Student -led Academic societies offer opportunities for peer led learning and academic exploration.

Such experiences encourage students to develop their own learning and subject exploration, enable them to act as scholarly communities and furthermore, provide opportunities for leadership and further professional development. 

At present, the University has the following registered academic societies, namely Bushcraft, Environmental Protection and Appreciation, Forestry, Mountaineering, Paddling, Sailing, Gallery, Wildlife, Midwifery, Physiotherapy, Law, Paramedic, Performing Arts, Business and Occupational Therapy. Whilst the portfolio appears relatively healthy, a number of these societies struggle to operate, find the necessary memberships and often have no longevity. 

Working with the University, UCSU would like to ensure that student-led academic societies become a norm so that all students may benefit from scholarly extra-curricular activity and so that in future, this also may become a positive supporting factor to student recruitment.  

Every Higher Education Institution is responsible for ensuring that students receive good quality academic provision and a positive student experience. A vital part of this is the Academic Rep system. The role of an Academic Rep is to connect with students on their course, make sure they understand their cohort's opinions about the teaching and learning and feed this back to staff. They then work with staff to make improvements and keep students informed about these outcomes.

The current system was set up a part of a joint project between UoC and UCSU in 2011/12. The student body has changed since then and lots of students are now based off-campus, largely due to the growth in School Direct and apprenticeship programmes. The current system is based around the Student Staff Forum which is a formal meeting between Reps and academic staff to discuss feedback from students. This may not be the most suitable system for students based off-campus (42% of students) or those in small cohorts (16% of students are on a course which has 20 or less students enrolled). It seems timely, therefore, to review the reps system. 

We've started by finding out what guidelines are currently in place and asking last years’ reps about their experiences. Their responses suggest that the current system isn’t working as well as it could:

• Only 52% of reps felt any changes had been made as a result of their feedback.

• 28% of reps had raised an issue which hadn’t been resolved.

• Some reps found it difficult to find out what happened after they’d shared feedback. 32% weren’t kept updated about progress on issues; of those who were updated, 38% had to ask for information. 

We’re currently researching statutory guidance and exploring systems at other institutions to identify alternative models and best practice. UoC has appointed Collette Conroy as their lead on the project and we’re working alongside her to identify stakeholders and form a working group which will, of course, include student representatives! This group is aiming to produce draft frameworks for an improved system before the end of 2022/23. These will be shared with more widely with current reps who will be asked to consider the proposals and feedback their criticisms to the working group before any changes are adopted.  

What are UCSU planning to achieve during this academic year?

UCSU focused on identifying and connecting with Class Reps during 2022-23 (you can read about our performance in our End of Year Report here). During 2023-24 we want to strengthen our connection with Class Reps and improve the quality of support we provide for them. We’ve set ourselves these broad aims:

1. To raise the profile of the Academic Representation System – and UCSU’s role within it – to UoC students and staff,
2. To improve support for Class Reps through a) increasing uptake and quality of training and b) raising awareness of formal and informal support available from UCSU. 

It was identified that students over 25 were less likely to volunteer as Class Reps during 2022-23, so a project aiming to identify and remove barriers for this group of students will also run through this year. 

As a result of this we hope that:

• Students will be more likely to raise issues with Class Reps,
• More Class Reps will access the support and training available from UCSU,
• UoC staff will have a greater understanding of UCSU’s role within the Academic Representation System and be more likely to approach UCSU for advice and support. 

How do we plan to achieve this?

We will raise the profile of the Academic Representation System by:

• Running a Rep Recruitment campaign during the peak period of Class Rep elections to encourage students to engage with the opportunity,
• Improving our support for academic staff involved in recruiting student reps by providing training, resources and advice,
• Running a ‘Tell Your Rep’ campaign to encourage students to provide feedback to Class Reps ahead of Term 1 Student Staff Forums,
• Providing training for academic staff to support them in running Student Staff Forums and handling feedback,
• Celebrating the successes of UCSU’s Class Reps through the Rep Awards, publicising their achievements throughout the year and during Student Volunteer Week,
• Actively promoting training, support and opportunities to Class Reps,
• Improving our presence at Student Staff Forums,
• Continuing to collaborate with UoC on a full review of the Academic Rep System. 

We will aim to improve support for Class Reps by: 

• Reintroducing in-person induction sessions, alongside Teams sessions and Blackboard modules for those unable to attend, advertised in advance through multiple channels, 
• Introducing a short refresher Blackboard module for returning Class Reps, 
• Regularly promoting training, support and opportunities to Class Reps.

How will we measure our impact?

For the first time, UCSU will track the total number of Class Reps and staff who engage with us over the academic year to provide an indication of the scale of our impact. We have also set ourselves the following targets:

In 2022-23, 39% of Class Reps engaged with the training. We want to train at least 50% this year.

During the End of Year survey, 55.7% of Class Reps knew what support was available from UCSU and 61.5% knew how to contact us. We want to see both these figures at 70% by the end of this year.

To find out more about Academic Representation, being a Class Rep or to share your views on our work get in touch with studentvoice@cumbria.ac.uk