Elections Overview

This page contains an overview of the elections process for Student Representatives. Further details on the election of Reps to committees, details on the committees with Student Representatives, and the elections system itself, can be found on the following pages:

Election to post

To help ensure that Student Reps represent the views of their wider peer group, Student Reps are elected to their positions.

Elections take place in the in the autumn term via an online nomination and voting process and Student Reps usually serve for one calendar year, or until their course ends (whichever is sooner). Nominating yourself to be a Student Rep is easy to do.

For full details of how to do this, plus details of Rep positions in each school, please see the Students’ Union website.

Election to committees

Once Reps are elected, if they wish, they may put themselves forward to sit on School and University committees and meetings that have Student Rep membership.

Full details of this process can be found on the Election to Committees page.

Student Rep election process

A summary of the stages of Student Rep elections can be found in the diagram below:

Diagram showing the elections process for Student Reps

Student Rep election policy summary 

All Student Reps are elected to post by their peers – i.e. by the cohort of students that they will represent. Cohorts are based on area and level of academic study and are defined locally in consultation with Schools. All Reps are elected to post by secret ballot, using the Alternative Vote or Single Transferable Vote system as appropriate. In order to make the central election of Reps to post as accessible as possible an online voting system is used.

The Students’ Union takes the lead with the electoral process, utilising their relevant expertise and resources. Elections rules are agreed jointly by the University and the Students’ Union and where an interpretation of the rules or a judgement is required then this will be agreed between the University and the Students’ Union. If deemed necessary, the Union's Independent Returning Officer will be asked to adjudicate on any disputes.

If Student Rep positions remain unfilled after online elections have taken place, schools are encouraged to select or elect students to those positions themselves.