Five Things for a Friday

Five Things For A Friday 10.04.26

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 10:01:35 +0100

A short Five Things For a Friday this week as it is Spring Break

PRINCIPAL’S STUDENT VIEW

We’d like to thank Professor Sue Rigby for her first Principal’s ‘Student’ View – you can watch the half hour session here Principal's View Recording . If you find it useful we may do another in the first trimester of 2027/27

NOMINATE NOW IN THE EXCELLENCE AWARDS

You can now nominate for your favourite member of staff or team who you believe have delivered excellent teaching, assessment, support, or feedback in the Excellence Awards 2026

REGISTER TO VOTE IN SCOTTISH ELECTIONS

You have seven days to register to vote for the Scottish Elections. Details here Scottish Parliament Election 2026 - NUS Scotland

SOCIETIES AND SPORTS AWARD WINNERS AND PICTURES

Check out all the winners from the clubs and societies you nominated here Societies & Sports Awards Winners

EVENTS ASSISTANT ROLE

We are looking for a student to help as an Events Assistant – check out the role here Events Assistant

Five Things For A Friday 27.03.26

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 08:13:41 Z

MEET THE UNIVERSITY PRINCIPAL

Spring break – but there is no rest! Please take the time to attend the Principals View – the Student Special on 1^st April. Details of how you can listen to and question Principal Sue Rigby is here Principal's View: Student Special

VARSITY WIN!

We are delighted to announce that Edinburgh Napier will retain the Varsity Cup for another year following a brilliant 10-3 victory over Queen Margaret University! Our sports teams performed superbly across the 13 competitive fixtures, with the majority of games being played on Wednesday 25 March at Meggetland and ENGAGE. All the full results can be found here Varisty 2026 Result

CLUBS AND SOCIETIES AWARDS BALL

We are all getting our glad rags on and off to the Ball tonight at the EICC. I hope to see you there for a great night.

OPEN DAY

Then it is up early for the sabbaticals and staff to go and speak to potential new students at the University Open Day.

COUCH TO 5k

Moray Pryde, a Union staff member and winner of the Edinburgh Marathon (twice, I think!) is starting a 0 to 5k running programme for staff and students at the University from Harrison Park onn Wednesday. Details here ENSA Couch To 5K

UNION CLOSED

The Students Union offices will all be closed on Good Friday and Easter Monday during the Spring break. So no Five Things For A Friday next week. We will be doing our debriefs on Varsity and the Ball over the enxt seven days. These debriefs, along with our recent Welcome Back Week and Elections debriefs, feed into plans for the next academic year, which have already started following our away day at the end of February. It never stops – and we lose a hour when the clocks spring forward an hour on Saturday night. Don’t forget!

Five Things For A Friday 20.03.26

Fri, 20 Mar 2026 10:45:07 Z

Meningitis outbreak

Our thoughts go out to the families, friends, students and staff impacted by the meningitis outbreak this week. Please take a moment of time to read our advice here

Student Council

Next week there is University Court and the Student Council - details of the Student Council are here - we will be discussing activities of the year, strikes and election results. Don't miss it!

Varsity 10 - Napier v QMU celebrate sport

Other BIG events next week include Varsity, the day of sport between Edinburgh Napier and QMU. It's the tenth year, 13 sports and we are asking as many supporters to come out as possible to celebrate sport at Edinburgh Napier. More details and when the fixtures are is here and its followed by a big party at the Three Sisters in the evening.

Sports Club and Societies Ball

On Friday there is the Sports Clubs and Societies Awards Ball. For the first time ever it's been sold out for over a month as it becomes the social event of the year. You have been nominating for your favourite clubs and societies and the winners will be announced on the night. As well as the Awards we are also going to be giving out the first of our ENSA Honorary Life Memberships. What is that? Find out on the night!

As an aside this week we got our own Award - a Silver Award for how much we raised at Movember this year. The final figure was over £15,000 so well done to everyone who participated. £20,000 next year - is that even possible?

University Open Day

On Saturday morning (the morning after the night before) feel some pity for our staff and student members who are going to be at the Offer Holders Open Days. We will be talking all things ENSA to potential new students, mainly around sports cliubs and societies, and will also be inviting parents/carers to sign up for our new Parents / Carers email newsletter. They will get advice and guidance on opportunities open to you and you won't have to tell them everything that is going on at Uni as we will! Win - win!

The Principals View - Student Special

We've started shouting about the forthcoming the Principals View - Student Special this week. We are asking you to join us for a special student edition of the Principal’s View at B55 Merchiston Campus, hosted by the President of the Students' Association. Professor Sue Rigby CBE will give an overview of the Higher Education landscape in Scotland, the University’s current situation, and plans for the future. There will also be a Questions and Answers session, where you will get the opportunity to ask the Principal anything related to the student experience at the University. All Edinburgh Napier University students are welcome to attend in-person or online. If you would like to submit a question in advance, you can do so here: Submit a Question (it is also fine to just ask a question on the day) You can Join online via Teams .and more details can be found here

Finally if you missed the sabbatical election results last week here they are again.

Five Things For A Friday 13.03.26

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 10:23:53 Z

MOTHERING SUNDAY

First things first. It's Mothering Sunday in the UK. This is your reminder!

ENSA ELECTIONS

We are delighted to be able to announce the results of the 2026 Student Elections!

Massive congratulations to the winning candidates who will take up office in the summer for a term of 1 year. A huge thanks to all the candidates, who campaigned hard over the course of the week, and to all the students who took the time to vote.

Ballot One: President (Societies & Community)
Elected: Emeka Orji (679 votes after 6 rounds of elimination under the ATV system)
Runner up: Siddhartha Reddy

Ballot Two: President (Sport & Wellbeing)
Elected: Austen Brunton (715 votes after 4 rounds of elimination under the ATV system)
Runner up: Naga Harinadh

Ballot Three: President (Education & Employability)
Elected: Blessing Akinmolujoye (900 votes after 1 round of elimination under the ATV system)
Runner up: Emily Kidd

Unique Voters – 2200
Total Votes Cast - 5191 (that's 485 more votes than last year!)

Well done to Emeka, Austen, and Blessing, who we look forward to working with in session 2026/27!

Winners of our prize draw will be notified via email, so please check your student mail over the next week.

VARISTY IS COMING

Edinburgh Napier University will once again take on Queen Margaret University across multiple sports fixtures to compete for the Varsity Cup. Which Uni will come out on top and earn the bragging rights?

Most of the fixtures will be taking place on Wednesday 25 March at Meggetland and ENGAGE (Sighthill). Supporters are welcome to attend the games for FREE, so come along and cheer on the teams if you have some spare time after/between classes!

More here Varsity 2026

0 TO 5K FOR STUDENTS AND STAFF

ENSA is planning to run a 9-week "Couch to 5K" group. It will likely be at Harrison Park, which is around a 15 minute walk from Bainfield/Merchiston and about 30 minutes from Craiglockhart.

This will be a positive and inclusive group, designed for anyone who can currently walk comfortably for 30 minutes but would not yet feel able to run 5K. Each week there will be one coach led session, along with two additional runs that participants can complete independently (or with a friend).

It is open to all students and staff.

More here

AI SURVEY

ENSA’s Advice Team would like to know more about your understanding of using AI tools (such as Chat GPT) for assessments.

Do you understand when use of AI is considered acceptable by the University? Are you clear about what is considered fair use and what isn’t? Do you know what the Academic Integrity regulations are?

Fill in the anonymous survey and your responses could help the University to clarify it’s policies, and students to avoid falling foul of allegations of Academic Misconduct.

More details and the survey link here AI and Academic Integrity Survey

NSS - STOP THE CALLS!

NSS needs final year undergraduates from Napier to fill out the NSS survey. Once you have filled it out people will stop hassling you to do it!

The National Student Survey (NSS) is your chance to look back on your Edinburgh Napier University experience and speak out on everything from the teaching on your course, access to resources and equipment, and even about the student voice.

Your views can make a difference. With your feedback, Edinburgh Napier University could make changes to improve its courses for future students.

And because NSS is a UK-wide, official survey, anyone thinking about applying to university can see what students like you thought about your course via a platform called Discover Uni – so they can make better decisions about where to study.

Remember, the NSS is anonymised, so the University won’t see your responses and you can give your open, honest feedback.

More details here

FIVE THINGS FOR A FRIDAY 06.03.26

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 15:11:27 Z

VISION, MISSION & VALUES

A few weeks ago our individual teams met to discuss our Vision, Mission and Values. We came together this week to get their feedback and finalise our new vision, mission and values. There was a feeling from everyone that they were too wordy, meant nothing to students and needed a good shake up. The vision is now To empower students to reach their full potential and enhance their University expereince. The mission: We listen to and work with students to represent and support them. Our values are Student led, Collaborative. Inclusive. Responsible and Fun.

THE BOARD MEETING

Our Board met on Wednesday. We had a good two hour meeting finding out more from Fiona Makou about her role at an intern this year, the stand out sabbatical projects, our new on boarding and governance work, our budget for next year and the vision, mission and values. Our stategic goals will be revised and will be reflected in our impact report and ongoing community development plan.

THE PLANNING MEETING

All ENSA staff, sabbaticals and some interns met on Wednesday at Pleasance for our Away Day. This is when we take a day out of our busy schedules to have some focussed time on what has been achieved so far this year and what we plan to do for academic year 2026/27. We had a ice breaker, presentations on data and what data is telling us, events, representation, advice, the student journey, marketing and work to inform our Community Development Plan. This work iwill be discussed by the teams, followed by appraisals, work plan discussions, budgeting and then will be fed into the revised Community Action Plan.

ADVICE BLOG

This isn't the only blog for this week - check out the Advice Blog for February here

ELECTIONS

Next week is the ENSA Elections. If you are a student at Edinburgh Napier University then don't forget to use your vote. Details of all the candidates here