Becoming a School Rep was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
I know that sounds dramatic, but it opened so many doors for me. I decided I wanted to apply for the role whilst I was out on my year in industry where I was really struggling with feelings of disempowerment, demoralisation and loneliness. The year was very isolating for me and although I gained a lot from it, I felt trapped at the time and like a passenger in my own life. Things were happening around me, but I had little to no control.
I had been a Course Rep before leaving for industry and remember really looking up to the School Rep in our Student-Staff Forums. I was also very aware of the fact that I would be coming back to my last year uni, and the negative experience I was having made me determined to squeeze as much as possible out of it. I decided to join several societies and applied to become the School Rep for Chemical and Process Engineering.
The role helped me develop so many skills; communication, team working, leadership, stakeholder management, creative problem solving, the list goes on. My confidence in my professional ability was so much higher, but it also really impacted my personal life. Leading a team of Course Reps to make a positive impact that students were visibly benefitting from was such a rewarding experience. I was empowered to make a real change which is exactly what I wanted to do. By the end of the year, it was clear my school has felt the effects; the metric in the National Student Survey measuring how students felt their voice was heard had increased by 3 points.
Being a School Rep also gave me the opportunity to make university-wide change. I would represent my school when policy was being passed, informing the decisions made. I eventually ran to be Education Officer (something I would never have considered before), where I get to carry on the work I started as a School Rep but for everyone on campus. I’m currently working on improving the experience of students who go off-campus for a year abroad or in industry as a result of my time away. I’m also improving module feedback because of dissatisfaction among my peers. From next year, students everywhere should be able to give module feedback at any point during a module so changes can be made whilst the module is ongoing. These were projects I’d started working on as a School Rep. I didn’t realise any student (never mind me) had the power to tackle these issues before.
As a School Rep, you also have the opportunity to sit on boards that make decisions affecting the whole university alongside senior staff members. You also chair and contribute to meetings which make wide-spread change to hundreds of students. If you’re passionate about leaving a legacy and creating a better student experience whilst gaining skills, this is a brilliant opportunity. I feel so privileged that I got to be a School Rep, I’ve achieved so much more than I thought possible and have so much more ambition and clarity about my future as a result.
If you want to apply to be your School Rep, you can do so by 3 May. The application details can be found here, best of luck in the process!
