Making your voice heard

The university is always interested to hear feedback from students about what they like and or would like to be improved about their course and student experience as a whole. There are many ways which this feedback is gathered, including end-of-module questionnaires, the annual National Student Survey (NSS) and Student-Staff Committee (SSC) meetings in each department. I’ve been a course rep on the geology SSC for 2 years so I thought I’d write this post about what the role involves.

Course reps from each year group are elected by their fellow students every year. They represent their views at SSC meetings twice a term. At these meetings, course reps meet with members of staff including the head of school, director of teaching, lecturers, admin staff and technical staff. This gives the chance for reps to pass on positive feedback or raise any issues about aspects of the course, as well as for staff to ask students for their views about various matters. Lots of different issues are discussed at the meetings, such as availability of printers, praise for well run modules, timing of deadlines and paperless submissions, just to name a few things we have covered in recent meetings.

Being a course rep is a great way to improve loads of skills and demonstrate these to employers, as well as showing that you are willing to go above and beyond to make a difference. As a course rep you can also attend training sessions and take part in other opportunities from the Students’ Union allowing you to gain more new skills and participate in university-wide projects.

Standing as a course rep is a great way to help deliver positive change that will benefit you and your peers!