2023 is drawing to a close, and what a year it has been! Of course, it hasn’t come without its challenges, but there are so many positive moments we can look back on.
So, before we welcome 2024, here are RGU’s Top Moments of 2023, in no particular order:
1. One year of Breakfast Clubs
It’s no secret that 2023 has been a difficult year for many with the financial situation we have been facing. To provide some extra support to our staff and student community, we ran our Breakfast Club all year round after initially launching it in October 2022.
The Breakfast Club is open every Tuesday morning and is fully funded by RGU to provide free food and drinks to staff and students. It takes place on Level 3 of the Riverside Building, at the Union, and is a great opportunity to socialise and warm yourself up in good company during the winter before heading to class! The menu includes cereal, toast with jam and butter, tea, coffee, and orange juice.
2. Launch of RGUplus
There’s also been an exciting new development this year to enhance students’ experience at RGU. In September 2023, we introduced RGUplus, a programme of activities that supports your employability as you build knowledge beyond your course subject area.
RGUplus stands on three fundamental pillars: Sustainability, Entrepreneurial Mindset, and Beyond the Classroom, which will all enable you to make an impact on the world around you.
Since the launch of the programme, we have been encouraging you to take on volunteering roles, either at RGU or with local organisations, as part of our first Beyond the Classroom pathway. With RGUplus, you can easily turn your experiences in the community into employability skills and awards that will help you stand out as a graduate.
We are looking forward to introducing new pathways and embed more of these principles within our curriculum so everyone can benefit!
3. Inspiring Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion initiatives
Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) is at the core of our work at RGU as we strive to provide a safe and welcoming environment to both staff and students, as well as the wider community.
2023 has been really busy in this space, with our involvement in nationwide and international campaigns, as well as institutional achievements, including:
Partnership with White Ribbon Scotland
Most recently, to mark the United Nation’s 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, we have partnered with charity White Ribbon Scotland to take a stand. RGU’s Principal and Vice-Chancellor Professor Steve Olivier took the pledge to “never commit, condone or remain silent about violence against women in all its forms”, alongside other male staff and students.
This marks the start of a breadth of work we will be doing to encourage other men at RGU to take the pledge and take part in a steering group to help eradicate men’s violence against women. You can read more on our News webpage.
Black History Month
This year’s Black History Month was bigger and better than ever at RGU! We put together a wide range of activities and events for both students, staff, and the wider community to attend. We focused our actions on a common theme: “Celebrating our diverse community: Global Citizens at RGU and beyond”.
The highlight of the month was a celebration event which saw two inspiring black women, both alumni of RGU, take part in a panel discussion with our very own Student President Toyin to talk about their careers and the obstacles they have faced because of their gender and race. This led to very inspiring conversations being started in the audience and ideas being shared to continue to develop EDI initiatives at RGU.
You can read more about this year’s BHM on RGView.
Pride Month
This spring, we took part once again in the Pride celebrations at the Grampian Pride parade! Staff, students, and alumni gathered in town to march down Union Street behind the RGU Pride banner.
We were supported by Look Again this year, who hosted our pre-pride event and handed out pride goodies and snacks to our enthusiastic participants.
A full team of Equality Champions
In 2023, for the first time since the creation of the Staff Equality Champions roles, all vacancies were filled, meaning that there now are at least one Champion for each protected characteristics outlined in the Equality Act 2010.
The Champions are chairs of different action groups which gather feedback from the RGU community on issues some individuals might be facing, or on improvements that could be made in the EDI space. Their role can help enhance the student experience at RGU by driving positive change and supporting staff members with EDI matters.
There are also Student Equality Champions, which have also gone through a successful round of recruitment this year!
Find out more about the Staff Equality Champions on the RGU website and more about the Student Equality Champions on the RGU:Union website.
4. New engaging content highlighting RGU’s life-changing research
2023 was a great year for research as we focused our attention on highlighting the great work that both our staff and student researchers do! This is why we launched two new initiatives: Research Revealed video and the RGU Research Magazine.
Research Revealed is a video series showcasing the latest and most exciting research developments at RGU via interviews with researchers across different academic schools. Launched in March, we have published three videos so far:
Keep your eyes peeled next year as we develop the series to continue to lead you through the world-changing research at RGU.
Alongside Research Revealed, we have also introduced our brand-new digital and interactive Research Magazine. In each edition you will find fascinating stories, videos, and interviews with our dedicated research community.
Download and browse our first two editions on our website.
5. Claim to fame on University Challenge
After team RGU proudly won their first round of University Challenge at the end of 2022, they bagged another victory early January 2023 to reach the quarterfinals of the competition! We cheered them on but unfortunately it wasn’t enough for us to qualify for the next round.
It was only the second time RGU appeared on the show since our debut performance in 1994, and the team impressed everyone watching at home with their extensive knowledge. Even if we didn’t make it to the end, a big congratulations again to Emily Cullen, Samuel Fregene, Faye Cooke, and Donald Anderson for their successful run on the show.
6. Graduation day for our 1st cohort of BA (Hons) Digital Marketing course
While many students took to the stage in July to graduate, there was a special group there who can brag about being the first ever students to graduate with a BA (Hons) Digital Marketing in Scotland! We are still the only university in the country to offer this undergraduate course, and we were so proud to see our first cohort celebrate their achievements and looking forward to starting their career in the field.
The course, delivered by the School of Creative and Cultural Business, has been designed to equip students with the necessary skills to enter the world of work, in which having a degree in Digital Marketing is becoming more and more attractive.
7. A busy and exciting year with the Union
We all know that university life is not all about studying. RGU:Union has been ramping things up in 2023 to provide you with the best student experience possible to make the most out of your time with us. They have put together a number of events, which have been extremely popular, including:
- The biggest ever Freshers Week.
- Pizza and Paint, the stand-out of the year.
- Therapets, to help you get through exam and coursework stress.
- One RGU Many Nations.
- Halloween activities.
- A wide range of fairs, from volunteering information stalls to winter craft sales.
There will be more things coming next year so keep an eye out on their website to make sure you don’t miss anything that might be of interest.
8. NSC official launch
If you’ve not heard of it before, the National Subsea Centre (NSC) is a centre for excellence for subsea research and technology development and operates in partnership with RGU and Net Zero Technology Centre (NZTC).
The centre was established a few years ago, but officially launched in January 2023 in Dyce with a ceremony seeing the Scottish Government Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and the Energy and Transport and UK Government Minister in attendance.
The NSC has bright days ahead continuing on its mission to explore the new technology needed to meet challenges of reduced emissions from operations, cost-effective and resilient power grids, as well as the development of a highly skilled digital workforce.
9. Inspiring video for aspiring RGU students
We know that life at RGU, while being fun, also prepares you for the working world once you graduate. But how do we communicate this to prospective students? Thanks to the help of some of our students, we put together an inspirational video which showcases what it’s like to be a student at RGU, to help others make the first step towards their future.
Give the video a watch:
10. New record for the RGU Student Blog
We are ending yet another year by thanking you, the reader, and all our students who have contributed to the blog this year. It is so exciting to hear about your experience at RGU, or have you share things that you are passionate about.
The blog already made some waves in 2022 by being named one of the Top 2022 Education Blogs by Study Smarter and gaining in readership. This year, we saw a 35% increase in views on the blog, which is incredible! Thank you to everyone who has been reading our stories, we are looking forward to giving a voice to even more students next year.
This is where our list ends, but there are so many other things that we have accomplished together this year. We can’t wait to see what the next one brings. Let us know in the comments what YOUR favourite RGU moment of 2023 was.
We wish you all the best for 2024 and have a great festive break!