Frequently Asked Questions

One of the unique parts of being a full-time sabbatical officer is that you will become a charity trustee of the organisation. You will sit on the Board of Trustees, alongside 2 student trustees and 4 external (non-student) trustees and shall be responsible for the management and administration of The Students’ Union. They are responsible for the governance, budget and strategy of The Students’ Union and for ensuring that decisions made by the organisation are in keeping with the best interests of the students’ we represent.

To be a charity trustee, you must fulfil the following criteria:

• At least 18 years old

• No unspent convictions for offenses such as: dishonesty, terrorism, money laundering, misconduct in public office

• Not previously disqualified from being a trustee

• Not currently declared bankrupt

• Not on the sex offenders register

• Able to attend regular Board of Trustee meetings

More information about the trustee roles and responsibilities can be found in the Constitution  . If you have any concerns about not being able to meet the criteria, or have further questions about being a charity trustee, email SUElections@uwe.ac.uk.

Head to The Students’ Union Elections page here to start your nomination process, please ensure that you are signed into the website and that your nomination is submitted before Wednesday 11 March at 12:00 midday.

You will need to gather the support of 5 seconders who support your proposal to run in the election. Your proposers are not obliged to vote for you when voting opens, they must be current students at the university.

When nominating yourself you will be asked to provide information on your campaign that will form your manifesto, this will be included in election material so highly recommend you think about this carefully before submitting your nomination.

If you know someone who would be a great student leader, why don’t you refer them using our ‘Champion a Contender’ referral form?

Your nomination is now pending approval, you will receive an update on whether you are approved as a candidate within 3 working days, once the Elections team have checked the eligibility of you and your 5 supporters. If there is an issue with your eligibility you will be contacted by the Elections team with clear actions to resolve.

All candidates must attend the Candidate Briefing to find out who else in running, get key information ahead of the elections and have the opportunity to ask the Elections team questions. The Candidate Briefing will take place on Thursday 12 March 2026 at 17:00 in Union 1 on Frenchay Campus (U Block).

If you change your mind and decide you do not want to run in the Elections or you want to run for another position instead, select 'Withdraw' under 'Action' or you can email SUElections@uwe.ac.uk to withdraw your nomination.

A manifesto is a declaration of your policies, aims and targets of the candidate. It should clearly lay out what your priorities are relating to key issues facing students and have you propose to find solutions for them. We recommend that you stick to no more than five key target areas that will form your manifesto, remember to think about how you are going to do it and who you will work with!

For all candidates we require the following information which will form part of your campaign materials in The Student Elections advertising:

• What experiences, skills, passions and roles you have that make you the best candidate for the role?

• What your key priorities and targets are if you were successful in being elected?

You have 400 words to play with across both sections so make them count, we have also put together this handy manifesto guide   to help you make the most of your manifesto space!

You can only run for one of the positions in the Election so choose wisely!

The Elections Team are Students' Union staff members and external stakeholders who are responsible for the conduct of the elections and ensuring that our elections are free, fair, and accessible to all UWE Bristol students.

For The Student Elections 2026, the Elections team are:

• Returning Officer: Peter Robertson (he/him) - external

• Deputy Returning Officer: Em Harvey (she/her) - The Students' Union at UWE

• Assistant Returning Officers: Rebecca Mosley (she/her), Han Morgan (they/them) and Finlay Stevenson (he/him) - The Students' Union at UWE

Email SUElections@uwe.ac.uk with your name, ID Number and a screen shot of the issue, we will get back to you as soon as we can.

Once your nomination has been confirmed by the Elections team you will be invited to a Candidate Briefing session where we will run through everything you need to know ready to start your campaign. This session will be mandatory for all candidates to engage with as it will cover all the rules, useful information and support and will be held on Thursday 12 March 2026 at 17:00 in Union 1 on Frenchay Campus (U Block).

Key resources for all candidates can be accessed in anticipation of the campaign window, including:

• Effective Campaigning Workshop

• Student Engagement and Confident Networking Workshop

• Manifesto and campaign support from the Elections team

You may also want to enlist support from your friends and fellow students to act as your Campaign Manager or be part of your Campaign Team. They can attend briefings and meetings with you and be kept in the loop with key information. You can also name up to 10 other campaigners to officially support you and form part of your campaign team. You will need to submit the names and student numbers of your Campaign Manager and campaigners to the Election team before the campaign period begins.

Alumni are former students from UWE Bristol. The Students’ Union at UWE’s Articles and Bye-Laws state that democracy is an exercise for full members of the union – the current students of UWE Bristol. As such, we have ruled that alumni cannot be part of campaign teams and campaign teams can be made up of current registered UWE Bristol students.

Yes, your sport or society can officially endorse you during the campaign period. Official endorsement will only be approved with evidence from the sport or society committee showing that a vote in the committee has yielded a majority in favour of endorsement, if you are on the committee your vote does not count. Once an endorsement has been confirmed this will be made public on the Endorsement page, candidates may seek to gain endorsement from the committee before the campaign period begins but campaign material must not be posted until the campaign period begins. More information about endorsements and the official process to follow can be found in the Elections Rules  .

You can start creating and preparing materials for your campaign once your nomination has been confirmed but cannot actively campaign until the following dates:

• Digital Campaigning – once mandatory training is completed (earliest briefing date is Thursday 12 March 2026)

• Physical Campaigning (e.g. posters) - from Friday 20 March 2026 at 08:00.

For The Student Elections 2026, you are able to campaign in a slate (where two or more candidates campaign collaboratively on a joint platform). This means you can work with other candidates to produce resources to show you are working together and aligned in your approach and plans as student leaders if elected, these resources are equally distributed when considering election budgets. You can form a slate with candidates from as many election roles as you wish but can only have one candidate per role in your slate.

Slates are official groups of candidates (confirmed with the Election team by the deadline) who have committed to working together during the election campaign period. They can collaborate to share resources and work together to produce campaign materials that platforms all candidates equally. All candidates in the slates have a collective responsibility to ensure that rules aren’t being broken by any members, this includes that the £50 spending limit per person is not exceeded. However, if a member of a slate breaches the rules and the Elections team have concluded that other members of the slate have gained an unfair advantage over other candidates then they are subject to sanction also.

Collaborative campaigning allows candidates who do not wish to be in an official slate the opportunity to work with other candidates who they wish to work with should they be elected. They can campaign together but are not able to share resources between each other. All candidates are responsible for their own election spending and not able to ‘loan’ any unspent budget to another candidate or to share campaign materials.

Each candidate has a £50 spending limit which can be claimed back with valid receipts and evidence. You must submit your budget form   by Wednesday 25 March at 12:00, even if you have not spent anything. There will a drop-in session in the Upper Engagement Space on the morning of the budget deadline to support candidates with any issues they may have with their budget forms, this information will be communicated during the Campaign Briefing. After this deadline has passed, you are not able to produce any more campaign materials, including printing.

There is no limit to numbers of materials that can be ordered so long as the £50 budget is being kept. We would strongly encourage candidates to consider the environmental impact of their campaign and keep printed materials or single use items to a minimum.

Yes! Candidates using UWE Bristol student printers at no cost will need to declare their printing through the Elections Budget Form to add to their budget limit at the following rates:

• 5p per A3/A4 (or 2 x A5) black & white page

• 15p per A3/A4 (or 2 x A5) single sided colour page

• 30p per A3/A4 (or 2 x A5) double sided colour page

• Large scale: A2 (£2), A1 (£4), A0 (£8)

For example: A candidate uses the printer to print 100 colour A4 posters for their campaign. Although it did not cost them anything, they will need to declare £5 (100 x 5p) on their budget form and now have £45 of their £50 budget left to spend.

The Elections Team requires campaigns to submit a copy of their printing history from UWE Bristol, to get a copy you must log into your printing account here  . If you require any additional support then please contact the Elections team in advance of the budget deadline on Wednesday 25 March at 12:00.

Yes, as long as these posters are accounted for within your campaign expenditure and you have permission to put them up from the person who owns/manages the location. Please note that flyposting – putting up posters/stickers on lampposts, boarded up shops, or walls without consent – is illegal. You can receive a fine from the council, and a sanction from the elections team. If in doubt, ask.

Yes, you may knock on doors on Frenchay and Glenside campuses – please respect the residents wishes if they do not want to talk about the elections with you!

Our election rules exist to ensure that, as a democratic and student-led organisation, our members get to have their say on how The Students' Union is run and who their student leaders are. We want our elections to be free, fair, and compliant with the rules and relevant legislation.

We understand that with passion for running in elections there may be things that campaigns do which do not align with these general principles, therefore we have a comprehensive complaints process in place. For more information on the complaints process, head to the rules section of the Elections pages.

Details of the voting period will be published on the Election timeline and will be conducted online via The Students’ Union website. You can either vote using your own personal device or you can access a polling station in the locations published on the website. Please note that candidates are not permitted to provide their own voting devices and voters have a right to decline using this.