Student Representatives

Student representation is an important priority for the University of Edinburgh. Rep’s allow students to gather their views and experiences (both positive and negative) and feedback to academic and professional services with the aim to keep student experience at a high level. Both the course representative (‘class rep’) and programme representative (‘programme rep’) roles are highly constructive and valuable from the School’s perspective, and hopefully from yours too.

a) Programme representative:

Each Programme or subject area appoint one or more student representatives (during the start of term and you’ll receive details via your Community Learn page), who convey students’ views to the Academic Leads, Programme Directors (for MSc programmes) and Postgraduate Advisors (for PhD students) throughout the year. Student reps also participate in various meetings within the School to represent the views and opinions of their fellow students.

As a Programme Rep your responsibilities will be to:

  • successfully complete the Edinburgh University Students’ Association (EUSA) Programme Rep Basic Online Training (or Refresher training if you have been a University of Edinburgh Programme Rep before)
  • successfully complete the short Programme Rep Handover Document
  • actively work with the support of EUSA and the subject areas to gather feedback, thoughts and ideas from the students they represent
  • attend and actively contribute to Student-Staff Liaison Committee (SSLC) meetings (at least two per academic year)
  • close the feedback loop by letting the students you represent know how feedback was communicated in the SSLCs, what resolutions and recommendations emerged in relation to this feedback, and any actions taken in reference to these.

 

b) Course representative:

Class reps are an important part of the feedback process and help the Law School achieve an excellent learning experience for students.

As class representatives your responsibilities will be:

  • communicating both positive and negative comments to staff about the running of the course.
  • reps must attend a meeting with the Course Organiser in order to convey these views
  • a written record of these meetings should be prepared and agreed by the Rep and Course Organiser.
  • work closely alongside Programme Representatives who ensure that student feedback is communicated and issues are addressed

It is possible to act as a class and programme rep in the same semester, however, if you are considering volunteering for both please bear in mind the recommendation is around 50 students for each rep. Online training is available for student representatives through EUSA.

A dedicated website on the theme of student representation is found here.