Back in September, the Students’ Union and College came together to launch a brand new Academic Representation system. This followed a six month
Academic Representation Review, crucially aimed at bringing consistency and standardisation to the way we do things across departments, as well as empowering Academic Reps to have a stronger and more visible voice on campus. The result of the review was a report which highlighted 42 recommendations for improvement.
At the six month mark, I wanted to take a quick look back on what has been achieved so far.
The biggest change has been a move to online elections for all Academic Rep positions, ensuring complete fairness and transparency in the process. This led to a whopping 323 Academic Reps being elected this year, to represent you in your course, your department and your faculty.
Look out for them in your lectures, they’ll be the ones wearing the green t-shirts. They’re often the unsung heroes but are working hard behind the scenes with a commitment to make positive improvements to your educational experience.
As well as attending more formal Staff Student Committees – where they discuss key topics affecting you with academic staff – much of the change they make will come from other ad-hoc meetings with academic staff. So far this year we have 85 recorded impacts from Academic Reps, which range from extending deadlines to improved feedback on assessments and supporting students to register with DDS and Wellbeing. Sometimes these impacts will improve the experience for one student and sometimes they will improve the experience for 300 students – both are equally important to us. You can find out more about what they’ve done in our most recent
Rep Impact Update.
Another huge step forward is the involvement of academic reps in pulling together a student voice report for
Periodic Departmental Reviews. This change can’t be understated and will have a massive impact in ensuring student voices are heard at the highest level during the strategic development of departments.
Academic representation should be about continuous improvement, and as such we will continue to work with College to consider other ways that Academic Reps can be involved and their voices heard.
If you’re unsure who your reps are then you can find out via the
Find My Rep function of the Students’ Union website. If you want to recognise your Academic Rep for their work, why not submit a nomination for
Rep of the Month on our website? And lastly, Academic Reps rely on your feedback. If you have ideas for change, no matter how small you might consider them to be, I’d really encourage you to get in touch with your Academic Rep to discuss. You never know what change might follow.
Have a great day,
Jack O’Neill – Vice President Education