Representation

Elections

To ensure our students are represented in a democratic way we host elections In October you elected your course rep and student council members. The election of the Student Council is a 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. We registered 793 academic reps who have contributed nearly 24,000 hours of volunteering over the course of the year.

In March we had our leadership elections, and you choose a new student officer team for the forthcoming academic year and Faculty and School/Department Reps. In March we also held elections to make sure you had your say to who represented you at the National Student Conferences. At these National Conferences we worked with other Students’ Unions across Ireland and the UK to pass policy, debate important issues and make real changes for all students.

We are pleased to record increases in membership engagement through our election activity through the number of nominations and number of votes cast, all of which were an increase from the previous year and bring us back to pre-Covid levels of engagement.

This year we expanded our work to support the Postgraduate Researcher experience with enhanced communication with this researcher community, spotlighting the educational support provided by PhD researchers through the Learning and Teaching Awards and developing partnerships with the Doctoral College.

Our Student Voice team have trained and provide ongoing support to more than 790 academic reps. We have celebrated the success and impact of our volunteers with Rep and Staff Member of the Month and have highlighted examples of academic rep impact on the day to day class experience, improved communication with Course Teams, improved academic support, responses to timetabling issues and more.

In May we hosted the Learning and Teaching Awards to recognise the contributions to the student experience and academic excellence of students by university staff and researchers. For the first time, the role of PhD demonstrators was recognised in the awards. More than 380 nominations were received for 300 staff members, representing an increase on the previous year.

Student Voice Conference

In February we hosted our student-led Student Voice conference which was attended by over 140 students. This conference was an opportunity to discuss important topics such as equality, belonging, the student experience, and the campus experience. In addition to speakers such as the Vice Chancellor and Pro Vice Chancellor for Academic Quality and Student Experience, the conference was addressed by lecturers, students and postgraduate researchers.

Support

Training and ongoing support for club and society members, student council and academic reps. We have also this year introduced celebration events to thank our volunteers.