Representation

Representing and lobbying on your behalf across the most important and influential University committees and working groups responsible for delivering a quality student experience, such as:-

• Academic Standards
• Student Support & Well-Being
• University Governance
• Campus Experience
• Learning & Teaching
• Equality & Belonging

In October we held our course reps and student council elections. The election of the student council is particularly important time of the year for UUSU because of the central role of Student Council in reflecting the views of our membership through the creation of UUSU policies.

This year we’ve had a fantastic level of academic representation with over 800 students taking up the course, school, and faculty rep roles. These students have dedicated over 24,000 hours to their roles, which is fantastic.

In March we held our leadership elections for the 2025-6 academic year. We had the highest ever turn out for our online elections. 16,859 votes cast! Your full-time student officers, faculty and school reps were also elected by you for the forthcoming academic year.

We were delighted to welcome two new Student Voice Co-ordinators in Semester Charlotte Doak focuses on Engagement and Paul Frazer works on Academic Representation.

Paul is a former Lecturer in English Literature (Northumbria University) with a background in learning support and postgraduate academic skills training. As Student Voice Coordinator (Academic Representation) Paul will oversee and support the largest group of student volunteers at Ulster University. They will ensure the collective opinion of students is heard across their learning experience through an established student voice structure managed by Ulster University Students’ Union (UUSU).

Some of the UU community might recognise Charlotte as a former part time employee with the Students' Union. Charlotte's Student Voice Coordinator (Engagement) role will be centred on our membership and engagement through listening, evidencing and tracking collective student feedback which will drive UUSU strategic direction, actions, policy, stakeholder feedback, and campaigns. The role will lead and coordinate the official, collective UUSU representation structure for student sport at Ulster University. It will also drive and inspire UUSU student and researcher community networks, providing stronger links with their Students’ Union and an additional level of support for our diverse student membership.

This year Student's Council has been hard at work, making important changes to so many of our policies that we have held on our books!

From changes to our Identity Policy and our work around Pronouns and acceptance of all of our students to our support for breastfeeding students ensuring that no one is left behind.

Our Student Council has once again been scrutinising our Officer's, holding them to account over four quorate Student Council meetings throughout the year. Alongside making sure our organisation remains fit for purpose through changes to our Bye-Laws and governance. This year our members of Student Council have represented our students in University Senate to a greater extent than ever before, ensuring that the all-important views of postgraduate students and our international student community are heard at the highest level.

We look forward to seeing what comes next from our highest level Student-led body in UUSU.

We hosted elections to select students to attend the AMLÉ – Aontas na Mac Léinn in Éirinn and NUS-USI conferences.