10.3 Electing Class Representatives: best practice
- Audience: This policy is for the attention of:- All students; Heads of Schools, Directors of Teaching, Module Co-ordinators, Directors of Postgraduate Studies.
- Scope: This policy applies to all students in the University.
- Responsibilities: Policy author: SRC Director of Representation. Responsibility for the implementation of the policy lies with the SRC.
- Contact details: For advice and support on any aspect of this policy please contact:- Students: Contact the SRC Director of Representation. Staff: Contact the Vice-Principal (Proctor).
- Electing Class Representatives: Best Practice
- Authors: SRC Director of Representation
- Approved: Vice-Principal (Proctor) in December 2010
- Implementation date: Session 2010/2011
- Review date: November 2011
Class representatives should be democratically elected by as much of the eligible constituency as possible. Elections can be held either in class or online, as outlined below, at the Schools discretion. However, no class representatives should be elected on a first come first serve basis.
There should be at least one class representative for every module at sub-honours. At Honours level, depending on the size of the School, there should be at least two class representatives for each year group (ie Junior/Senior Honours).
There should be at least one postgraduate (taught) representative, and at least one postgraduate (research) representative for each School.
In-class elections
- Ideally, prior to elections, an email should be sent to all students from either the School President or Director of Teaching outlining the role of the class representative and when elections will be taking place.
- During teaching time (whether a lecture, or tutorial) the relevant member of staff supervising the election should verbally explain the role of the class representative, and ask students to nominate themselves.
- Once nominated, the student should be given the opportunity to briefly explain to his/her classmates why they wish to be class representative, and if they have any relevant skills. This is particularly important in the case of a contested election.
- The candidate(s) should then be asked to leave the room, and the member of staff should ask every student to vote (by show of hands).
- The identity of the elected class representative should then be passed on to the Director of Teaching/SSCC Coordinator and the School President.
Online elections
The School Presidents and Directors of Teaching will decide whether class representatives will be elected in class using a paper ballot system or online. The online election may be preferable at Honours level when it is more difficult to assemble an entire year group in one place to hold an election. Class representatives should be elected by as much of the available constituency as possible.
Training Class Representatives
The School Presidents will organise training within their own School for all the class representatives. The School President and the Director of Teaching, or SSCC coordinator, will mutually establish a deadline for the election of all class representatives within the School. Ideally, this should be no later than the end of week 3 of semester one. The Students Association Director of Representation will provide a class representative handbook, which will be updated annually and distributed via the School Presidents.
Role description of Class Representative
Class representatives are the spokesperson for every student within the module, or year group, which they have been elected to representative. This involves identifying common issues relating to learning and teaching (whether that is quality of lecture hand outs, availability of resources, or insufficient feedback), and relaying this information to the appropriate member of staff, such as the module co-ordinator or lecturer. In order to identify relevant issues, the class representatives should communicate with as much of their constituency as possible prior to class representative forums and SSCCs.
It is also the responsibility of the class representative to identify positive and negative elements of the module/programme(s) they represent at both the SSCC and class representative forums, and to communicate any relevant issues to their School Presidents on a regular basis.
Class representatives should act as a key point of contact for the lecturer, or module co-ordinator, as a means of evaluating any given programme or module. They should also act as a confidential point of contact for any students with issues or problems relating to teaching within that module.