Friday 04-04-2025 - 14:28

The Union was so proud to attend the Educate North Awards 2025 last night (3 April) as a finalist in the Student Experience Award (University Sector) category. We had a fantastic time celebrating alongside inspirational educational leaders from across the North of England and we’d like to wish all the other finalists and winners a huge congratulations for their achievements, we hope you’re as proud as we are!

Being finalists of this Student Experience Award recognises the hard work of our Wellbeing Officer, Gracie Otley, for her Student Self-Care Movement campaign—which she created to raise awareness of the importance of personal development and the sense of belonging in the student population.

 

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With over 120,000 online and in-person interactions across all areas of the campaign, the Student Self-Care Movement addresses the challenges faced by current students and paves the way for more higher education institutions to think outside the box when planning activities supporting personal development and building communities for our students.

Through 21 in-person events, designing an online future ‘note to self’ activity, launching a podcast series, designing and implementing a feedback survey and much more, the Student Self-Care Movement has opened conversations on the importance of self-care in the student population, and The Union hopes to incorporate the topic in further developmental areas in both policy and future campaigns. Gracie has been passionate about self-care since starting up the Lifestyle and Wellness society in 2023—which now has over 500 members. Gracie told us,

“I’m over the moon and so proud that the Student Self-Care Movement has been recognised by the Educate North Awards. It’s been a fantastic collaboration of hard work across all teams at The Union and it’s not over yet! I can’t wait to keep working on this campaign over the next few months and focus on building up our student community over tricky assessment period—when students need to focus on their self-care move than ever.”