As a course representative, you gather and present feedback on students’ academic experiences so that staff can continually improve your course. You are usually required to attend two course committee meetings per year (one per semester) and the annual education conference hosted by the Students’ Union.
The type of issues you might gather feedback on include module deadlines, cancelled or late lectures, unavailability of past exam papers, issues with facilities or equipment, and anything else that might affect your studies.
Course reps are volunteers, and only work around five hours per semester. Despite this small time commitment, the impact you can have is huge.
Anybody can apply to be a course representative, and we really encourage you to do so. This is your opportunity to gain and develop valuable professional skills, while shaping the direction of your education.
What skills and experience will I develop as a course rep?
- Communication: being a good representative is about communicating with staff and students. Your experiences of meetings and dealing with students will improve your verbal and written communication skills.
- Meeting skills: attending course committee meetings should give you experience of formal meeting structures with a chair, secretary, agenda and minutes and familiarise you with business processes.
- Negotiation skills and conflict management: your skills will develop naturally through involvement in the course committee system, as you help to resolve disagreements and seek solutions to problems.
- Time management: through fitting your rep commitments around your degree, you will develop time management and prioritisation abilities.
- Public speaking and confidence: you will develop public speaking skills and boost your confidence by speaking in meetings and making announcements in lectures.
Course reps can apply for an award/certificate in spring. Details will be confirmed later.
What training will I get?
Course reps must attend one 55-minute training event in October. Training will be offered in Docklands, Stratford and USS. There will be lots of different days and times available. This will start in the week commencing Monday 20 October.
If a course rep doesn’t attend, you’ll be deemed to have resigned from the role.
You will also be supported by Students' Union staff and added to a Teams channel where you can chat to and support other course and school reps.
Who can apply
All students at all levels are eligible to apply and to vote. Applications and voting will be online only.
To apply, students must:
- Submit a short application form
- This includes a short statement saying why you want to be the course rep
- Ask course mates to vote for you
If you are already a course rep, you can apply again. You won’t be able to automatically continue your role. You must stand in an election to ensure a fair and representative result.
Alternative arrangements will be put in place for apprenticeships and large postgraduate courses such as MBA, MSc International Business Management, MSc Computer Science, MSc in Applied Positive Psychology and related courses.
How to apply
To apply, you have to write a short statement (up to 300 words) saying why you want to be a course representative and why your coursemates should vote for you. You can also upload a passport-style photo.
You can only apply using the online system. You cannot apply by emailing the Students' Union.
After you apply, the status of your application will be listed as pending approval. This means it has been received. We check all applications after the deadline to ensure they don't include anything inappropriate (e.g. something illegal or a breach of our or the University's policies), but we don't make any other judgement on the quality of the statements.
Applications close at 18:00 on Friday 10 October.
School of Architecture, Computing and Engineering
School of Arts and Creative Industries
School of Business and Law
School of Childhood and Social Care
School of Health, Sport and Bioscience
Voting
Voting will take place in the week commencing Monday 13 October.
Further information
If you have any questions about the elections, email su.elections@uel.ac.uk