TSEP | The Student Engagement Partnership

This article comes from Tiia Meuronen, Student Rep Coordinator at Goldsmiths Students’ Union and is based on research conducted by the University of Brunel Students’ Union. You can download the full research report here.

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Having spent nearly a whole year thinking and talking about student reps every working day, and unconsciously a lot of time outside office hours as well, some visible trends going on in academic representation have become apparent.

The main challenge that I see facing unions across the sector concerns the structure of course representation systems. The number of reps, their organisation and responsibility for managing and supporting them remain areas of debate. A second challenge is the need to ensure the accountability of our rep systems and the proper running of democratic processes that underpin representation systems.

Discussions taking place through the WIDAR network suggest that more and more unions are beginning to rethink their student voice departments and student rep systems. Through my own experience at the Union of Brunel Students I have highlighted some of my own hopes, questions and thoughts for the future of student reps.

So where are we now?

Firstly, the good news, we have the basics covered and the concept of academic representation in higher education has strong foundations. I have not come across a single institution without academic representation of any kind and an understanding of what the basic role of a rep should entail appears to have near universal agreement. With this strong starting point the student movement can now focus on refining the system further.

If we agree that the role of student reps is to represent a cohort and act as a link between staff and students then the first question we need to ask is what structures are necessary to make this possible? It is unlikely that there will never be one single diagram that could be adopted by every union, simply due to the variety of universities, structures, traditions and practices that exist. Nevertheless, there are some structural elements that I believe will be commonplace in the future.

Where rep systems might be heading

I believe that the future rep systems will have (at least) two “sets” of reps: one at the course level, and another at the department, school or faculty level. As a culture of partnership becomes embedded in the sector students will encounter an increasing number of opportunities to participant in committees and engagement related activities. The creation of different sets of reps will help to manage this workload and ease the burden of expectation on the most active student representatives at an institution.

Within students’ unions staff who manage representation systems need to carefully manage the overlap between their work and that of the institution. Having a good working relationship with key staff within your institution will ensure that no party feels left out of future discussions and a written agreement, whether it be included in a student charter or a separate agreement, on who holds what responsibilities in this area is very important.

Accountability, democracy and legitimacy

The level of democratic accountability within rep systems is another area that will require significant attention. Initially we can all agree that yes, the structure of academic representation should definitely be completely democratic, and as democratic representatives should be accountable to the students that they represent. The difficulty however is building the structures that allow this to happen in practice.

64% of student unions who were consulted for our research have an informal election system in place for electing, or selecting, student reps. Usually this means elections during lectures or seminars, where volunteers can stand up and their peers will vote by for example raising their hands. Often the union has little involvement in these elections, and responsibility for ensuring the process is fair rests with the lectures and departments. Unfortunately this too often results in university staff selecting or appointing reps.

The issue with informal elections is the extent to which they are fair and democratic. Lecture elections leave out those who aren’t physically present and the atmosphere, depending on the size of the cohort and individuals, can be daunting. For someone who might want to stand, but is not confident in doing it when put on the spot this situation could be discouraged.

However whilst these informal elections might not be perfect, the alternatives can be very difficult to implement, particularly where there are large numbers of vacant positions. Online elections, direct oversight by the union, and ensuring fully democratic selection requires significant resource and time. Holding online elections, whist more democratic, have two major challenges; engagement and turnout. It is far more likely that students will vote for a rep during a lecture vote than for them online. This harsh reality leaves us with the never ending question, how to get people engaged enough to vote?

Going digital

I see the future of rep systems filled with amazing online platforms and Rep Hubs. The idea of Rep Hubs is not new but has yet to reach its full potential. The idea is simple: gather everything the union does with reps and everything reps do in their roles to one online platform.

This includes communication from union to reps and reps to students, training (imagine having a comprehensive online training offer that actually works), materials and resource bank, and [insert drumrolls] a version of a customer management system where reps can log their activities, from lecture shout outs to attending meetings allowing the union to see this in real time.

This data can then be filtered to provide in depth information on the status of the rep system and a basis for evaluating its performance and impact. It could also work as a platform for students to easily see what their rep has been up to, status of different actions and get in touch with their reps. Sounds amazing doesn’t it? There are some exciting developments going on, and hopefully the future of rep systems will hold many of the solutions for future challenges and unions will get to enjoy amazing representation at all levels in all universities.

Finally, no matter what changes are being implemented and the environment we are in it is important to remember to keep asking why. Why have a rep system, why is each change important and what impacts are you hoping to see from your rep system in future?

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