Student Reps is run as a partnership between the University and The Students' Union. This section contains all the information you need to know about Student Reps in one handy page. Use the links below to jump to the information you need. Please can the headings link to the relevant sections below:
The role of a Rep
What The Students' Union does?
What the University does?
FAQs
The primary duty of a Student Rep is to ensure that they effectively collate and communicate the views of the students they represent, ensuring the feedback loop is closed by communicating the outcomes of this process back to their peers. They are expected to attend Student Rep Staff Forums at a programme level to discuss local course issues with their tutors and programme leaders.
School Reps are the link between the Student Reps and the Lead School Reps and represent the student voice. They work closely with the Lead School Reps. Each academic school will have two School Reps that focus on the following remits: School Rep for Sustainability: to gain feedback and insight on UWE’s commitment to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).
School Rep for Diversity and Inclusivity: to ensure inclusivity and diversity of course content, teaching delivery and services at a school level.
LSRs are the senior branch of our student representation system; they are employed by The Students’ Union to represent students at School Executive, School Boards of Study, LTSEC and Academic Board. It is the role of the LSR to ensure that student feedback is presented at top-level meetings and that outcomes are fed back to relevant parties. In addition to this, LSRs are tasked with providing critical feedback on the extent to which the student voice is represented within the meetings they attend, thus allowing The Students’ Union to monitor best practice and track engagement across the University governance structure.
During the induction period The Students’ Union promotes Student Reps through mailings, the Freshers’ Fair, welcome events and posters and leaflets. The Students’ Union also attends induction talks to give a brief overview of Student Reps. This promotion includes what the role is, what it entails, and the benefits of being a Student Rep and how to get involved. In regards to getting involved students are asked to contact their programme leader and look out for elections in their course in the first few weeks of term.
As well as supporting programmes and students through the Student Rep election period, The Students' Union coordinates the School Rep elections and Lead School Rep recruitment.
The Students’ Union provides training to all Student Reps; this is an hour and a half long session. The training session takes place during the first term and includes information about their role, key skills and extra opportunities. These sessions take place both physically and also online. Student Reps who are elected onto further committees also have the opportunity to attend advanced training sessions. Students must attend a face-to-face training or online session in order to be eligible to participate in the Student Rep Certificate Scheme and get the role added to their Higher Education Achievement Report.
Some of the topics covered within the Induction Rep Training:
- How to be an effective representative - ensuring you bring the view of your cohort and not your individual view.
- Meetings - Structures, etiquette and expectations.
- The wider rep role - What is expected and how to signpost students to support services for issues that fall outside of the role.
Offers ongoing help and support to Student Reps.
Throughout the year we offer help and support for Student Reps; this may be answering queries and helping with specific issues the Student Reps are facing through to working on campaigns with students to tackling topics students want addressing.
The Students’ Union hosts an annual Student Experience Awards near the end of the year academic year. Special awards are given out for outstanding achievements from Student Reps and staff interacting with representation over the course of the academic year. Awards are given out to Student Reps and UWE staff who achieved amazing things throughout the academic year. It is also a thank you to the Student Reps who maintained the academic representation system that year.
Student Reps can also work towards a Student Rep Certificate. They have to fill in the required aspirations and reflections at the beginning and end of the academic year respectively in order to receive their certificate. Additionally, once filling out the forms, they will also have their Higher Education Achievement Record updated to show their involvement as a rep. Student Reps can also have their activity verified as part of the Bristol Futures Award too.
It is important that each course promotes the Student Rep positions available on their course. The Students’ Union will do general promotion but it is vital that each course does specific promotion as well.
The most important part that UWE plays is to elect Student Reps; this should take place in the first few weeks of term. The contact details of the Student Reps need to be uploaded to the Student Rep Database as soon as possible by the elected student. This can be done in class via this link: go.uwe.ac.uk/RepRegister. Without these details, we cannot offer Student Reps the Induction Training, support or invite them to Students’ Union meetings or Awards nights.
For each course and year there should be at least one Student Rep. If courses are fairly large then more Student Reps will be required. The ideal ratio between Student Reps and Students is 1 in 25. We do not limit the number of Student Reps on each course as there are often a number of students eager to get involved. However, too many Student Reps is not effective. It is mainly the duty of the programme leader to carry out Student Rep elections for each course (There is guidance available on the above 'Rep Elections Guidance' tab). We only ask that all students are happy for those students to represent them.
Programme Year Reps should be elected at the first SRSF of the year to be ready to attend PMCs. One PYR should be elected per cohort of study.
The University is responsible for organising the Student Rep Staff Forums to which all the Student Reps on the programme should be invited. Mostly these happen five times a year.
The deadline for Student Reps to be elected is within the first four weeks of term starting. We understand that this is a tight deadline to meet, however in order to train Reps before the first round of UWE meetings and give them the skills required to be effective in their role this deadline is really key.
UWE and The Students’ Union collaboratively keep a Student Rep database which records information about whether Student Reps were trained, whether they attend meetings and when they were added to the database in the first instance. The data showed that in some years, trained Reps were 45% more likely to engage with the Student Rep process so it is clear the importance of getting reps on the database. We are also keen that where possible reps are trained before their first meeting, and need the names promptly to do this.
The Students' Union Representation team have developed alternative methods to engage with Part Time / Placement and Distance Learning students who may not be able to engage with the traditional representational structure. We are also happy to work with schools and SRSF clusters to develop remote engagement methods. We have worked with the CSCT Placement Cluster to introduce simple technology which has allowed the cluster to function with each Rep taking part in the meeting from remote locations across the country.
Reps who meet any of the aforementioned criteria will also be able to engage in online Rep training, to allow them to receive the same level of quality training, but in their own time without the need to travel. This will then be verified by an online interactive quiz to ensure that they have engaged in the trainings key content.
In regards to SRSF meetings there are also ways in which staff can make sure that all students have their voice heard, especially if you are in a cluster which has a mix of students who are distance and those who are on-campus. One simple way you can do this is by allowing students to see the agenda in advance and provide feedback via email. This can then be discussed in the meeting. If you do this, make sure you allow them a period of time to review the minutes and come back with any additional comments. If you’d like to get more technical and would like to create a virtual meeting, speak to The Students' Union Representation team who can advise you on the best ways to do this.
Student Reps attend training and should be elected by their cohort so will be representative of their cohort. Problems occur when Student Reps are not democratically elected into their role, if students are selected by module leaders or asked to do the role via email, the importance and representational nature is lost.
Student Reps can only be representative if they are given the opportunity to collect and provide feedback. Ensuring that students have the ability to do this is of the utmost importance. This can be done by:
a) Going through the Rep Agreement with them (see the resources tab to download a copy). The Rep Agreement is designed to allow Student Reps to understand what we expect of them and what they can, in return, expect from us.
b) Giving the Student Rep 5-10 minutes at the start of a lecture/seminar/tutorial to ask for feedback, perhaps using feedback cards to be collected at the end (we can provide these).
c) Encourage students who aren’t Student Reps to use their Student Reps to ensure they’re representative. A Student Rep can only voice student opinion if they have the cohort behind them!
d) Sending an email on the Student Representatives behalf asking for feedback about the course/module/programme
e) Creating a section on Blackboard that can act as a discussion board for students
f) Encourage the students to set up a Facebook Page or similar social media option where they can invite other cohort members to feedback
g) Ask Student Reps to create a questionnaire online about a particular topic and help them by circulating this to students
Encouraging all staff members to allow time for this to happen will make sure that your Student Reps are being representative of their cohort.
If you still don’t feel the Student Rep is being representative, please pass their name to the Students’ Union (studentreps@uwe.ac.uk) and we can offer extra training and support to the student. Please also contact us if you have concerns about a Student Reps conduct.
The Lead School Rep and the School Reps (three Reps) are Student Reps who have been additionally selected or elected by the student body to carry out additional duties and represent their School. School Reps are elected online in November and voted for by the Student Rep body from their schools. Lead School Reps are recruited though a joint interview process (between The Students’ Union and a HoD or AHoD from each academic school).
The Lead School Rep and School Reps are responsible for representing their School at higher level meetings. For example the Lead School Rep attends the Academic Standards and Quality Committee. The School Reps (along with the Lead) attend the School Executive. The group become a representative sample of students in the School, but it is important to note they cannot report on SRSFs directly as we do not elect up from every SRSF.
Both of these roles also attend Student Rep Committee, a meeting organised by The Students’ Union and is the meeting of all the senior Reps from each school along with trained Reps to discuss university wide issue and other thematic discussions. From Student Rep Committee, Student Reps are elected to Academic Board and Learning, Teaching, Student Experience Committee (LTSEC).
The exact way in which each SRSF is run can be decided at a local level. The UWE Bristol Principles of Academic Representation mean that meetings can happen in a way that makes sense locally and delivers real enhancement opportunities. For example, if you want to run your meeting in a more informal catch-up style, then as long as the meetings outcomes are captured and actionable, it still counts as valid under the governance structure. You can find the full Principles of Academic Representation document here. Please link to Principles of Academic Representation on new website.
Students are able to see who their Student Rep/Reps are within their MyUWE Portal. It will display all the reps within their programme and it will also place a * next to reps they share modules with. Student Reps also appear on Blackboard on the programme tab.
We also know some schools also publish posters with pictures of their reps and place them in key areas, we recommend this practice and encourage this to spread across the institution. Ultimately another key way for students to know who their Reps are is by allowing the elected Reps 5 minutes at the start of a lecture to speak to the students, to introduce themselves but to also gather valuable feedback they can then take forward to meetings.
Please do! Email The Students’ Union Representation team by emailing studentreps@uwe.ac.uk and we will answer any unresolved questions. Plus we will feature them in this section too.
Photo by Gunnar Ridderstrom on Unsplash