Nominations for the Leadership Elections are now open! This is your opportunity to step forward and nominate yourself to become one of our leaders for 2026/27. If you're successful, this blog highlights the roles and responsibilities you'll take on as part of this exciting journey.
You might be wondering what all the fuss is about? Why should you care about the elections and who your leaders will be next year? Well read this blog to understand the importance of the Leadership Elections and why you should spend the time checking out the candidate statements and voting!
Sabbatical Officers
The Students’ Union is led by four elected Sabbatical Officers who work full-time in the SU for a year. They are student representatives who sit on university committees to ensure students are at the heart of everything the SU and University do. They are also trustees of the Students’ Union.
Sabbs gets to run campaigns and lobby for changes that impact your lives of students. Their campaigns will be based on the RHSU Priority 8. This could be on various issues, such as cost of living, wellbeing and mental health, student safety, accessible education.
They also sit on various university committees where they act as student representatives. The officers can then hold the university to account by ensuring decisions made are in the best interests of students. This includes some of the most senior university committees such as University Council and Academic Board. As well as this, the sabbs are trustees of the Students’ Union, alongside three student trustees and five external trustees. This means they are legally responsible for everything the Union does as well as setting out the SU’s strategic direction. The sabbs also sit on subcommittees such as Management Committee where they can feed into decisions made by the Students’ Union.
They are essentially the people actively working to make your student experience better. From 3 March, you’ll be able to view the candidate statements and understand what they want to focus on if successful in their role.
See some previous officer wins here.