Hello & Congratulations on being elected as a Course Representative!
As a Course Rep you’ll be playing a big part in changing AUB for the better over the next academic year. You'll be the eyes and ears on the ground, listening to and representing your peers feedback about your course & campus experiences – letting us know what students love, what they don’t like so much, and what could be made even better!
If this is your first time as a Course Rep then welcome! This handy guide will give you an idea of what to expect over the next three terms, with tips and tricks so you can make the most of your time representing the student voice!
If you have been a Course Rep before then welcome back! You can use this handbook to refresh your knowledge, and to find out how we’ve responded to your feedback & developed the Course Representative System since you were in last in Post!
You can sit down with a hot mug of something and read this cover to cover, or dip in and out when you need to!
Page 1-2
What is a Students' Union?
Page 3-4
What is a Course Rep?
Page 5-6
The Feedback Loop
Page 7-8
Think Tank
Page 9-12
Important Meetings & Top Tips
Page 13
The Schools
Page 14
Contacts & Usuful Links
What is a Students’ Union?
A Students’ Union is a membership organisation found in colleges and universities across the world, they are run by students who are democratically elected each year. You are automatically a member of your Students' Union once you enroll at university. Though linked to, and primarily funded by, The University, Students’ Unions are separate from The University itself – this ensures that students have access to unbiased and objective support from their Students’ Union. Like many Students’ Unions across the country, AUBSU is a registered charity!
What do they do?
• Represent the interest of students within the institution, locally and nationally.
• Ensure that students are aware of their own rights and responsibilities.
• Support students in participating in the opportunities offered by The University.
• Run campaigns about the things that matter to students – political, environmental and academic.
• Provide development opportunities for students, including Freshers’, regular events, clubs & societies, volunteering and training.
• Ensure that representatives are elected fairly and democratically.
Structure of the Students’ Union
The Students’ Union has a special structure to ensure everything it does is democratic, legal and in line with its strategic aims. The diagram below shows the structure of AUBSU:
Board of Trustees
A mix of students and non-students who ensure the Students’ Union is upholding its Constitution and By-Laws. Give strategic oversight to the Students’ Union.
Sabbatical Officers
Voted in to represent the voice of the student body and oversee all Officers.
Office
The AUBSU Staff who run the Union, electing representatives, administrating student meetings, organising events and promoting student opportunities
Exec Officers
Elected Officers, Part-time Officers and full-time students, there to support students within their area of representation and promote events and campaigns.
Clubs and Societies Committees
Voted in to look after a specific Club/Society.
Course Reps
Voted in to represent a certain course and year group.
How do I come into this?
At the start of each year, there will be Course Reps elected from each year group (From Foundation all the way up to PHD level!). As a Course Rep, you will spend the year listening to your fellow students’ experiences & passing along feedback to your Academic Staff and the Students’ Union. All of that feedback is used by us and AUB to change and develop your course and our campus and make life better for everyone here at AUB!
Responsibilities:
• Amplifying the voices of students in your year group & on your course to AUB & AUBSU.
• Attend Course Partnership Group (CPG) meetings with your course staff and Town Hall Meetings with AUBSU staff throughout the year.
• Listening to students’ feedback about your course and inputting it into AUBSU’s Think Tank, where it will be compiled for you to take to your CPG meetings.
• Signposting students to AUBSU Think Tank where they can choose to anonymously leave their feedback for you to take to CPG meetings.
• Keeping students up to date with how their feedback is used by their Course Leaders and AUBSU.
• Signposting students to the right people at AUB where needed e.g. Student Services
• Attending training sessions run by AUBSU, as well as having the opportunity to access free Mental Health England Mental Health First Aid courses.
• Working with departments across campus to improve AUB’s support & resources for students.
What is the Feedback Loop?
Being a Course Rep is all about communication, including listening! When at its best, the Course Rep system should work cyclically – it’s a feedback loop! A constant flow of information between all parties involved.
Why is it important?
The only way for us to know how to improve life at AUB is to know what needs improvement, what you enjoy, and what you think could be implemented. If students give their feedback on an aspect of their AUB experience and then never hear what happens with it, they won’t give us any more feedback in the future!
The most crucial part of being a rep is keeping students ‘in the loop’ about the progress of their feedback and the changes it inspires – That's how AUB and AUBSU get to keep making The University better!
Reps take feedback to CPGs / AUBSU
Course staff / AUBSU take action on feedback
Course staff / AUBSU feedback to Course Reps
Think Tank
Think Tank is AUBSU’s new online feedback tool for collecting and collating the feedback you & your peers have!
Once you are elected as a course representative, you will be invited to ‘register’ with Think Tank so you can input feedback on behalf of your peers. You have the power to submit multiple pieces of feedback at once, and log how many individual students agree with the feedback, so we understand how important it is to the students.
Your peers can also submit their own feedback individually & anonymously if they’d prefer, so you don’t have to personally collect and submit everything on your own! Just direct them to AUBSU Think Tank!
When you open Think Tank you are given a choice between things that ‘work well’ things that ‘work less well’ and ‘new ideas’ about every department on campus. We take yours and your classmates' feedback and compile it together for you to take to your CPG meetings and send relevant feedback directly to departments across campus to ensure it is seen, addressed and responded to as fast as possible!
Top Tips!
From students:
• Introduce yourself and AUBSU Think Tank to everyone on your course so they know who you are and how to raise their feedback
• Ask for feedback in your course group chat(s), either sent to you or uploaded directly to AUBSU Think Tank
• Ask your tutors for time before/after lectures and tutorials to speak to students
• Put up posters on your course noticeboard to raise awareness of you & AUBSU Think Tank
In CPGs / Town Hall:
• Make sure someone is taking notes in the meeting, and those notes are distributed after the meeting.
• Contact AUBSU for a Think Tank report to take to your CPG meeting, this will list all the feedback collected by you as a rep as well as any anonymous feedback submitted by students on your course!
• Ask about progress on feedback raised at previous meetings
Closing the loop:
• Send updates on feedback progress to your course group chat(s)
• Use time at the start of lectures and tutorials to let students know what’s going on
• Feedback to individual students or smaller groups face-to-face where needed
What happens to all that feedback?
Once we have all the feedback collected, it’s time to take it to the people who can do something about it: your course staff & AUBSU! This is done through attending the regular CPG and Town Hall Meetings hosted throughout the academic year. These meetings give you the opportunity to champion the opinions of your fellow students & ensure they’re raised and passed on to the right people!
Here’s how to make the most out of your meetings:
• Contact AUBSU for your course’s Think Tank Report, this will list the feedback from you & your fellow students - so you don’t have to worry about losing your notes or forgetting something important!
• You can bring minutes from previous meetings so you can chase up on ongoing feedback work
• Book a 1 to 1 session with AUBSU’s Democracy & Representation Coordinator if you’re unsure how to proceed!
Course Partnership Groups (CPGs)
This is an open meeting between all the Course Reps for your course (all levels!) the Course Leader, your tutors, and any other relevant course staff. They should happen at least once a term and notes should be taken & sent out to you in good time after the meeting. You will be contacted about dates and times for your CPGs by your course staff.
CPGs are for raising feedback related to your course; think contact time, study space, course content & course organisation. Examples from previous CPGs include:
•Lack of space in your studio
• Request for specialist software to be available on more computers
• Requests for more recycling facilities in your studio/workspace
If feedback cannot be resolved at this level it will be passed on to the School Board (more about that later...)
SU Mandatory Meetings & Drop-ins
AUBSU’s Town Hall is an open meeting once a term between AUBSU and all Course Reps, including one or both Sabbatical Officers. Notes will be taken by the AUBSU Democracy Coordinator and sent to reps after the meeting.
You can also book a Drop-in session with the AUBSU Democracy Coordinator or one of the Sabbatical Officers anytime throughout the term if you require more support or guidance with your role.
Town Hall meetings are for raising feedback about The University that is either not specific to your course or has not been addressed within your CPGs. You can also bring feedback about your CPGs and the Course Representative system itself! Examples from previous meetings include:
• Cheaper canteen food / different options
• Wanting more AUBSU events
• More frequent UniBuses
Feedback raised at Town Halls and Drop-ins will be looked at by the Sabbatical Officers or AUBSU Democracy Coordinator & passed on to relevant staff at AUB. Course Reps will be kept in the loop of the progress of that feedback & notified of any outcomes!
These next meetings you do not have to attend, but they happen in the background & utilise the feedback you collect so they are important to note! If you do wish to personally deliver feedback & join the discussion for one of these meetings, then please do let your course leader or the AUBSU Democracy Coordinator know & we will do our best to get you in the room!
School Board
“The School Board has responsibility for ensuring that courses within the School are operating effectively. This includes ensuring that courses are of an appropriate academic standard and that the student experience is of high quality. It does this by receiving reports from courses and subject areas, which will include data on student satisfaction and achievement and the ways in which the subject areas intend to respond to these.”
To simplify, the school board is made up of the head of school & all the course leaders of a particular school as well as relevant course staff. They recap your feedback, and any proposed changes you & your course staff have produced in response to that feedback, to officially respond & continually improve the student experience. If they cannot approve something, it will be passed up the chain to LTQ.
Learning, Teaching and Quality Committee (LTQ)
“LTQ holds delegated responsibility for the oversight and evaluation of the student learning experience, including the quality management infrastructure for all courses leading to an award of the University, whether delivered by the University or by a collaboratepartner.”
-AUB terms of reference
To simplify, LTQ are positioned above the School Board. If the School Board cannot approve a particular change, or if the feedback needs to be discussed at a higher level, it goes up to LTQ for approval!
Schools
Arts Media & Creative Industries Management
BA (Hons) Commercial Photography
BA (Hons) Fine Art
BA (Hons) Games Art and Design
BA (Hons) Graphic Design
BA (Hons) Illustration
BA (Hons) Photography
Bournemouth Film School
BA (Hons) Acting
BA (Hons) Animation Production
BA (Hons) Costume
BA (Hons) Creative Writing
BA (Hons) Dance
BA (Hons) Film Production
BA (Hons) Make-up for Media and Performance
BA (Hons) Performance Design and Film Costume
BA (Hons) Visual Effects (VFX) for Film and Television
Arts Media & Creative Industries Management
BA (Hons) Communication Design and Strategy
BA (Hons) Creative Direction
BA (Hons) Curation Exhibition and Experience Design
BA (Hons) Events Management
BA (Hons) Visual Communication
Design and Architecture
BA (Hons) Architecture
BA (Hons) Creative Technologies
BA (Hons) Design
BA (Hons) Design for Sustainable Futures
BA (Hons) Fashion
BA (Hons) Fashion Branding and Communication
BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design
BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design for Health & Wellbeing
BA (Hons) Modelmaking
BA (Hons) Textiles Master of Architecture
Postgraduate School Postgraduate School (online only)
