Annual General Meeting 2025: A Recap | Imperial College Union

On Monday 2 February, we held our Annual General Meeting (AGM). This was an opportunity for you – our members – to hear directly from your Students’ Union about what we've been up to, where we're heading next, and to ask us anything.

Why we held this meeting

As part of our recent democracy review we committed to running this annual meeting as part of our effort to becoming more transparent as an organisation. As your Students' Union, we want to make sure you know what we're doing, how we're spending money, and what impact we're having on student life at Imperial. The AGM is our opportunity to share our wins and challenges from the past year and give you a chance to hold us accountable.

Thank you to all those who attended in-person or online. And, if you couldn’t make it this year then this blog post will give you a brief overview and hopefully encourage you to join future all-student meetings.

What we covered

Highlights and challenges from 2024/25 - find out more in our impact report
Financial overview - a look at our audited accounts
Updates on progress so far in 2025/26
What's next - officer priorities and the upcoming Leadership Elections
Your questions - an open Q&A where students could ask their questions

Plus, we did a giveaway and three students won £50 Union shop vouchers!

AGM Overview

Looking Back: 2024/25 Highlights

The Officer Team shared:

You voted: Leadership elections achieved 34% turnout - the highest since 2010
You got involved with student groups: Around 60% of students got involved in clubs and societies
You came to events: Nearly 40,000 attendees across union events, with most events kept free or low-cost
Your Officers advocated for positive change: The team worked with the university to stop a proposed 35% accommodation rent increase
You accessed our advice service: Almost 300 students accessed academic advice through our service
You worked at the union: Around 150 casual workers were employed

Financial Overview: 2024/25

Our Finance team presented the audited accounts which had been recently completed with no errors flagged.

Key figures shared:

Total income was £11.4m (up 4% from the previous year)
£3.48m came from the block grant (funding core union activity through an agreement with the university)
Commercial income was approximately £3.3m, including bar, Metric, retail, and shops, which supported student activities and services
£5.4m - nearly half our budget - was spent supporting around 360 societies
Approximately £1m was spent on commercial services, student voice, and representation

There was a one-off VAT liability (£288k) affecting many students' unions nationally, but the union remains financially healthy.

What We're Doing Now 2025/26 (Summary)

The full-time Officer team shared some highlights on what they, and the Students’ Union staff team, have been working on so far this year. (You can learn more about, and keep up-to-date with, what the Officers are working on on our website). These included:

Activities:

Work has been undertaken to improve support from student activities including simplified risk assessments and a new ticketing system. The team are now targeting 5-day response times
18 new clubs and societies
Student Experience Fund spending up 4%, with work underway to expand eligibility and increase uptake

Education:

Continuing to work with university to reduce assessment volume and improve feedback; pushing for a standardised platform for mitigating circumstances, and gathering feedback regarding personal tutoring
New Postgraduate Coordinator role introduced
Stronger Rep networks and improved Education Forum accessibility

Welfare:

Working with university to develop culturally sensitive counselling with student input as well as staff training on supporting queer students and intersectional experiences
Lobbying for hot meals under £5 and improved food access support
Plans for a second-hand swap shop at the union
Proposal for extended shuttle bus services

President:

Campaigning for improvements to private rental and housing access
Quality student employment opportunities, with students now able to work up to 8 hours/week
Concerns raised about chaplaincy space removal and limited consultation
Continuing to explore Metric as daytime collaborative workspace
Protecting study spaces as student numbers grow

Looking Ahead:

Plans for the coming months for the union include:

Launching a temporary staffing agency for students
Bringing our catering back in house, we have committed to ensuring our menus are 50% vegetarian or vegan and to conduct further reviews in July 2026 and January 2027 to work towards increasing plant-based options as part of the Plant Based Universities motion.
We are working towards implementing LLW wage exclusive of holiday pay to all casual workers (currently inclusive of holiday pay).
Stronger support systems for student groups and community networks

Your Questions

Students raised issues including food variety and cultural options, fruit availability, international student social integration, cross-campus events, budgeting transparency, the chaplaincy situation, VAT payment timing, plant-based pricing, SEF eligibility for events, and group work mitigating circumstances. The Officer Team responded to each, with several issues flagged for follow-up work. For example, Anson is working on a campaign around the chaplaincy garden space, and food prices is going as a topic to Liberation and Wellbeing Forum.