Frequently Asked Questions

Every student at UWE Bristol automatically becomes a member of The Students’ Union when they start university, which means we have more than 39,000 members.

The Students’ Union at UWE is led by students, for students, with our elected Presidents and Part-Time Officers representing your academic and student experience.

They do this through:

• shaping Students’ Union policy ;

• running campaigns  on campus, locally and joining national movements; and

• attending meetings at various levels of the University to make sure your views are heard!

Elected Student Leaders work with a team of staff to enrich your university experience by giving you as many opportunities as possible while at UWE Bristol.

At The Students’ Union, we have five full time, paid Presidents who have been elected by the students to represent the student voice and improve the student experience at UWE Bristol, locally in the region and on a nation level as part of NUS .

Our Presidents and Vice Presidents are leaders, commercial directors and trustees  of the Students’ Union.

The roles that you can run for in The Student Elections 2025 are:

• President

• Vice-President Education

• Vice-President Community and Welfare

• Vice-President Sports and Health

• Vice-President Societies and Communication

For more information on what each role does, check out the full role details and job descriptions here .

Part-Time Officers are students who have been elected by you to work on a voluntary basis. They each have a specific role or focus and work closely with The Students' Union Presidents to improve the student experience for our diverse student body.

The roles that you can run for in The Student Elections 2025 are:

• Black Minority Ethnic (BME) Officer

• City Campus Officer

• Disabled Students’ Officer

• Glenside Campus Officer

• International Students’ Officer

• Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT+) Officer

• Men's Welfare Officer

• Postgraduate Officer

• Sustainability Officer

• Trans Welfare Officer

• Women's Welfare Officer

For more information on what each role does, check out the role descriptions here .

The Democratic Procedures Officer (DPO) role is to make sure that democracy at The Students’ Union works by ensuring it's fun, engaging and inclusive. They can propose changes to how the democratic systems work to ensure they continuously improve and are relevant to the students of UWE. Ultimately, the DPOs ensures Student Ideas and Student Council Meetings take place, and are transparent, and adhere to the bye-laws .

We elect 4 DPOs each academic year, for more information on what the role does, check out the role descriptions here .

National Union of Students (NUS)  is the national union representing university and college students across the UK. At NUS England Conference students from across the United Kingdom from a range of Higher Education and Further Education Colleges and Universities decide what issues the NUS will campaign for and who its leaders will be for the upcoming year. The NUS is a democratic membership led organisation, which means they are run by students for students. This means all the positions that students hold are elected, they elect students during conference, so UWE delegates have a direct say in who is going to represent students nationally in the next academic year.

Every year The Students' Union at UWE sends a delegation made up of the President and 10 elected students to the Conference, which typically runs every April in England for two days of workshops, committee discussions and to elect the next leaders of the NUS.

There is a full Student Elections timeline which outlines key dates such as when you can nominate yourself, what briefings you need to attend and when you can start getting out there and getting votes in your campaign. This timeline can be found on the Elections homepage. 

To run for any position in the elections  you must be a registered UWE Bristol student (undergraduate or postgraduate). Your term of office is for the academic year 2025 - 2026, and runs from June 2025 – June 2026.

For the President and Vice-President roles, it is a full-time (37 hours per week) role with an employment contract.

1. You must have the relevant right to work documents and paperwork to work full-time in the UK for the entirety of your term. You also will not be studying during your sabbatical  year and must either have completed your studies or willing to defer your studies during your term.

2. You will also be a trustee of the university, there you must be eligible to be a charity trustee. 

For the Part Time Officer, Democratic Procedures Officer or NUS Conference Delegate roles you must be a registered student during your term or the time that Conference takes place.

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 12 February 2025 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?

A manifesto  is a declaration of your policies, aims and targets of the candidate. It should clearly lay out what your priorities are for your term in office and how you intend to make it happen. 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 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 can only run for one of the following positions: President, Vice-President, Part-Time Officer or Democratic Procedures Officer.

You can also run to be an NUS Delegate for NUS Conference in addition to a role above, or run for NUS Delegate on its own.

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 2025, the Elections team are:

• Returning Officer (external) - Peter Robertson (he/him) - National Union of Students

• Deputy Returning Officer - Em Harvey (she/her) - The Students’ Union at UWE, Representation Projects Manager

• Assistant Returning Officers - The Students' Union at UWE, Representation Coordinators

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.

We will be providing workshops and resources for all candidates to access in anticipation of the campaign window, including:

• Effective Campaigning Workshop

• Student Engagement and Confident Networking Workshop

• Top Tips and Wellbeing 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.