UG Handbook - Course Reps/Department-based Student Community

Academic representation is a partnership between YUSU, the GSA and University Departments.  Together, we aim to ensure that students contribute directly to the process of reviewing, maintaining and enhancing the quality of the academic experience here.

You can go to academic reps with any feedback about best practice, concerns or suggestions about how the department or aspects of your programme are run.

There are three types of academics reps:

• Course Reps act as the voice of their cohort and work with staff to make improvements to their course.  By gathering student opinion, Course Reps become specialists in course-based issues, helping to identify and tackle problems that arise.  You can access a list of the current academic year's course reps here. 
• Department Reps take on a leadership role and support Course Reps to make positive change to the department as a whole.  Department Reps are also invaluable contacts at YUSU and take part in University-side projects that improve the student experience.
• Faculty Reps are undergraduate students that work behind the scenes ensuring that the student voice is heard at all levels.  By sitting on high-level committees, they influence University-wide decisions as well as pushing forward their own manifesto projects.

Responsibilities of Course Reps:

• To attend the termly meeting of the BoS and to present students' items to the meetings and then to relay the information back to the students.
• All undergraduate BoS representatives will be expected to attend the termly Staff/Student Forum and Departmental Undergraduate Teaching Committee.

We are always looking for ways to improve the programme on the basis of the experience of staff and students. For this reason we ask you to let us have constructive comments and criticisms, either by approaching a staff member directly, or via your representative on the BoS. We will endeavour to act where possible, and if not, let you know the reason.

If you’d like to represent the views of your fellow students and have a say in how your programme is run, why not apply to be a course rep? You can stand for election at the beginning of Autumn term.  

Visit: yusu.org/your-voice/academic-reps and yusu.org/your-voice/become-a-rep for more information.

For a more detailed description of the role, visit: york.ac.uk/about/organisation/governance/governance-documents/members-secretaries/guidelinesforstudentreps