Sheffield Hallam Students' Union's Student Officers recently proposed an International Student Experience policy at the NUS National Conference, which took place on Monday 28th and Tuesday 29th March in Liverpool, and this has impressed the National Union of Students.

President of the Students' Union, Praise Ishola, International Students' Officer, Sabahat Khan and BTE College Officer, Adeyemi Otebolaku, along with three other NUS delegates, attended the conference on behalf of the SU, taking the proposal they had developed.

Sabahat presented the proposal at the conference, which left the NUS very impressed by the work the officers and delegates had done, and the decision was made to make it the main proposal out of three others. These were submitted by Liverpool Guild, University of Salford Students' Union, and Students' Union University of the Arts London.

The International Student Experience theme consists of a spectrum of experiences which can affect the academic performance, mental health and wellbeing of students.

This proposal was developed in response to there being a range of issues affecting specifically international students during their time at university, and as they graduate and move onto full-time employment.

The main issue the theme focuses on is that international students often do not receive existing information regarding their basic rights, with a significant impact upon their welfare and transitioning into the UK educational setting.

Focusing on the issues, the policy is split into four sections:

• Awareness and Institutional Accountability
• Greater Integration in University Communities
• Employability
• Post-study work visas

The proposal states that the information to solve the issues is available, however it is not being communicated with international students, and therefore they are not aware of the support that is available to them.

Their policy would seek to see an improvement of communication on a much wider scale, from handbooks to interactive social media posts and ambassadors who students could speak to about any issues they have.

To read the proposal, you can visit the NUS website here.