Wednesday 07-06-2023 - 09:26

The Volunteer Survey is an organisation wide survey sent to all volunteers and academic reps in order to gain their honest feedback on their volunteer experience and allow the Students' Association to determine the areas that are successful and which areas could be improved. The Volunteer Survey has been conducted in 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2023. There was a total of 180 responses to the 2023 Survey.

Overall, the organisation performed well in the survey and has maintained a very high standard of service for volunteers. We see an increase in the number of students volunteering for altruistic reasons, but the most predominant reason volunteers vote is to meet new people or make new friends.

The main reasons students volunteered with the Students’ Association were: they saw it as an opportunity to make a difference (48.72%), to meet new people or make new friends (47.44%), to help people (46.79%) and to improve their CV/employability (43.59%). The main things students have gained from volunteering are that they have met new people and made new friends (54.49%), gained satisfaction from making a difference (44.87%), gives me experience of leadership or responsibility (44.87%) and broadens their experience of life and other people (38.46%).

Within our Strategic Plan 2025 we have strategic goal to develop leaders and volunteers to bring positive change in our communities and the strategic objective to improve students’ employability by providing opportunities to lead sports clubs, societies, groups and develop students as volunteers. 95% of our volunteers would wholeheartedly recommend GCU Students' Association as a good place to volunteer (2021: 94%; 2019: 93%; 2017: 85%). This is one of our Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) within our Strategic Plan 2025 and our strategic target of 90%+ was surpassed.

We also scored extremely well in “I feel that I can be myself when volunteering at GCU Students' Association” (98%), "I understand the standards of behaviour and performance that are expected of me" (96%) and “My volunteering role is clear and I know what I'm doing" (95%). The lowest positive score was "The students' association gives a high priority to volunteer welfare and health and safety" (78%).

Read the report >>>