THE OPEN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS ASSOCIATION
Charity overview
Activities - how the charity spends its money
The Students Association provides support and services to students of the Open University, typical of a Students Union. This includes: i) listening to students and representing their voice and collective interests; ii) engaging students in a vibrant and active community, creating new opportunities; iii) enhancing the student experience and contributing to student success.
Income and expenditure
Data for financial year ending 31 July 2024
Total income:
£2,377,013
| Donations and legacies | £2.14m | |
| Charitable activities | £74.66k | |
| Other trading activities | £88.16k | |
| Investments | £73.47k | |
| Other | £1.85k |
Total expenditure:
£2,109,923
| Raising funds | £72.97k | |
| Charitable activities | £2.04m | |
| Other | £0 |
£0 investments gains (losses)
Charitable expenditure
Charitable expenditure with investment gains
Charitable expenditure
Some charities generate all, or a substantial part, of their income from investments which may have been donated to the charity as endowment or set aside by the charity from its own resources in the past. Such investments usually take the form of stocks and shares but may include other assets, such as property, that are capable of generating income and/or capital growth.
In managing their spending and investments charities need to strike a balance between the needs of future and current beneficiaries. They also need to take account of spending commitments that may stretch over a number of future years. To do this, charities will normally adopt an investment strategy designed to generate both income and capital growth. To maximise returns trustees may commit to investment strategies for several years.
Investments can experience large swings in value so trustees may, in a particular year, decide to realise and spend part of their charity’s capital or to invest part of its income.
By clicking the investment gains checkbox the charitable spending bar is adjusted to take account of capital growth as well as income. This shows the balance the charity is striking, between spending on current beneficiaries and retaining resources for future beneficiaries.
| Raising funds and other expenditure | £72.97k | |
| Charitable expenditure | £2.04m | |
| Retained for future use | £267.09k |
People
39 Employee(s)
11 Trustee(s)
214 Volunteer(s)
Employees with total benefits over £60,000
| Number of employees | |
|---|---|
| £70k to £80k | 1 |
Fundraising
Trading
Trustee payments
What, who, how, where
- Education/training
- Other Defined Groups
- Provides Services
- Provides Advocacy/advice/information
- Sponsors Or Undertakes Research
- Throughout England And Wales
- Austria
- Belgium
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Italy
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Netherlands
- Northern Ireland
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Scotland
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
Governance
- 11 June 2019: Standard registration
- 09 June 2020: Funds received from 1144251 OPEN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS ASSOCIATION
- OU STUDENTS ASSOCIATION (Working name)
- THE OPEN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS ASSOCIATION LIMITED (Previous name)
- Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
- Complaints handling
- Complaints policy and procedures
- Conflicting interests
- Engaging external speakers at charity events policy and procedures
- Financial reserves policy and procedures
- Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
- Internal risk management policy and procedures
- Investing charity funds policy and procedures
- Investment
- Paying staff
- Risk management
- Safeguarding policy and procedures
- Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
- Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
- Social media policy and procedures
- Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
- Trustee expenses policy and procedures
- Volunteer management
Trustees
Trustees are the people responsible for controlling the work, management and administration of the charity on behalf of its beneficiaries. Generally trustees are treasurer, chair, board member etc. The trustees are responsible for keeping this list up to date and can do this by updating their details as they happen through the online service
11 Trustee(s)
| Name | Role | Date of appointment | Other trusteeships | Reporting status of other trusteeships | ||||
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| Mark Gareth John Price | Chair | 22 May 2020 |
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| Kelly Georgina May Coker | Trustee | 01 August 2024 |
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| Garry Bravender | Trustee | 01 August 2024 |
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| Adelaide Ribaud | Trustee | 01 August 2024 |
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| Lily Joale | Trustee | 01 August 2024 |
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| Matthew John Porterfield | Trustee | 01 August 2024 |
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| Natalie Ellen Baker | Trustee | 01 August 2024 |
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| Andrew Wilson | Trustee | 01 August 2024 |
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| Alan Measures | Trustee | 15 April 2024 |
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| Claire Stibbon | Trustee | 25 March 2024 |
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| Claire Elizabeth Wallace | Trustee | 01 August 2019 |
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Financial history
Financial period end date
| Income / Expenditure | 31/07/2020 | 31/07/2021 | 31/07/2022 | 31/07/2023 | 31/07/2024 | ||
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Total gross income | £2.11m | £2.11m | £2.17m | £2.28m | £2.38m | |
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Total expenditure | £1.51m | £1.61m | £2.89m | £1.72m | £2.11m | |
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Income from government contracts | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | |
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Income from government grants | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | |
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Income - Donations and legacies | £1.92m | £1.96m | £1.99m | £2.10m | £2.14m | |
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Income - Other trading activities | £78.33k | £69.12k | £79.45k | £79.67k | £88.16k | |
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Income - Charitable activities | £110.55k | £77.68k | £100.76k | £74.52k | £74.66k | |
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Income - Endowments | £0 | £0 | £0 | £0 | £0 | |
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Income - Investment | £2.25k | £162 | £921 | £29.96k | £73.47k | |
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Income - Other | £0 | £0 | £0 | £3.62k | £1.85k | |
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Income - Legacies | £0 | £0 | £0 | £0 | £0 | |
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Expenditure - Charitable activities | £1.43m | £1.55m | £2.82m | £1.64m | £2.04m | |
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Expenditure - Raising funds | £81.00k | £61.87k | £68.60k | £78.08k | £72.97k | |
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Expenditure - Governance | £31.08k | £22.42k | £22.74k | £24.67k | £26.44k | |
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Expenditure - Grants institution | £0 | £0 | £0 | £2.85k | £2.55k | |
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Expenditure - Investment management | £0 | £0 | £0 | £0 | £0 | |
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Expenditure - Other | £0 | £0 | £0 | £0 | £0 |
Assets and liabilities
Definitions for assets and liabilities
These are assets, other than investments, which are held for more than 12 months and used to run and administer the charity such as buildings, offices, exhibits and fixtures and fittings.
Long term InvestmentsInvestments are assets held by the charity with the sole aim of generating income which will be used for their charitable purposes such as deposit accounts, shares, rental property and unit trusts.
Investment assets are re-valued every year and included in the balance sheet at their current market value.
Long term investments are held for more than 12 months.
These are assets held generally for less than 12 months such as cash and bank balances, debtors, investments to be sold within the coming year and trading stock.
Defined benefit pension scheme asset or liabilityThis is a surplus or deficit in any defined benefit pension scheme operated and represents a potential long-term asset or liability.
Total liabilitiesThese are all the amounts owed by the charity at the balance sheet date to third parties such as bills due but not yet paid, bank overdrafts and loans and mortgages.
| Asset / Liability | 31/07/2020 | 31/07/2021 | 31/07/2022 | 31/07/2023 | 31/07/2024 | ||
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Own use assets | £7.71k | £4.81k | £7.58k | £5.55k | £3.22k | |
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Long-term investments | £0 | £0 | £0 | £0 | £0 | |
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Other assets | £1.19m | £1.55m | £1.76m | £1.89m | £2.15m | |
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Defined benefit pension scheme asset or liability | £0 | -£418.51k | £0 | £0 | £0 | |
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Total liabilities | £622.35k | £64.21k | £1.41m | £975.91k | £108.63k |
Accounts and annual returns
| Title | Reporting year | Date received | Received | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annual return | 31 July 2024 | 14 May 2025 | On Time | |
| Accounts and TAR | 31 July 2024 | 14 May 2025 | On Time | Download Open in new window |
| Annual return | 31 July 2023 | 01 November 2023 | On Time | |
| Accounts and TAR | 31 July 2023 | 01 November 2023 | On Time | Download Open in new window |
| Annual return | 31 July 2022 | 08 December 2022 | On Time | |
| Accounts and TAR | 31 July 2022 | 08 December 2022 | On Time | Download Open in new window |
| Annual return | 31 July 2021 | 09 March 2022 | On Time | |
| Accounts and TAR | 31 July 2021 | 09 March 2022 | On Time | Download Open in new window |
| Annual return | 31 July 2020 | 05 March 2021 | On Time | |
| Accounts and TAR | 31 July 2020 | 05 March 2021 | On Time | Download Open in new window |