What is an Academic Rep?
An Academic Representative, often referred to as an Academic Rep or Student Rep, is a student elected or appointed to represent your academic interests and concerns within your course, department, or faculty. Some of the responsibilities include gathering your opinions, attending Student Partnership Committees and working with staff to make improvements to make your education better.
In the Students' Union we have a dedicated team that support Academic Reps. If you have any questions please email us at [email protected]
Here at UCL we have different types of Academic Reps who work at course, department, and faculty level and they all do slightly different jobs. The diagram below shows how Academic Reps are structured at UCL and what meetings they attend.
If you would like more information about each of the roles, please click through the role descriptions below.
- Course Representatives represent students on a taught programme of study, an undergraduate degree or a master's.
- Research Student Representatives represent groups of Postgraduate Research Students.
- Lead Department Representatives take on a role leading on representation in your department.
- Faculty Representatives are elected roles that represent students at the Faculty level.
You can use the links below to find out who your Academic Reps are and how you can contact them. The Academic Rep Directory will give you a list of Course, Research and Lead Department reps which can be filtered by department and SSCC, while all of our Faculty Reps' contact details can be accessed through the Faculty Reps page below.
How do I become an Academic Rep?
For Course, Research, and Lead Department Reps, speak to your programme or course leader. Let them know you're interested in the role and discuss the application or selection process.
If you are asked to write a statement about why you want to be an Academic Rep please see the guidance below:
For Faculty Reps you will need to nominate yourself in our Rep Elections, which take place in October each year. More details will be shared in September 2024; however, click here to find out about the previous Rep Elections.
What support is available for Academic Reps?
If you are a current Academic Rep you will have access to a dedicated Moodle page with lots of helpful resources and a mandatory online training for you to complete. You can access this page through here. If you have not got access please email us at [email protected]
Are you a member of staff? Click here to access our dedicated resources for staff who work with Academic Reps.
The information on our Academic Rep Successes comes from the handover which they complete at the end of the year and their submissions throughout the year, categorised by Teaching and Learning, Facilities and Community and Support.
Filter through previous Rep wins and see how some of our thousands of previous Reps have achieved progress and brought about positive change for the students they represent.
The Academic Rep of the Year Awards celebrate those reps who went the extra mile to represent students, and have worked with staff to make student’s academic experience better.
Each year there are winners in each Faculty and then one overall winner. Click below to see the list of winners over the years:
For a specific list of the 2023/24 Academic Rep of the Year winners please click here.
For a specific list of the 2022/23 Academic Rep of the Year winners please click here
For a specific list of the 2021/22 Academic Rep of the Year winners please click here.
Each month we also choose an Academic Rep who has gone above and beyond to represent their peers and award them Rep of the Month, who receive a prize and are entered into the Rep of the Year competition. If you want to become Rep of the Month, please go to the 'Academic Rep of the Month' section on the Moodle page here.
Academic Rep Reports
Each year we write an annual report highlighting the highs and lows of representation during each academic year. Click the links below to read our reports over the years. If you have any questions please get in touch with us at [email protected]