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This page provides tools and resources for UCL staff for use in supporting Student Academic Representation practice. 


Rep Appointment Schedule

Below is the Rep Appointment Schedule for the 2023-24 academic year.

MilestoneDate
Recruitment of Academic RepsMonday 25 September to Friday 13 October
Course Rep and Lead Department Reps to be recruited and
submitted via the Union website
Thursday 19 October
Online Training for Academic Reps beginsMonday 23 October
Faculty Representatives to be sent to Faculties Monday 30 October
Faculty WelcomesMonday 30 October to Friday 10 November
Faculty/Lead Department Rep trainingMonday 13 November to Friday 24 November

Guidance and Information

Online Submission Guidance

Returning Academic Rep details is now submitted online through the Union website. This should be submitted by programme and department staff. Please ensure you have the student’s Full Name and UCL email address available for the SSCC they are joining. This is all of the information required to return your reps. 

Below is a short video demonstrating how to add the reps online.

The returns data will automatically publish reps on the ‘Find Your Rep webpage so students and staff can find who the academic reps are in their department and Faculty as soon as they are returned. Department and Faculty colleagues can also use this to see which reps have been returned.

This streamlined approach should reduce the workload for staff and provide an easier way to check which reps have been returned. If you have any questions or comments please get in touch with us at [email protected]

Adding Reps - FAQ:

Choosing the correct SSCC:

1. Please make sure you add your Reps to the correct SSCC and NOT to their faculty or department.
2. Please also be aware that the default SSCC option is Arts and Humanities, which always has to be changed.
3. If you cannot find your SSCC in the dropdown list, please contact us at [email protected]. We get the list of SSCCs for each year from UCL Academic Services, and if your SSCC is not on this list, it will not be added to our website.

Choosing the correct Rep type:

1. Course Reps represent their student cohort on a course level, for taught undergraduate or taught postgraduate degrees.
2. Research Reps represent their student cohort on a research degree level, for postgraduate research degrees.
3. Lead Department Reps are usually (but not always) one of the Course Reps or Research Reps, and represent their cohort on a departmental level. Lead Department Reps usually attend Departmental Teaching Committee meetings as well. There is usually only one Lead Department Rep per department.
4. Faculty Reps are elected centrally through the SU website, and represent all students in their faculty at their study level (UG, PGT or PGR). Faculty Reps are normally added to the website by us.

Why can I not add a student as a Rep?

This issue usually arises because the student has opted out of Union membership and are therefore not on our database, so you will need to get the student to join the Union. please direct the student to https://studentsunionucl.org/forms/opt-in-to-union-membership, and they should be able to opt in again. It might take a few days for our systems to update so you might not be able to add the student as a Rep immediately after they opted in.
If the issue is still present after a week of the student having opted in, please contact us at [email protected].

We haven’t been able to recruit any Course Reps/Lead Department Reps/Faculty Reps, what can we do?

If the SSCCs have at least one student Rep each, in theory the meetings should be able to continue going ahead as normal. Whilst Academic Reps are generally elected around the time of the autumn elections, they can be elected or appointed at any time in the year. If the department is having persistent issues in recruiting Reps, please contact us at [email protected].

Can you (the SU) add our Reps for us?

Generally we avoid doing this, as across UCL we are likely to have up to 2000 Academic Reps and so it would be unmanageable for us to manually add all of these onto our database. We ask that staff members upload their own Reps.

Can I bulk import Reps?

Unfortunately, this is beyond our website's capacity at the moment, so you need to add each of your Reps manually as described in the video.


Staff Checklist 2023-24

This checklist provides a practical run-through of everything you will need to consider to promote, recruit, and support your Academic Representatives.

Staff Guide to Student Academic Representation 2023-24

The Staff Guide provides information and guidance on the practicalities of Student Academic Representation. It sets out in detail what is required, but also provides guidance on improving and enhancing student representation.

Student Academic Representation Benchmarking Tool

This benchmarking tool helps to identify the progress being made on developing student academic representation at both a local and an institutional level.

Academic Manual Guidance 

Section 6: Student Academic Representation - Link

SSCC Agenda and Minutes Template (Please search for Annex 9.6.1) - Link

Student-Staff Consultative Committees (SSCCs)

Join the SSCC Staff Community on Microsoft Teams, this is open for all staff who are involved in their SSCC in particular the staff co-chair and secretary - Join

SSCC Guide for Co-Chairs

You can download a useful guide on how to chair SSCCs below:

Guidance on Running SSCCs Remotely:

In line with UCL's Temporary Operating Mode, many departments will have to move their SSCCs to a virtual platform. Even prior to this, some departments had expressed a desire to engage remotely with their Academic Reps who cannot attend meetings in-person.


Promotional Resources

We make available a variety of resources which you can use to help promote Student Academic Representation within your department.

Videos

Posters

Faculty Rep Opportunity Template Email

Digital Screen Advertisement

Email Signature Banner

Promotional Video

Our promotional video outlines the key benefits to being a Course or Research Student Representative and what is involved. Its less than 5 minutes long, and prompts the department or programme to briefly outline how representatives will be appointed locally - Youtube link / Download link


Role Descriptors

These role descriptors are aimed at both students and staff, highlighting key responsibilities and the time commitment required for each Academic Representative role.


Election Resources

Electronic Elections

We recommend the use of Microsoft Polls, Doodle or Slido to facilitate your elections. Alternatively, the Choice Module in Moodle is also suitable for this purpose.

For Paper Ballots

  • Election Count Sheet (for paper ballot)  PDF / Word
  • Voting Slips (for paper ballot)  PDF / Word
  • Student nomination form  PDF / Word

Departmental Societies information

If you come across students interested in developing vibrant and inclusive communities, you can point them towards Departmental Societies!

Reports

  • Student Priorities for Education Report - an in-depth analysis of the priorities students discussed across with staff in their departments and SSCCs, with recommendations relevant to departments, faculties, and UCL as a whole.
  • Student Priorities for Wellbeing Report - an analysis of the priorities students have told us about their physical, social and mental wellbeing, with recommendations for the Union and UCL.  
  • What do students value most Report - an analysis of all of the student nominations we receive for the Student Choice Awards and summarised into practice that students valued most for each category of award.  

Contact

Have a question? Email [email protected]