Autumn Elections 2024
Want to stand up for your fellow students and make sure their voices are heard? The SUSU Autumn Elections are your chance to do just that! You can represent students on your course by becoming a Course Rep or get involved as a Senator or Student Officer. Find out about all the available roles below!
Course Rep
To represent students on the same course as you, become a Course Rep! Liaise with University staff about the ideas and concerns of your course mates, and make real change happen.
School President
School Presidents are the lead academic rep for your School (WSA, Engineering, and ORC roles are available in this election). You'll help and support the Department Presidents and Faculty Officers, and encourage collaboration between Schools and Departments.
Department President
Department Presidents are the lead academic rep for your Department. You'll manage representation within your Department and organise and lead the Course Reps within your Department.
Available Department President Roles
- Archaeology
- Civil & Environmental Engineering
- Gerontology
- History
- Institute of Sound & Vibration Research
- Languages, Cultures, and Linguistics
- Occupational Therapy
- Philosophy
- Physiotherapy
- Social Statistics and Demography
- Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology
Faculty Officer
(Arts & Humanities )
Faculty Officers are the senior academic reps in their faculty, reporting in to the Union's VP Education and Democracy.
PGR Officer
(Environment and Life Sciences)
Our PGR Officers work together to represent Postgraduate Research students to SUSU and the University.
Halls Officer
The Halls Officer works to represent the needs and interests of students living in halls accommodation. They act as a liaison between students and the University, and work with SUSU to ensure that the student experience in halls is the best that it can be! To apply for the role, you must have experience of living in UoS halls.
Senator
Our Union Senate is the committee that holds the Sabbatical Officers and their Student Officers accountable to their plans for the year. Senate also reviews the actions of the Sabbatical Officers to ensure they are representing students effectively.
There are 12 senator positions available in the 2024 Autumn elections. A Senator's focus is primarily on accountability and transparency.
Sustainability Faculty Officer (Medicine)
This Autumn Election the only Faculty electing a Sustainability Faculty Officer is the Medicine Faculty. The Sustainability Faculty Representative (SFR) will work within the medicine faculty to raise student concerns regarding faculty specific sustainability issues. They are responsible for gathering student feedback on sustainability, liaising with their designated university staff contact, and lobbying the university to engage in more sustainable practices.
Changes you can achieve for students by running as an Academic Rep in your school
Rebecca Would, your VP Education & Democracy shares some of the changes she got to make as a Course Rep and School President.
Suggest a Friend
If running in our Elections isn’t for you, but you know someone who would be a fantastic Academic Rep or Student Officer, you can put their name forward!
All you need to do is tell us their name, university email address and which role they would be perfect for, and we’ll get in touch!
As nominations are now closed suggesting a friend will reopen during the next Autumn Elections.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Nominations are open in our Autumn Elections from Monday 23 September at 09:00 until Monday 09 October at 16:00.
If you’re having any problems nominating yourself for a role please contact representation@soton.ac.uk
Yes! All the roles you can run for in our Autumn Elections are part-time, volunteer roles. This means you can be a Rep, Officer, or Senator alongside your studies.
There will be times throughout the year where you may be called on to help promote SUSU campaigns, and there will be key meetings you must attend.
If at any point you find that you are struggling to balance voluntary work with your studies, we understand that your degree must come first. You can always come and speak to us and we will try our best to make things easier.
For Course Rep positions you will want to focus on speaking to students from your course before/after your lectures, workshops, and seminars, as these will be the only students who can vote for you. For other roles you could speak to students in student social areas, or to other members of any clubs or societies you’re a part of. You can also campaign using existing group chats or other social media, but make sure not to ‘spam’ other students by sending lots of messages over a short period of time. Finally, remember to vote for yourself – it might be the vote that makes all the difference!