Thank you 2024: Meeting Adversity with Gratitude

Quick Reflection on 2024 and Looking Ahead to 2025

As we prepare to step into 2025, I want to take a moment to reflect on what has been a long, hard year at times for Alkhemy and to share how we can support universities and students' unions in the year ahead. Despite the challenges we’ve faced, we tried to remain steadfast in our mission: to reduce burnout, combat overworking, and create meaningful change in higher education.

This article highlights the ways we’ve been delivering impact this year and the many ways we can partner with you in the future. Whether you’re facing staffing gaps, struggling with capacity, or seeking to make strategic changes, Alkhemy is here to help.

There is also some open reflection and gratitude to past team members and partners, and a note to express how honoured I am to be a Dad and Hubby.

There will also be some more honest reflection in a future newsletter, but for now I'm embracing gratitude and thankfulness.

If You Work in a University

At Alkhemy, we specialise in adding capacity to your teams, particularly in areas of student engagement and wellbeing. Here are some ways we can support your work:

• Community Building and Residential Life Capacity: We can help enhance the student experience in your halls of residence by adding expert capacity to Res Life teams.
• Research and Engagement Projects: Our team is equipped to conduct high-quality research and deliver impactful student engagement initiatives.
• Hiring Freeze Support: If your institution is navigating a hiring freeze, we offer flexible solutions with short-, medium-, and long-term contracts at highly competitive rates.
• Adviser and Counsellor Services: Our adviser programme can fill capacity gaps in your student services with experienced professionals, providing essential support for your students.
• Out-of-Hours Services: We know students don’t operate on a 9-to-5 schedule. Our team can provide evening and weekend inbox coverage, ensuring your casework stays up-to-date and your students get timely support.
• Service Delivery: In 2025, we’ll be running an independent academic advice service for one of the largest growing universities in the country. We can design and operate similar services tailored to your needs.

If You Work in a Students’ Union

Students’ Unions face unique challenges, and over the past year, we’ve been proud to provide tailored support. A standout example is our partnership with Leeds Trinity Students’ Union, where we’ve worked flexibly on a wide range of projects. Here’s what we’ve achieved and are working on for them:

• Delivered by-elections for student council positions.
• Analysed course rep feedback and produced a high level report.
• Council Member Training
• Course Rep Training
• Conducted an internal investigation aligned with their complaints procedure.
• Review of the Bye-Laws
• Provided detailed planning and risk assessment for Varsity events.
• Supported officers with their work and provided access to our Gromentum micro-learning platform.
• Planning their awards ceremony and produced an observational report for their board.

This partnership has allowed LTSU to access flexible capacity while achieving strategic and operational goals. If your students’ union needs support in areas like democracy, officer training, or project management, we can offer the same level of tailored, impactful service.

Additionally, we can provide experienced student advisers to handle appointments, triage, and casework. Like our university offer, these advisers can also work evenings and weekends to meet student demand.

Strategic Projects and Reviews

Beyond day-to-day capacity, Alkhemy can help drive strategic change within your organisation. Here’s how we can support you in 2025:

• Democracy Reviews: Are your democratic structures engaging students effectively? We can audit, compare, and suggest bold, innovative solutions.
• Election Reviews and Support: Whether it’s planning, management, or evaluation, we can take your elections to the next level. Drawing on years of experience at running elections with a career high turnout of 39% for individual voters.
• Advice Service Reviews: From evaluating service performance to recommending improvements, we provide actionable insights and have a service benchmarking tool.
• Student Investigations and Mediations: Need external support for sensitive cases? We offer professional, impartial services for investigations and mediations.
• Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategies: We can help you improve your approach to supporting students’ and staff’s mental health.
• Custom Research Projects: Whether it’s understanding student needs or assessing your impact, we deliver high-quality research tailored to your goals.
• Capacity for Smaller Students’ Unions: With limited resources and high demands, smaller unions can struggle to deliver their work. We can provide the capacity needed to make a difference.

Reflections on 2024

This year has been one of significant change for Alkhemy. We’ve faced tough times, including transitioning to an associate-only model and redefining how we work (this does not do justice to how tough this was for people associated with Alkhemy, I'll do a wider reflection piece of this, in time). But alongside these challenges, we’ve achieved notable successes

From supporting Leeds Trinity Students’ Union over the summer into winter to signing our largest-ever partnership in the advice space (announcement to come in the New Year), our work has demonstrated the impact Alkhemy can have across HE. As we look to the future, we are recruiting skilled associates with expertise in student engagement, wellbeing, and strategic project delivery. Our pipeline for 2025 is strong, and we are actively seeking new partners to collaborate with in meaningful ways.

How We Can Help You in 2025

If you’re a CEO, director, or manager in a students’ union or university, here’s how we can make a difference for you:

• Plugging capacity gaps during hiring freezes, maternity leave, or staff transitions.
• Interim Management, at all levels
• Delivering strategic projects that require specialist expertise.
• Providing affordable, flexible support without long-term commitments.
• Offering on-site or remote services to fit your organisation’s needs.

As someone who has recently gained the ability to travel more flexibly (yes, I passed my driving test last year!), I’m happy to provide an in-person presence across the UK if required.

Addendum: Expanding Our Training and Support Offer

At Alkhemy, we pride ourselves on being versatile, innovative, and impactful. If your students' union, guild, or association is looking for support, we offer a wide range of training and capacity-building services tailored to your needs:

• Mediation Training and Services: Equip your team with tools to handle conflicts between officers, staff, or student leaders. Alternatively, we can step in and mediate directly to resolve complex situations.
• Officer Training and Support: From conflict resolution to mentoring and coaching, we can help your officers and staff work together more effectively.
• Working Together Programme: A bespoke initiative to improve officer-staff dynamics, fostering collaboration and understanding.
• Clubs and Societies Support: Innovative solutions to enhance your support for student groups.
• NSS Reviews and Action Plans: Let us help you interpret results, develop actionable strategies, and improve the student experience.
• Student-Led Teaching Awards: Design and deliver a meaningful awards programme that celebrates excellence in teaching.
• Bylaw Reviews, Election Delivery, and Debriefs: Comprehensive support for your democratic processes, ensuring transparency and engagement.
• Research and Insight Projects: Whether it’s a society audit, focus groups, or tailored research, we deliver high-quality insights.
• Meeting Support for Officers: Lighten the load for your officers by helping them navigate paperwork and prepare for meetings.

We bring a high level of expertise and adaptability, making us well-suited to meet the unique challenges of the student engagement space. Whether you need help with a specific project or ongoing support, we’re here for you.

Looking Forward

While Alkhemy may not look the same as it did a year ago, our mission remains unchanged: to reduce burnout, overwork, and capacity pressures in higher education while improving student engagement and wellbeing.

If you’d like to explore how Alkhemy can help you in 2025, I’d love to have a conversation. Our website is a bit out of date and having a review. So whether it’s a quick phone call, a Zoom meeting, or an in-person chat, let’s talk about how we can work together to achieve your goals. Click here to arrange a half hour chit chat

A Heartfelt Thanks to Our Team

As I reflect on 2024, it’s important to acknowledge the extraordinary contributions of the people who made Alkhemy what it is today: our incredible staff team. While they have now moved on to new ventures, their impact remains woven into the fabric of what we do.

First and foremost, Molly Knight , who was with us the longest, she is simply irreplaceable. Her loyalty, passion, and unwavering support for Alkhemy made her an incredible advocate for our mission. Even in her departure, Molly demonstrated a level of grace and professionalism that I will always be grateful for—thank you, Molly, from both Amy Kasper-Hope and me.

Andrew Bowie brought brilliance to the student voice space, delivering exceptional work and showcasing a rare talent for reviewing and improving democratic structures. His insights and expertise elevated our approach and left a lasting mark on the way we serve students and Unions, often supporting SUs excel from his home remotely in Orkney.

Barbara Pereira joined us with enthusiasm and immediately made a difference by diving headfirst into projects and partnerships. Her innovative approach to supporting clubs, societies, and student opportunities helped Alkhemy push boundaries and create meaningful change.

Sol Gjøines really helped revolutionised our internal processes, creating a robust policy framework and delivering training with a refreshing can-do attitude. Sol’s contribution to Growmentum, our training programme, was invaluable, and her ability to tackle challenges head-on will always be remembered.

To Christopher Carr, Hannah Winslade, Lisa Burton, and Iman Salem, your contributions also made Alkhemy a better organisation. Thank you for everything you brought to the table.

I am so grateful for the work this team achieved, and I wish each of them all the best in their future endeavours. I also look forward to continuing to work with some of them in their new roles as associates, helping to advance Alkhemy’s mission in fresh and exciting ways.

Thank You to Our Associates

We also owe an enormous thank you to our team of associates, who have played a vital role in delivering our services throughout the year. Your expertise and flexibility have been key to supporting our partners, and we’re grateful to have you as part of the Alkhemy community.

Special thanks to:

• Gillian O'Gorman
• Faith Ross
• Declan Katwala
• Tecola Smith
• Denica Shute
• Ali Chahine
• Emelie Helsen
• Asra Hussein

Your contributions have not gone unnoticed, and we look forward to continuing this journey with you in 2025.

Our Partners: Universities and Students' Unions

To the universities we’ve worked with:

• Glasgow University
• University of Surrey
• University Academy 92

You’ve trusted us to bring innovative solutions to your campuses, whether through research projects, student engagement initiatives, training or capacity-building efforts. Your openness to collaboration has been inspiring and has allowed us to make meaningful contributions to enhance your student experience - thank you.

To the students' unions, guilds, and associations who partnered with us this year:

• Arden University Students' Association
• Birmingham City Students' Union
• Bolton Students’ Union
• Bristol SU
• Christ Church Students' Union
• City, University of London Students' Union
• Durham Students' Union
• Edinburgh University Students' Association
• Leeds Beckett Students' Union
• Leeds Trinity Students' Union
• London Metropolitan University Students Union
• Loughborough Students' Union
• Mary Immaculate College SU
• Newcastle University Students' Union
• Open University Students Association
• Oxford University Student Union
• Southampton University Students' Union
• Students' Union at Bournemouth University
• Students' Union UCL
• The SU Bath
• The Students' Union, Queen Margaret University
• The Union of Brunel Students
• UL Student Life (University of Limerick Student Life)
• University of Bradford Union
• University of Manchester Students' Union
• University of Nottingham Students' Union
• University of Strathclyde Students' Association
• Wolves Students' Union

Your energy and passion for improving the student experience have been remarkable. From helping you deliver elections and reviews to supporting your officer training and capacity building, it’s been an honour to work alongside you in shaping better opportunities for students.

Special Thanks

A particular mention goes to Leeds Trinity Students' Union and University of Limerick Student Life, who have been standout collaborators this year. Your repeated engagements with us and the scale of our work together have been critical to Alkhemy’s success and growth.

To Leeds Trinity Students' Union, thank you for being an exemplar of flexibility and trust, allowing us to support you across projects big and small. To UL Student Life, your partnership has helped us expand our reach and impact in new and exciting ways.

Looking Ahead

2024 has been a year of change, challenge, and personal growth, and we couldn’t have done it without your support. As we enter 2025, we’re excited about building on these partnerships and forging new ones. Whether you’re a longstanding collaborator or considering working with us for the first time, we’re ready to help you reduce burnout, bridge capacity gaps, and achieve your goals.

Oh My Friends, It's Been a Long Hard Year

Whilst this year has been long and hard for Amy Kasper-Hope and I; we've also seen our 4 year old Lily start school and she keeps developing everyday, we've also welcomed Willow Sarah Kasper-Hope into the world, she's now 4 and a half months. Despite everything my girls have been my true north, my new "why' that keeps me going.

I am most thankful for my girls and to live with them, see them grow everyday is truly a reason to be grateful because what ever happens with Alkhemy or in my career my most important role is being a father and husband. Finally, I want to show the utmost gratitude to my wife Amy, who is Managing Director at Alkhemy and current back on maternity leave - after the drama of the summer meant that you had to come back and work during maternity leave, I love and cherish you.

To all partners and stakeholders - Take care and all the best,

Ollie Kasper-Hope, CEO at Alkhemy