Recruitment is now open for Undergraduate (UG) Course Reps and Senior Course Reps ahead of the 2024/25 academic year.
Recruitment is now open for Undergraduate (UG) Course Reps and Senior Course Reps ahead of the 2024/25 academic year.
If you’re wondering what academic representation is or what an Academic Rep does, then you have come to the right place! This whistle-stop tour will tell you all you need to know as well as some reasons why you should get involved in academic representation this year!
Role descriptions
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What’s the difference between the roles?
Course Reps are the largest group of Academic Reps, and they work to collect feedback directly from students on their course and share this with the Senior Course Reps in their department. Preparation for the Staff-Student Action Meeting is crucial to the effectiveness of Course Reps and ensures that they’ll head into the meeting with a well-developed and balanced argument for change.
Senior Course Reps should be engaging with their Course Reps at least once a fortnight and, in turn, meeting with their School Rep once a month, ensuring consistent information flow across all levels of representation. Senior Course Reps will chair the Staff-Student Action Meetings but if there is more than one Senior Course Rep per department, the chairing will alternate and those not chairing are expected to attend the meeting alongside Course Reps and staff members.
- Postgraduate Taught (PGT) students can be Course or Senior Course Reps. If you're a current third-year UG going onto a PGT course in September then you are welcome to sign up now. Otherwise, recruitment will take place in September once the new cohort starts.
- Postgraduate Research (PGR) students can be Course Reps; recruitment will take place in September.
What’s in it for me?
As an Academic Rep, you’ll gain loads of transferrable skills that you can add to your CV to enhance future job applications and help you stand out. Communication skills, leadership, problem-solving, teamwork and strategic thinking are just a few of the key skills you may develop throughout your time in the role; sounds good, right?
As a rep, you’ll also be invited to join all the other exciting opportunities and sessions on offer as part of the student leader development programme which you will find more about in the new academic year.
Volunteering as a rep allows you to make real change and to leave a positive impact on your own and your peers’ education so why not sign up today?
Is there a limit on the number of reps for each School?
The Course and Senior Course Rep roles are voluntary and open to all undergraduates and postgraduate taught students from every academic department. There is no limit to the number of reps that can sign up in their department but Senior Course Reps must have been a Course Rep previously. Having multiple reps means that the responsibilities and workload are shared, you will have more of a network around you of others in the role and more people will be given the chance to experience the role and develop their skills.
How do I sign up?
This year, we are opening recruitment for Course and Senior Course Reps in Term Three so that we can train you up and make sure we have some level of representation in place over the summer period. In September, we will re-open recruitment targeting new students and filling any positions we were unable to recruit in Term Three. You must complete compulsory training to have your position as a rep confirmed so keep an eye out for more information coming soon once recruitment closes.
Signs up close on Sunday 2 June. If you have any questions, please get in touch with the Student Voice team at voice@su.rhul.ac.uk and they will be happy to help.