Local Representation

• Class Representatives

There are 1 or 2 Class Representatives elected for each workshop class. These represent their class as SSLC meetings (see below under "Class Representatives").

Students' Union Representation

• Course Representatives

• Vice-Presidents

• External Representative

• Liberation Officers

• Student Members of the SA Governing Board

• Student Members of Committees

Course Representatives – elected student representatives who represent each ULaw programme at the Student Parliament. There is 1 representative nationally.

Vice-Presidents – elected student officers who represent each ULaw campus at the Student Parliament and act as the SA presence on each campus in the first instance.

External Representative – elected student representative who represents the programme at the Student Parliament.

Liberation Officers - elected student officers who represent a particular liberation group at a national level to the Student Parliament, the campaigns currently cover LGBTQ+ Students, Women Students, BAME Students and Disabled Students.

Student Members of the SAGB – elected students who act as a check and balance on the Students' Union and sit on the Student Parliament and Students' Union Governing Board (SUGB).

Student Members of Committees – elected students who represent the student voice at University boards and committees, including the Academic Board.

The Union recruits for a variety of different roles throughout the year.

One hurdle the Students' Union faces in terms of recruitment is trying to ensure that our Representatives are recruited as early as possible, and especially, the Vice-Presidents, but also ensuring that each programme has equal and fair access to all roles. It can take approximately 8 weeks from the advert going live to appointing the VP’s.

Elections are run in-house and the key contact is the Students' Union Manager, who assists the Students' Union. The Students' Union Manager will be informed by the Spring of the same (calendar) year of recruitment to ensure the elections are scheduled, including what is required, the period the election runs and the parameters for voting (who are students eligible to vote for).

Class Representatives are students who represent their workshop class on campus, online, and at the local level. This is the primary, and most important, feedback mechanism for the University.

Class Representatives attend Student-Staff Liaison Committee Meetings (SSLCs), which are organised and run at each campus by the staff in that campus, or online for students studying on our online programmes, therefore, the SU do not assist with these.

• Training

Class Representatives are usually appointed / elected in-class within a few weeks of the start of their course. Programme and Student Leads at campuses e-mail the details to the Students' Union, which includes the class, name and e-mail address of the Class Representative and held in a ‘master’ Spreadsheet. The SU produces a one-page summary of their role which serves as a guide about what to do and what to expect before the first SSLC.

The EO attends each campus, once, to meet with and deliver face-to-face training to Class Representatives around November (see “Class Representative Training” PowerPoint and “Representative Handbook” PDF for further information). There are usually multiple sessions scheduled during a day to try and ensure as many Class Representatives can attend. We try to schedule the training so that it can take place before the first SSLC meeting, but this is not always possible for all programmes and all campuses.

The training includes an introduction to the Students' Union, how the Class Representatives feeds into the wider representative structure, the role of a Class Representative, benefits to students, the parameters of the role, Prevent & Safeguarding, information on SSLC’s and the resource section on the Students' Union website.

This training is also made available online after all campuses have received face-to-face training, in the event any representatives were unable to make it and for the benefit of part-time and online students.

• SSLC Minutes

Minutes from SSLCs should appear on the SU website under class representatvies in the representation tab. These minutes come through from the ULaw tutor from those sessions. The Students' Unin only hosts the minutes that are sent to us.

The Student Parliament is the major decision-making body of the Students' Union. This is the forum where all student representatives and roles within the Union meet. All students are able to attend Parliament meetings, following the procedure laid out in the Constitution.

The Student Parliament meetings three times per year, around November, February and May. The meetings occur face-to-face with students able to dial in to ‘virtually’ attend, to ensure that students who are unable to travel to the meeting and also for students studying on our online programmes can still engage and attend the meeting. The meetings are held at different campuses as much as possible to ensure as many student representatives can attend and so they can see other campuses. The Students' Union Executive like to poll the Student Parliament to ensure that students feed into where they want the next meeting to be held.

At the first parliament meeting of every academic year a chair and deputy chair are elected for the duration of the year. Any student representative member of Student Parliament can put themselves forward for the role. Their role is to lead each meeting and ensure the student voice throughout each meeting.