Student Officers' Coronavirus Updates

• We heard from you in our Town Hall sessions that there weren’t enough informal study spaces on campus, so we worked with KCLSU colleagues to ensure more spaces were provided, including converting our venues into informal study spaces.
• We asked King’s to move all assessment deadlines from the travel window during the Winter break, and they actioned this where possible.
• We issued a statement asking King’s to reconsider their assessment mitigations following a joint Russell group statement about a no detriment policy.
• We wrote a paper alongside the Assessment team at King’s highlighting the issues which occurred over Assessment Period 1 2020/21, which will be presented to faculties and management to urge them to ensure systems are prepared for the upcoming exam and assessment series.
• We continued to work on and successfully passed a motion to change the Late Submission Cap, to bring it more in line with other universities, and give students 24 hours after their assessment deadline where only a 10-mark deduction will apply as opposed to marks being capped at a pass.

Facilitating conversations with students on the now released Fair Assessment policy, to ensure students have their voices heard about the mitigations in place for students taking assessments in Academic Year 2020/21.

• We continue to support campaigns around KCLSU, such as the International Student Fee Compensation campaign by Saffana, our International Officer, and beyond King’s such as the cross-Students' Union campaign Students United Against Fees which all students can sign up to join.

We continue supporting the above campaigns and students where possible.

• We have facilitated conversations between King's and the KCL Cut the Rent student group which have been successful. Through these conversations King's has agreed to all of the student group's demands, including allocating £50,000 for KAAS students.
• We worked with King’s to ensure students were given appropriate options for contract cancellation and rent rebates due to the national lockdown.
• We held a Q&A with King’s Residences to support you in asking any questions you might have about university and private accommodation.
• We challenged Residences to create a self-isolation package that was appropriate to the scale of disruption caused and included menstrual products for those who needed them.
• A letter, produced by the Officer Team and co-signed by the current Principal, Senior Vice President (Operations) and Vice President (Education) has been released in order to help privately renting students or students in non-KCL student accommodation to achieve relaxations of contract terms and financial flexibility/rebates due to the ongoing pandemic.

• We are working with the KCL Cut the Rent student group to ensure their concerns and demands are listened to by the university.

• We successfully reinstated Wednesday afternoons as protected time for students through our Protect Wednesday Afternoons campaign to be able to partake in group activities, self-study, part-time work or continue using the time for any other responsibilities and external activities they need it for.
• We challenged Residences to create a self-isolation package that was appropriate to the scale of disruption caused and included menstrual products for those who needed them.

Listening to students' concerns in regards to wellbeing and working with KCLSU and King's Wellbeing and Advice teams to improve students' wellbeing and overall experience at King's

• We collated some of the student comments we received to our callout for comments on ‘Academic experience during online learning into a report which was presented at College Education Committee.
• We know how important it is that student voice and perspective is heard and valued, so we worked with the KCLSU Community Rep team on a proposal for a Shared Approach to Student Voice between King’s and KCLSU. This was approved by King’s at their College Education Committee.
• Developed the Town Halls format to allow students to share their insights into the student experience, more recently in the presence of KCL staff and lay Council members to create meaningful discussion and subsequently change, fronted by the voices of students.

We held consultations which created the student submission for monitoring KCL’s Access and Participation Plan for 2019-20, which included considering how universities had included under-represented groups in their response to COVID.

• We asked King’s to provide appropriate resources for students who were travelling home for the Winter break and got them to agree to subsidise up to £100 for students requiring ‘Fit to Fly’ tests.

We are working with our International Students Network Officer to understand how we can best support our International Students, including participating in the International Student Fee Compensation campaign.