How do students have a voice at the Students’ Union?

All students are automatically members of the Students’ Union when they enrol at UAL. We ensure that all students are able to provide their feedback and play a role in positive change at UAL through numerous student representative positions, who work closely with UAL staff to improve the student experience. Currently, there are Course Reps, School Reps, and Full-Time (or Elected) Officers, who all work at different levels to represent UAL students’ interests. Any UAL student can apply for these positions!

Flowchart displaying how feedback is filtered through the Students’ Union and UAL. All student feedback can be given to course reps, who raise it in meetings, and filter it to school reps, then to elected officers when it needs to be escalated above a course level. Alternatively, students can give their feedback to any SU representative directly.

Course Representatives

Course Reps are volunteer student representatives who work with UAL and SU staff and students to improve the academic experience of everyone studying on their course. Each course typically has at least two Course Reps, or for larger courses, roughly one rep per 25 students. They represent the views of their fellow students on everything from teaching quality and curriculum content to facility access and a sense of community. Course Reps collect feedback from students, and then work with lecturers and course leaders to ensure that those views and feedback are considered and responded to in decision-making processes within each course across the University.

You can find out who your course rep is, and how to become a course rep on our website.

School Representatives

School Reps are volunteer student representatives elected by their peers to work with UAL and SU staff and students to improve the academic experience of everyone studying in their school. There are two School Reps per school/department, or 6 across each UAL college. They work closely with Course Reps, collecting student feedback from them on anything that cannot be resolved at a course-level, or anything that recurs across multiple courses within the School. School Reps will then work closely with their School Dean, other school/department staff and the SU College Officers to raise this feedback and put actions into place to influence positive change that will improve the academic experience for both current and future students across each School.

You can find out who your school reps are and how to become one on our website.

Full-Time Officers

Your Full-Time Officers, commonly known in Student Union’s as Sabbatical Officers, are elected in the spring each year by UAL students and are paid to work full-time for a whole academic year from July until June. Your Officers meet regularly with key decision makers at all levels within the university and are members of important committees where they can effect change for UAL students. They regularly meet with various groups of students (depending on their remits), including School Reps to collect feedback on what students have been feeding back to their course reps, or sports clubs and societies, and will raise and work on anything that needs to be escalated.

Full-Time Officers also lead their own projects and campaigns throughout the academic year based on students’ views and interests to improve the student experience. Previous Full-Time Officer campaigns you might have heard of include Cost of Living support (giving out free food parcels), leading Liberation Month events (such as Black History Month), and lobbying UAL for various things based on student feedback, such as an Art Shop at the new LCF Stratford campus, or implementing a ‘No Cops on Campus’ policy.

You can find out who your Full-Time Officers are and how to become one on our website.