Become a School Rep

What does a School Rep do?

1. You are a student leader empowered to make positive, student-led change within your School.

2. You represent (and re-present) the views of students in your School and work alongside Course Reps and staff to make your School better.

3. You do these things by taking student feedback to University and LUU meetings and events, and by informing students of positive change made.

How do you represent students?

1. You will be supporting a team of Course/Programme/Peer Reps to consult students in your School. You will actively seek students’ views on decisions that affect them, and listen to any issues that they are facing or positive feedback that they have.

2. You will speak on behalf of students and influence decision making at School, Faculty and University level as well as feed back decisions to fellow students and reps.

3. You will connect with academic societies in your School to gather student opinion and ensure students’ expectations are met in all areas.

Who will support you?

1. LUU Education Officer and the other LUU Exec Officers – who provide support and advice on academic issues and offer you the chance to join campaigns.

2. The Director of Student Education, Pro-Dean for Student Education, Teaching and Student Support Staff in your School and Faculty – who you will work in partnership with to improve learning and teaching in your school.

3. LUU Academic Engagement Managers and other members of staff in the Academic Engagement Team, who support you in your role throughout the year, providing support, advice and training.

How long does it take?

1. On average, a School Rep might find around five hours of their time taken up a week with their duties, but this can vary week to week.

2. Occasional evenings or longer sessions may be required for meetings and training opportunities and some weeks may require more than five hours commitment, but some may require less.

3. The role can be done as a role share, if someone's commitments would normally prevent them from engaging with the role. The preference for a role share can be indicated on the application form.

What meetings do you go to?

1. University meetings – these include meetings with Course Reps and staff (Student Staff Partnership Forums) and Faculty-wide meetings like Faculty Taught Student Education Committee.

2. Union meetings e.g. Better University Forums. These feed into Union democracy and allow you to work with your Education Officer.

3. Catch-ups with your Director of Student Education to ensure you are achieving your goals and receiving the right support.

4. One-to-ones with your Academic Engagement Manager, who will provide support and training.

Qualities you should have:

• Passionate about your School and keen to be involved in its development.

• Willingness to learn new things and personally develop in the role.

• Able to work as part of a team.

Qualities you should be trying to develop:

• Able to communicate effectively with a range of students and staff.

• Understanding the importance of working and representing the views of others fairly, respectfully, confidently and without bias.

• Able to communicate effectively through written and verbal methods.

• Able to raise concerns on behalf of others, identifying any common ground and possible solutions.

• Awareness of diversity and ability to respond to the diverse needs of students in your school.

Qualities you should be willing to develop:

• An interest to develop your leadership skills.

• Able to manage own time and workload, to work with self motivation and to use own initiative.

• Able to motivate and work with others towards common goals.

• Experience of project planning, including event management.

• An interest in issues relating to and affecting higher education.