Thursday 28-09-2017 - 16:53

 

 

Written by Mason Ammar, Undergraduate Education Officer

If you’re a first-year student, the time has come to nominate yourself to become a course rep! Being a course rep is an opportunity to make a huge difference at university. They are crucial to the link between the university and Students’ Union. As a course rep, your main role is to represent the views of all students on your course and in your year and to feed that back to the right people to ensure we improve the academic experience of students at Bristol.

In my second year of university I was an Economics course rep and I would definitely recommend you become one too! I’m going to list 5 reasons why you should nominate yourself, or a friend, to become a course rep:

Network with a wide range of staff and meet new people!

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I mean, don’t talk trash. But utilise the time you have with key members of staff in your faculty. You can learn a lot from the meetings you attend as well as developing a greater understanding of how things operate in your department. Whether it’s how exams are structured, or the ways in which students receive feedback, you’ll be able to make friends and network with staff while learning on the go.

Develop your skills!

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As a course rep you will be able to develop your skills, especially with the training that will be provided by the SU! While being a course rep I became more confident communicating with senior members of staff to ensure they made the right changes to benefit my course mates.

Become more employable

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I want to make sure that you can take Rihanna’s advice to work. With all the communication, time-management, leadership and negotiating skills that you develop as a course rep and our new rewards and recognition scheme (including LinkedIn recommendations), you’ll be fully prepared to take on those job applications. Stand out from the crowd and enhance your CV by becoming a course rep!

Make positive change!

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I don’t mean change yourself, I mean get in those meetings and make positive changes! When I was a course rep, I successfully lobbied for more detailed examination reports, and greater access to mark schemes and past papers. I also encouraged my department to start recording ALL lectures!

​You get to attend an amazing Course Rep Conference in November!

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As part of our revamp of the Education Network and course rep system we’ll be having a course rep conference in November where you’ll be able to attend workshops and hear key note speeches. You’ll also have the opportunity to hear from the University of Bristol’s Pro-Vice Chancellor for Education Professor Judith Squires!

Oh, and there’ll be a pizza party afterwards…

So, what are you waiting for? Nominate yourself or recommend a friend to become a course rep. Meet new people and network with senior members of staff, develop your skills, become more employable, make positive change and attend our Course Rep Conference in November! Visit www.bristolsu.org.uk/elections for more information.