Course Rep Handbook 2013-14 1

Contents Welcome 2 So what is a course rep? 3 What Course Reps do... 4 The Big Quality Questions 5 You don’t have to be a super hero! 6 Where do Course Reps fit in to representation at the university? 7 ....A bit more information 8 Meetings 11-12 Your SVR Team 12 Contact information 14 Course Rep Module 15-16 2

Welcome Welcome and congratulations on being elected as a Course Rep for the 13/14 academic year. You are an integral part of the University’s decision making process and you will help to ensure that your fellow students receive the quality of education they deserve. This is an exciting and important role and one that carries great responsibility. You are a frontline representative for your peers and are in a prime position to help students with course related problems. You will also be able to feed information back to the students you represent so that they can be informed about what’s going on both within the University and in the Student Movement as a whole. The team (people below) will be here to help guide you through the year... 3

So what is a Course Rep? It’s all about Quality! Course reps are students elected by students to represent students. Course reps make sure that the University knows when things are going wrong (and also when they are going right). You will:  Work with academic staff and the Students’ Union  Raise concerns  Ask questions  Come up with ideas  Demand improvements  Celebrate the good work that goes on  Campaign for change  Make a noise when you get things get changed 4

What do course reps do? Talk with other students about the course. Nothing is perfect, if students don’t come to you ask questions, start discussions and come up with ideas for improvements. Plan which meetings you need to attend, you can get the dates from your programme leader. Update yourself by attending training, watching out for updates and feeding back through Course Representative Assemblies. Attend meetings; this is your chance to put forward student issues but don’t forget to be constructive and suggest ways to change/improve. Promote yourself! Think Facebook, notice boards, emails. What is the best way to capture the attention of your course? Represent everyone, you may not agree with everyone’s views but you still need to represent them. Feedback to students and let them know the wonderful things you are doing for them and what response you have had. Keep in touch with the Students’ Union and your programme leader between meetings to stay updated. You are not alone! If your issue is bigger than the course, you don’t need to take it all on yourself, make link with other course reps and work together. 5

The Big Quality Questions What kind of things are course reps expected to raise questions about? 1. Teaching on my Course 2. Assessment and Feedback 3. Academic Support 4. Organisation and Management 5. Learning Resources 6. Personal Development 7. Overall Student Satisfaction 8. Students' Union (Association or Guild) These are the areas that students are asked about when completing their undergraduate degree on the National Student Survey. Course Reps can help to improve the academic experience across the university by questioning the things going wrong in these areas. The NSS is a great aid to creating change as it is evidence of what is going well and what needs improvement. You should be thinking – Are things good enough? Could they be better even excellent? How can they be improved? How can the National Student Survey (NSS) back up your arguments? 6