Students in Carmarthen have asked us some questions about the summer ball, so we’ve put together some Frequently Asked Questions to communicate more widely.
 
In September 2025, some Humanities students moved to continue their studies on the Carmarthen campus. Was this factored into ticket numbers?
 Yes, we put on 100 tickets (attendance and food). This was based on:

• The attendance last year (across both the Carmarthen and Lampeter Summer Balls)
• The number of students who moved to the Carmarthen campus. (Not all students moved from Lampeter or they graduated).
• Students who were from St Vincent returned home, reducing the number of potential attendees.
• Some students decided not to transfer from Lampeter.

Is the Students' Union the University?
No, we are a separate charitable company. This allows us to be completely independent in our support to students; we are funded via a block grant from the University.
 

Does the Students' Union make a profit from the Summer ball?
No. We do not make any profit from the Summer Ball, we make a loss.  Overall, the summer ball costs us £16 per person to provide a buffet and party to 100 students, tickets cost £10. This is a loss of over £600 on the event.  For each additional ticket we make available, we lose another £6.

Students have been clear with us that the cost of living crisis is impacting them significantly. We still want to offer you something to celebrate the end of the year. This is one of the reasons the ticket price is £10.
To give you more information on how our bar works: The bar sales on the night generally (not always) cover the cost of the staff and the stock that is sold, we do not make a profit on this either.

Why are we holding the Summer Ball in the Student Union this year?
This is simply because by doing this we can keep the costs down for students.  Unfortunately, we were not able to put on an event such as last year (sit down meal in the Halliwell) as the costs were too high, we could not have absorbed the additional cost and still offer the tickets for £10.
 

Has the Student Union experienced budget cuts?
At this time, we have been fortunate that we have not had any of our Block grant funding from the University reduced. We thank the University for their continued support during a financially challenging time. However, our budget stayed the same for 2025 and 2026 academic years.  Over this time, we have enhanced our professional staff team to ensure we can meet the needs of students, we have also increased our presence on the London and Birmingham campuses, providing enhanced services to over 3000 students on these campuses during any academic year. However, we have not been able to increase the budget for the Summer balls.  Last year we were able to enhance the Summer balls with some funding we had saved in other areas of delivery, we have not been able to do that this year so have limited resources available to us.
 

Did the Student Union have additional funding for Lampeter Campus?
We did not have any additional funding for Lampeter, we provided our services on the campus within our existing budget.  It is important to note that the Lampeter Bar venue had made a loss for the last 3 years, this had to be absorbed into our budget.  We have enhanced our staff team in Student Voice and Advice to provide a more comprehensive service to students over the last year which is our core mission. The majority of the costs in Lampeter were staff salaries, these costs were transferred along with the staff or new recruits to deliver the core mission.
 

What has the Student Union done about the loss of lounge spaces in student flats?
Your Carmarthen Campus President, Jennifer Taylor has worked extremely hard to represent students concerns to the University over the last year. We have worked with the University to allow the SU building to be open until 3am and provide a dedicated space for students to book out. Unfortunately, due to our alcohol licence with the local authority, we cannot allow students to bring their own drink onto the premises. This is communicated via the terms and conditions when booking spaces in the SU (this is managed by the University).
 

Why are we charging £5 for an after party ticket?
We looked at other local venues and they charge around £5 to enter after a certain time. We wanted to give you the opportunity to carry on your evening until 1am (it is advertised until midnight), which incurs extra costs, including the DJ and security. The £5 fee will still not cover the full cost of the additional opening.