It has been an active start of the year for the students representing your academic interests. With over 250 academic reps completing their training and taking part in their first Staff-Student Action Meetings with their departments, we've heard your feedback and started implementing change!
It has been an active start of the year for the students representing your academic interests. With over 250 academic reps completing their training and taking part in their first Staff-Student Action Meetings with their departments, we've heard your feedback and started implementing change!
In these meetings, they have taken feedback from their peers and relayed it to their departments. They have then worked with the department to create actions for positive changes. Both reps and departments are currently hard at work to make these changes and you may start to see them implemented on your course soon.
Isabella Neergaard, School Rep for Life Sciences and the Environment, was our Rep of the Month for November. She has conducted meetings with the Senior Course Reps and has been communicating with heads of departments. Isabella has also created WhatsApp chats for the LSE reps and is passionate about reviving the @rhul_lsereps Instagram account to keep in contact with and inform her reps about all that is happening.
Over in undergraduate Economics, discussions have been taking place between reps and staff around accessing BMC (Bloomberg) courses and training sessions. As a result, the library will be offering five introductions to Bloomberg terminals training sessions in spring.
There have been several pieces of feedback raised and actioned in undergraduate Biological Sciences this term. From circulating surveys to asking students about the balance between coursework and exams and ensuring students can take short breaks during practical lab sessions to introducing more revision drop-in sessions and more academic, career-focused sessions, work is happening to improve the experience of Biological Sciences students.
Undergraduate Music students asked for more 1-2-1 sessions with lecturers which have now been scheduled, students were consulted about second and third-year, jointly-taught modules and their feedback has been taken on board. Reps also mentioned feedback around the Music Score area of the library being disorganised and uncertainty about the 'social study' policy which has been taken to the relevant team to look into.
In English, undergraduate reps raised feedback around behaviour in the library and there are now plans to create a short video about using the library with consideration for other students, which lecturers will upload as PowerPoints onto Moodle.
The School Reps have held meetings with all of the reps to allow them to get to know each other and Izzy Masters, Humanities School Rep, has held a crafting social event. Izzy will also be starting an Instagram account to post about what is happening in Humanities. Look out for this from next term!
Some of our School Reps and Sharanya, VP Education, attended the Education Executive at the end of November to discuss academic issues. They were able to feedback about what they have been up to over the last term and challenge upcoming proposals. They were able to share some of the work they have been doing with the Schools on Assessment Futures.
Find My Rep allows you to look up your department's reps. If you have any feedback relating to your department or course but are unsure who to tell, use Find My Rep to find out who your reps are. Reps will take the feedback they are given to Staff-Student Action meetings to find a solution.
Don’t worry if you haven’t managed to become an academic rep yet! Some departments are still recruiting for reps. If you would like to become a rep, please email voice@su.rhul.ac.uk to find out more information.
If you’re already an academic rep, the Students’ Union has a Rep Hub with all of the resources and information to help you with your role. Don’t forget to fill out the Your Impact form to let us know what you are up to and you could be selected as the next Rep of the Month!