newbury Branch

Scotland Blazes Futures Trail - Tue, 20 Jul 2010
OUSA Conference 2010 showed tremendous support and enthusiasm for the OUSA Futures proposals but it is our students in Scotland who are first out of the starting blocks! The May Executive Committee gave a ringing endorsement to OUSA Scotland’s plans for trialling the new forms of local and national organisation when it backed the detailed application from the Scotland Forum. Now OUSA in Scotland is issuing a clarion call throughout the glens inviting OU students to inaugurate the first ever ‘OUSA Scotland Assembly’. A personal message has gone out today to OU students across Scotland giving them all the opportunity to participate in their students association. Those keen and able to take a more active part in student affairs in Scotland have the opportunity to stand for one of around 40 Assembly member seats whilst those who just want to make sure they are being effectively represented and can expect a high quality of service and good communications are being encouraged to sign up to the electoral register. This will give them a vote in deciding who their representatives are. The new style Assembly will be managed by an Executive comprising 6 students elected by the same process as Assembly members plus the current central Executive Committee Member for Scotland. The current incumbent of that latter position, Susan Beech said “ I’m so pleased that students in Scotland are taking the lead at such an important and exciting time for OU students. We’ve often been the ones in front of the queue calling for OUSA to modernise itself and it feels good to be finally taking some concrete strides in that direction.†Susan went on “There’s a big job of work to done on behalf of OU students in Scotland but the most important message we want to get out in these elections is that you don’t need to be some kind of expert or old hand in student affairs, you just need to be a student willing to give it a go at working with other students.†If you might be interested in working with other students to enhance the student experience - both social and academic - why not invest a little time in looking at what’s on offer! Follow the link below for all the information you’ll need or if you want a bit of personal discussion first, why not contact Susan directly on ousao33@guest.open.ac.uk

DSG Committee Elections - Wed, 14 Jul 2010
Nominations are now being accepted for the Disabled Students’ Group (D S G) Officers and Committee Members for 2010/11. Nomination packs are available to all registered members of the Group who are all entitled to accept nomination for one of these positions. The Committee is the governing body of the D S G and the elected positions consists of four Officers and up to six ordinary Committee Members. The Officers of the Committee are the Chair, Secretary, Communications Officer and Webmaster. Elections for these roles will be conducted by postal ballot in late August and the electors will be all currently registered members of the group (for full details please refer to section 7 of the OUSA Constitution). Nomination forms and further details can be obtained: • by clicking the links below or • by downloading a nomination pack from the FirstClass forums: OUSA/ OUSA information suite/ OUSA information, or from the D S G Members’ FirstClass closed Forum • from Sandra Carter cc Wendy Cursley (on server 1) if using the FirstClass email service • or sjc55@tutor.open.ac.uk cc wae4@tutor.open.ac.uk if using another email system • or by contacting the OUSA Office on 01908 652003 Any queries on the above should be directed to Sandra Carter at the OUSA office in the first instance. THE CLOSING DATE FOR RECEIPT OF NOMINATIONS IS 4.30 P.M. ON WEDNESDAY 11TH AUGUST 2010

OUSA co-operates with NUS to make sure Post Grads not forgotten - Fri, 25 Jun 2010
Fresh on the heels of a really good bit of collaboration between OUSA and NUS in Scotland, Roz Evans, OUSA President today backed collaboration with the NUS on a UK wide survey of students studying post graduate, taught courses. Roz said, “We all know that times are hard on the public finances front but that doesn’t mean we should stop fighting for the things we believe in. When the Browne review was established last year, it was made plain that it would cover post graduate students ��" and that’s a group of students who are badly neglected by anyone’s standards!†The NUS have devised a fairly detailed survey aimed at providing us with some much needed information to strengthen our representations on behalf of post grad students over the coming weeks and months. When they invited OUSA to join their survey Roz didn’t hesitate to give this her support. She went on “ I’ve made it plain in both submissions to the Browne Review that they must not dodge the issue of funding and support for post grad students. Hopefully the data that we will get back from the survey will help both ourselves and the NUS to put forward some very strong representations for these studentsâ€. The survey closes at the end of June and the NUS will be sharing the analysis of feedback from our students with OUSA once available. We’ll give you an update in the autumn.

The NUS Extra Card 2010/2011 - Fri, 25 Jun 2010
Don’t Leave Home Without One! The NUS Extra Card for 2010/2011 is released from 5th August and this year the price has increased by a pound to £11 for a year’s subscription Much to the relief of many, you can still get the International Student Identity Card (ISIC) upgrade for an extra £1.99 and this is a saving of £7 off the price of the standard ISIC card and this card alone has access to over 40,000 discounts worldwide. From its steady start in 2007, more and more OUSA members are signing up for the NUS Extra card and over 25,000 have benefited from its use this year with the Extra Card now becoming firmly embedded within the O U Student’s ‘must have menu’. In these stricken economic times, with one foot still hovering in recession and all of us tightening our budget belts, the general consensus is that the Extra Card will continue to be more than worth the initial outlay and many members report that they can recoup this cost in "one foul swoop" be it on discounted driving lessons, gym membership , foreign travel, or concert hall tickets to list but a few. This is a card that is valued by the student population at large and an essential item for travellers. So don’t leave home this summer until you’ve got yours.

Postgraduate Study Advice Day - Thu, 10 Jun 2010
The OU's Postgraduate Study Advice Day is organised for Monday 5 July from 2pm to 6.30pm. This event is taking place at the Regional Centre as follows: The Open University in London 1 - 11 Hawley Crescent Camden Town London NW1 8NP (3 minute walk from Camden Town tube station on the Northern Line) Visitors can go along and speak to advisers and subject specialists who will be available to answer any questions they may have about studying with the Open University. At the same time visitors can take the opportunity to look at a selection of Postgraduate course materials, meet advisers and student ambassadors. There will be a series of introductory talks running throughout the day as follows: 2pm and 5pm - MBA programme 3pm - Professional Graduate Certificate in Education (Secondary) 4pm - Arts & Humanities It is recommended that visitors should book for a talk by calling Ray Wheeler on 020 7556 6184 or email R01-outreach-promotions@open.ac.uk