Student Representatives from across the subjects at the University of Birmingham have been nominated, let loose and are now ready for questioning.
The Student Reps organisation is run by the University of Birmingham’s very own Guild of Students. The scheme has been running for many years now, conducting training sessions for budding representatives to stand for their subject. However, none so popular as this year’s training for aspiring Student Reps. On 25th October 2014, over 1,000 people turned up at the day’s event to undergo the training.
“This is the largest turnout for Student Reps training ever!” announced Joe Armer, Vice President (Education) Guild of Students Sabbatical Officer.
The day began at 10:30am with refreshments and an excited buzz as people filled the debating hall with live chatter and introductions. Come 11am, we were welcomed with an introduction from Joe Armer himself, informing us of student rep responsibilities.
Student Reps play a “key role in the development of education and the student experience” at the University of Birmingham (UoB). They have access to a network of contacts, which gets current concerns out there and have regular staff-student meetings to discuss these matters. The scheme has members that are both undergraduate and postgraduate, which made for an interesting discussion of ideas within the group work sessions after lunch. It was inspiring to see everyone’s engagement when pointing out current problems within education and hearing the suggestions for solutions.
This session followed with four workshops: Engagement, Time Management, Communication and Negotiation. They were all very useful and involved a lot of group activities and teamwork.
Finally, the day concluded with an evaluation and ‘With Thanks’ session.
“Student Reps are in place to gather the ‘academic related’ questions and issues facing the students or postgraduate researchers they represent.” – Guild of Students: Student Rep System.
The Student Representatives for your college can be found on Student Reps 2014-2015 boards within your college, or you can get in contact with them by emailing: studentreps@guild.bham.ac.uk.
