Queen’s University Students’ Union has become the ninth students’ union in the UK and Ireland to receive an award from the Students’ Union Evaluation Initiative (SUEI). 

The students’ union has received bronze accreditation, which will be recognised at a special ceremony in London on October 13th, 2010, in the House of Commons. 

The students' union has been a member of the SUEI benchmarking scheme since 2007. The scheme has assisted in improving the services and activities delivered to members of the union by indicating areas for continued improvement through the Students’ Union Strategic Framework 2006-09 and the current Students’ Union Strategic Plan 2009-12.

The process involved auditing the union across fifteen ‘Key Lines of Enquiry’, which measured the union’s impact on students. The final report highlighted the union’s strengths in areas such as governance, finance and the delivery on targets set by the membership of the union.

The report also highlighted a number of areas that the union needs to work on over the next three years to achieve a silver award. These areas include member focus, vision and representation.

Student Union President, Gareth McGreevy said the award represented “a step towards a better union". 

 He said: "The process enables student officers and staff to see where your union could improve, but also points out where you are being very successful. The process involves interviews with non-engaged students, student officers, student union staff and university staff. We are delighted to have been awarded this accreditation.”

The Students’ Union Management Board has approved the Queens Uni student union’s participation in the next stage of the Students’ Union Evaluation Initiative (SUEI 2), which will begin in Autumn 2010. If you would like more information on how to get involved, please contact Queens University.

What is SUEI?

The Students’ Union Evaluation Initiative (SUEI) is an assessment model that assists in improving the services and activities of students’ unions by indicating areas for continuous improvement. The SUEI model has a strong focus upon engagement with the student membership of college unions.

As part of the process, the Students’ Union was required to develop five action plans detailing areas of deficiency and outlining proposals for improvement (including timescales for action) within the following key areas – participation, representation, governance, vision, objectives and yearly plans, customer focus, quality of management, effective performance, impact, services, communication, finance and partnerships.