Course Rep Handbook (Partners) 2024/25

Course Rep Handbook

Academic Partnerships 2024/25

For more information, visit our partners webpage

Contents Foreword Students’ Union President and Head of Partnerships What is the Students’ Union?

What is a Course Rep? Course Rep Elections Unitu – Everything you need to know Course Rep Elections Student Voice Forums Responsibilities QER – Quality Enhancement Review 2025 Advice Centre Useful Contacts

Foreword

Students’ Union President Welcome to the Course Rep Handbook! Congratulations on becoming the chosen course rep for your cohort! This is a great opportunity for you to gain skills which you will use for the rest of your life. Please don’t feel as though you have to understand and digest all of the information in this handbook straightaway – this is here for you to refer to throughout your time as a Course Rep. As President, I am one of two lead student representatives for students here at Wrexham University, but my work wouldn’t be possible without you! Your role as a Course Rep is to advocate for your peers, and bring their opinions, ideas and feedback to us here in the Students’ Union so we can take it further and hopefully make a change! In the words of Barbara Mikulski – “Each one of us can make a difference. Together we make change”.

Please feel free to contact me if you need advice, guidance or want to know more about how you can be involved in changing the future of Wrexham University.

I wish you the best for this year.

Thank you, Maisie

Maisie Head President

Foreword

Academic Partnerships Office The Partnerships Office is here to support you alongside the Students’ Union and Students’ Union President in your journey as a course rep here at the University. This handbook provides the information needed to become a successful course rep and be a link between the student body and the University, and between students and the Students’ Union. Your role is a vital one. Sharing the voice of the student body with the University is a key role, and you play a vital part in expressing the successes, areas for improvement, enhancements, and concerns with us. As a course rep, you have the opportunity to influence the way we work with and support our students to enable all students to get the most out of their time at Wrexham University.

We wish you every success in your new role.

About Wrexham Students’ Union What is the Students’ Union?

The Students’ Union is a representative body for students, run by students. The Students’ Union aims to promote the welfare and equality of the students at Wrexham University and its academic partners and is there to offer support to anyone who has any concerns whilst they are studying at the University.

As an enrolled Wrexham University student, whether you are studying at the Wrexham University campus, or at one of the local, national or international Partner Institutions, you are automatically a member of the Students’ Union. If you wish to opt out of membership, please contact us directly by emailing union@wrexham.ac.uk The Students’ Union is an Independent, autonomous, self-governing body. The President and Vice-President are the two full-time sabbatical officers elected into office annually by the student body, with a maximum term in office of two years.

Student Council is one of the most senior committees in the Students' Union. Its role is to set Union policy and to hold your elected representatives to account.

If you would like to run for a position on Student Council or would like to join meetings as a student observer please let us know by contacting carrie.bennett@wrexham.ac.uk As a Course Representative, you will have the opportunity to engage in the promotion and development of the Students’ Union as well as working towards policy change within the Union and the institution.

What is a Course Rep? We rely on course reps to be active campaigning members of the Students’ Union who will work towards the goal of improving the student experience. They are our ears to the ground, working to resolve local departmental issues such as, feedback standards or the facilities available to students and much more.

Course reps are responsible for engaging and monitoring Unitu, a safe online space for feedback and discussion.

Unitu is where student reps and staff can collectively raise, discuss and resolve both academic and more general experience issues, give praise, ask questions or post constructive feedback anonymously. It allows the University to respond to and act on feedback in real time to ensure you have the best possible student experience with us here at Wrexham University.

Usually, course reps (and peers if they wish) will be invited to attend a Student Voice Forum (this may be called something different at your institution). On occasion, a course rep may be required to represent a view that they do not necessarily agree with, but if it is the view of the students, then it is their responsibility to articulate this to the best of their abilities.

Why become a course a rep?

Recognition from your peers via personal feedback An opportunity to be nominated for an award at the annual SU Awards Enhanced employability skills, transferable for your future careers But above all you will be making positive change to the student experience, not just for your peers but for students in years to come!

Course Rep Elections Your institution may have its own democratic processes but here we share our processes and goals for the next academic year, if you have any questions or concerns please don’t hesitate to contact us directly or post them on Unitu.

Each cohort should have an election at the beginning of term. Please note, if you were elected in previous years, this does not mean that you are automatically re-elected unless the cohort agrees.

Course Reps are elected by their cohort – not by staff (this ensures our democratic processes are met).

We ask for a minimum of 1 representative at each level per course per year.

Academic staff should ask those who wish to run to put their names forward and an election should take place.

It’s up to you how the election is run, this can be online or votes can be placed in a ballot box. The voting process must be democratic and fair.

Once a successful election has taken place, staff should email carrie.bennett@wrexham.ac.uk with confirmation and details of elected course reps.

Course reps will then receive an email with next steps including training opportunities and support information.

Unitu Unitu is an online student voice platform where students can leave feedback and receive responses in real time.

Activate your student account here Training is available for all students and staff, but here we share a brief outline of how the platform works and it’s intended purpose.

Students share prompted or spontaneous feedback on their experiences by making a post on their Unitu Board. This feedback, alongside discussions, can be a Praise/Issue/Question/Idea. The content of the post is not visible to staff at this stage.

Course reps review the feedback posts and respond where appropriate.

Reps can choose to share the feedback with staff in the department, by moving it to the next level ‘Opened’. Here, staff can see the content of the feedback and can provide a response, such as explaining how a change will be made in response to the feedback.

Staff can then move the feedback to the next level which is ‘In Progress’ or the final level, which is ‘Closed’ dependent on their response.

Notable changes and improvements in the department/programme are then recorded in the ‘Together We Changed’ section of the Unitu Board.

Feedback received on the Boards can be collated and used by course reps at the biannual SVFs. For further training or if you have any questions, please carrie.bennett@wrexham.ac.uk or visit unitu.co.uk for further information.

contact

Student Voice Forums (SVFs) SVF meetings are held twice a year and give course reps the opportunity to discuss the quality of their learning experience. It’s also an important phase that either escalates or closes the student feedback received by students.

Dates and locations of the meetings are usually shared at the beginning of the academic year and can take place in many ways such as online virtual meetings or face-to-face.

More than any other duty as a course rep, attending an SVF is the most important.

Unitu is the ideal platform to gather feedback for SVFs but we encourage course reps to gather feedback in any way they see fit.

This can be a WhatsApp group chat, emails or minutes from meetings.

Who can attend?

All enrolled students within the department Elected representatives Course and module leaders A member of the Students’ Union The meeting should be chaired by someone outside of the department but can be within the school for impartiality.

Although there is a set agenda, there should be a student focus which includes: Confirmation that course reps have consulted with students prior to the meeting and what mechanisms were used Feedback and updates on actions completed since the last meeting and any other issues have arisen during that time What happens after an SVF? Feedback on actions from SVFs should be provided to students via your VLE within two weeks of the SVF meeting. The course leader or relevant staff members will follow up any issues and will notify course representatives of any outcome or changes. It is then expected that the course reps and programme leader will feed these outcomes back to students through various methods.

Responsibilities Course Reps

Students’ Union

University/Partner Institution

Gather opinions and feedback

To support programme teams Course Rep Elections by request.

Elect student reps through academic staff.

Attend SVFs

Provide training to help be an effective course rep, alongside additional training opportunities throughout the year.

Provide information about meetings, dates/times and venues to Student Voice Forums and committees well in advance.

Pass on any topics they would like to discuss in the meetings to the organiser so they can be added to the agenda

Be on hand to help reps with Provide documentation when anything related to their experience relevant, such as an agenda and as a course rep. minutes for their meetings.

Maintain a list of reps on the SU Listen to what students tell them database. and present their views in a constructive, clear way - even if you don’t agree!

Recommend appropriate members of staff to refer student issues to.

Ensure that their personal views don’t impact on their ability to represent your peers.

Consider all feedback presented by Reps.

Experience of working under pressure to meet deadlines.

Act on feedback where appropriate.

Communicate with other Course Reps and Faculty Reps to notice recurring issues.

Work with course reps to feed back to students and close the feedback loop.

Understanding of the role of a campaigning organisation in Higher Education Close the feedback loop! Make sure they work with academic staff to inform students of the outcomes of any issues raised at Student Voice Forums.

Understanding of current policy and themes in Higher Education, politics and students’ unions in the UK. Update the Students’ Union on any changes that they make.

From time to time, students may approach you with sensitive and personal issues. Please do not try to resolve these issues, you can refer students to a Wellbeing Team within your institution or our Independent Advice Centre.

Advice Centre Our dedicated advisors can support students anywhere in the world! We can offer appointments via Microsoft Teams, Zoom or telephone and have already supported students across the globe including places such as Japan, Germany, Israel, Egypt and South Africa.

We can support students with their health and wellbeing, academic appeals and extenuating circumstances to name a few!

Book an appointment by emailing suadvice@wrexham.ac.uk – we aim to respond to all enquiries within 24 hours.

Visit our advice webpage to find out more

Quality Enhancement Review 2025 The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) reviews the standards, quality and course information published by all UK Universities.

Every five years, Wrexham University is reviewed by the QAA to ensure it meets the required expectations as set out by the UK Quality Code. The next review is in February 2025.

The views and interests of students are represented by WSU and we want to hear from you. The QER submission will offer many opportunities for student participation.

WSU will work with the University to develop a submission to share students’ views and feedback.

Some benefits of getting involved: Enables you to shape, improve and enhance the learning, teaching and overall student experience.

Develop transferable key skills such as communicating, decision making and working in teams to enhance your CV and increase your employability skills.

Over the coming months, there will be opportunities to attend focus groups and open discussions surrounding the 4 main themes of this years review. If this is something you’d like to get involved with you can register your interest by emailing QER@wrexham.ac.uk

Academic Development

Academic Partnerships

Monitoring & Review

Student Experience

Thank you Thank you for taking the time to read this handbook. If you require any further support, your main contact as a partner institution student (or staff member) is our Head of Membership Services, Carrie Bennett.

Carrie works from Wrexham University, Plas Coch Campus, Mold Road, Wrexham LL11 2AW. You can contact her by email at carrie.bennett@wrexham.ac.uk or calling +44 1978 293131.

Useful Students’ Union Contacts Student Voice Coordinator - Katie Taffinder katie.taffinder@wrexham.ac.uk WU President - Maisie Head supresident@wrexham.ac.uk WU Vice President - Freya Groom suvp@wrexham.ac.uk Student Advisor - Cath Clark cath.clark@wrexham.ac.uk Student Opportunities - Ariana Bradshaw ariana.bradshaw@wrexham.ac.uk General Enquiries - Reception union@wrexham.ac.uk

We wish you well in your future studies and congratulate you on successfully becoming a course rep… we hope you enjoy the experience!

We understand things don’t always go to plan or situations change, and if this is the case then please don’t hesitate to get in touch with your Programme Leader or the Students’ Union directly.

For more information, visit our partners webpage