Blog: Course Rep Changes and Academic Representation Review

This year the Students’ Union has commissioned a major piece of research looking at how the course rep system can be improved – increasing our support for reps, their efficacy in College, and the level of positive change they can bring about.

We want to do this properly, with credibility and professionalism, so we’ve just hired an external consultant, Graham Atkinson, to deliver an impartial analysis on how well the current course rep system and structure are run. He will also give us a range of recommendations that help to accomplish a revived course rep system that is future-focused and fit for purpose for Royal Holloway.

Royal Holloway has a long-standing tradition of using elected course reps as a voice for their peers, communicating feedback to College staff and raising issues at Staff Student Committee meetings.

Over the years, our course reps have managed to achieve some really positive change. For example, two years ago a joint-honours student got the structure of their programme altered, allowing students to choose from more modules from a specific department than previously available.

This broadened the curriculum for over 30 students and meant they could pursue their academic interests. Achievements like this make me really glad we have course reps!

But, having been a course rep myself, I share the sense of frustration no doubt many of you will have felt when the same issues seem to arise again in departments. For example, student dissatisfaction with written academic feedback, with a lack of consistency between lectures or departments often being cited as the cause.

We began to tackle this problem at our Student Voice Conference last year, and we’ll be reporting back on the progress at the re-named Course Rep Conference on 24 January 2018 that will form our Spring Term Education Council.

So, what’s the Academic Representation Review?

So you might have heard about running to be a course rep from my blog last week about council reps, but have you heard about our Academic Representation Review?

Okay, so Academic Representation Review may not be the coolest title ever, but it’s something really important.

Royal Holloway Students’ Union, in its simplest form, is a group of students (the ‘members’), so our entire existence lies in over 9000 people, each of whom have the right to propose motions and contribute to our day to day running.

However, not all of our members have the time or want to be involved, so we have to operate using democratic representation structures. A bit lost from what I’m talking about?

The simplest definition of representation is “the action of speaking or acting on behalf of someone” – not because students need to be consulted to tick a certain box, but to bring about positive change to students’ experience of studying at Royal Holloway!

Students will be at the center of this review, so we need your input! Drop me an email if you are interested in being consulted as part of the review. You don’t even need to be a course rep.

Part of this project will be looking into how other forms of student interaction such as academic societies, peer guides and online communications help in making sure your voice is listened to. Perhaps academic representation is pretty cool after all…

Clem Jones
VP Education