A Guide for Staff on
Student Representation
The Student Rep (SU Rep) system is run as a partnership between Hartpury and the Students' Union. This guide contains everything you need to know about SU Reps in one handy place.
What is an SU Rep?
The primary role of an SU Rep is to ensure that they effectively collate and communicate the views of the students they represent (their tutor group), and ensure they communicate the outcomes of this process back to their peers.
All Reps attend SU Rep Forums, chaired by the SU President. This is where Reps come together to discuss matters outside of the learning experience e.g. campus facilities, study spaces, car parking, accommodation, catering, leisure and entertainment opportunities. These meetings happen 3 times per year.
University Reps are expected to attend meetings at programme level to discuss local course issues with their tutors and programme leaders. At the first Programme Committee Meeting, a Department Rep should be elected to attend the Departmental Meetings.
The SU also elect a number of SU Reps to sit on additional committees at Hartpury, as well as a Deputy Rep of the SU Rep forums (supports in chairing meetings, taking minutes and distributing feedback).
What does the SU do for SU Reps?
SU Rep Recruitment
At the start of the year, the SU promotes the role though Social Media, Induction Talks, the Freshers’ Fair and the enrolment stand. This promotion includes what the role is, the expectations, and the benefits of being an SU Rep. If students are interested, we ask them to contact their tutor.
Facilitating Student Voice
The SU will organise, run and promote three rounds of SU Rep Forums each academic year to discuss the non-academic student experience. All SU Reps will be invited to all meetings, with a variety of meeting times, days and formats (online vs in-person) offered to enhance accessibility. The SU will then disseminate student feedback and advocate for action to be taken to improve the student experience, ensuring that any outcomes are fed back to students.
The SU will also organise, run, promote and support a variety of other feedback-gathering opportunities, such as focus groups, surveys, polls, pop-ups and events. These could be run internally or externally, and is dependant on the current needs of students.
Training and Ongoing Support
The SU offers a variety of training opportunities and support for SU Reps:
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Training for all SU Reps once they are all registered (usually in October). This includes information about their role, expectations, meeting structure, time commitments, key skills and extra opportunities.
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An icebreaker event at the start of the year to introduce SU Reps to each other and other volunteers.
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An online library of video guides created by former and current SU officers. These guides are tailored to SU volunteers and the skills relevant to their roles.
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If an SU Rep fails to attend two SU Rep forums without sending apologies, we will contact their tutor to check-in with the student and investigate whether any support is needed.
Rewards and Benefits
Alongside strong transferable skills for their CV, SU Reps will receive a £5 e-gift card for each SU Rep Forum they attend.
The SU also hosts an annual Student Allocation Recognition (StAR) Awards evening in May. We have a ‘Student Rep of the Year’ award for the Rep that the SU President believes has gone above and beyond in their role throughout the year.
What does Hartpury do for SU Reps?
SU Rep Promotion
It is important that each tutor promotes the SU Rep positions available, to help support us in reaching as many students as possible. Please utilise the SU Rep Recruitment Video below to help you promote the role in a tutor group session in September .
Electing your SU Rep
Ideally, this should take place during induction week for college students, and the 1st teaching week for university students. We recommend tutors promote the role in their first tutorial session to ensure that students have as much time possible to consider the role.
We aim to recruit one SU Rep per tutor group, across all years of all college, undergraduate and postgraduate courses. Foundation years have two reps per department, per year.
The process should be democratic, meaning that if more than one student puts themselves forward, a fair election should be taken. The election can take place live or remotely; please utilise the following guidance to help you:
Live:
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Allow time for each candidate to provide a short speech on why they think they are a good fit for the role
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Ask all candidates to leave the room
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Ask remaining students to cast their vote on who they would like to elect (hands-up, ballot box, online form etc.).
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Invite the candidates back in and announce the results
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Keep a record of the results for future reference
A similar approach can be taken if the election is happening via an online meeting.
Remote:
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Ask each candidate to write a short piece of text on why they think they would be a good fit for the role
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Distribute each submission amongst all other students within the tutor group and allow reasonable amount of time for them to review (use your own judgement on what is 'reasonable', dependant on the context of the course e.g part-time, full-time etc.).
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Facilitate an election through an online platform, for example: Microsoft forms, teams, outlook, survey monkey etc - whatever you are comfortable with! Similarly to above, use your own judgement as to what is a 'reasonable' amount of time to keep the vote open for.
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Announce the results
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Keep a record of the results for future reference
General tips:
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If voter anonymity can be maintained, then that is preferred.
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If a candidate withdraws from a remote election, their existing votes will be void and the remaining candidates' votes will stand.
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Elections should be won by a majority vote - if there is a tie, you must come to a mutual agreement.
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If an elected student withdraws, the next highest-voted student should take their position.
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If only one student shows interest in the role, they can automatically take the position without an election as long as there are no objections.
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The same student can be an SU Rep for more than one year, but it should not automatically carry over. The role should be promoted and opened to all students every year.
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If no students show interest in the role, do not force anyone to do it. Contact the SU for support.
Registering your SU Rep
Once the SU Rep is elected, they must register via the SU Rep database, where we can keep a record of their details and contact them. You can find the sign-up form here to send to them.
The deadline for SU Rep recruitment this year is 4pm on Friday 9th of October.
Facilitate Course Level Meetings
Hartpury is responsible for organising the academic-focused meetings ('Programme Committee Meetings' for university SU Reps) to which all the SU Reps should be invited. The university also facilitate Departmental meetings for those SU Reps elected for the role during Programme meetings.
Supporting your SU Rep
SU Reps can only represent students 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:
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Allowing them to introduce themselves during tutor time at the start of the year.
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Going through the SU Volunteer Agreement with them. This Agreement explains what we expect and what they can, in return, expect from us.
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Giving the SU Rep 5-10 minutes at the start of a lecture/seminar/tutorial to ask for feedback.
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Encouraging students to talk to their SU Reps.
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Encourage the SU Rep to set up a group chat where they can invite other students to gather feedback.
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Ensuring SU Reps can see the agenda before any programme committee meetings to give them time to gather feedback and check with the Programme Leader if they don’t understand any items.
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Check when the best time for meetings is – the biggest reported reason for non-attendance is due to commitment clashes.
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Encourage SU Reps to email feedback if they can’t attend a meeting.
If you don’t feel your SU Rep is being representative, please pass their name to the Students’ Union (studentsunion@hartpury.ac.uk) and we can offer them extra training and support. Please also contact us if you have concerns about an SU Rep’s conduct, engagement, or understanding of the role.