Academic Rep Training

Handbook
Summary of core online training for UG, PGT and PGR course reps

2024-25

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 This handbook summarises key information covered in your compulsory academic rep online training.

Please refer to the full online training for more details:

Course Rep Online Training - Taught Students (learnworlds.com)

Contents
1. Bristol SU & Academic Representation ........................................................................................................ 2
1.1. The SU & the University ........................................................................................................................ 2
1.2. Academic Representation .................................................................................................................... 3
2. Your responsibilities...................................................................................................................................... 3
2.1. Key responsibilities chart ..................................................................................................................... 4
2.2. Additional opportunities: ..................................................................................................................... 4
2.3. Limits of your role................................................................................................................................. 4
3. Key meetings, events, teams and networks ................................................................................................. 5
3.1. SSLCs and FSSLCs (Staff-Student Liaison Committees & Faculty Staff-Student Liaison
Committees)....................................................................................................................................................... 5
3.2. Student Council .................................................................................................................................... 5
3.3. Annual Members Meeting ..................................................................................................................... 5
3.4. University Quality Team (UQT) & Student Quality Reviewers (SQRs) ................................................. 5
3.5. Time commitment ................................................................................................................................ 5
4. How to be an effective representative: ........................................................................................................ 6
4.1. Communicating with students ............................................................................................................ 6
4.2. Making the most of SSLCs/FSSLCs....................................................................................................... 7
4.3. Handling personal data ........................................................................................................................ 9
4.4. Signposting Chart ............................................................................................................................... 10
5. Rewards, impact and recognition .............................................................................................................. 11
5.1. LinkedIn recommendations...................................................................................................................... 12
5.3. Further opportunities ............................................................................................................................... 12

1. Bristol SU & Academic Representation

1.1. The SU & the University

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Bristol SU is part-business, part membership-organisation, part-charity, democratically led by students, for
students.

It is separate from, but working in partnership with, the University.

Legally binding aims of the SU as a charity: promoting students’ interest and welfare; being a representative
channel for them; providing recreational activities and forums for personal development.

1.2. Academic Representation

Academic Representation system is run as a partnership between the SU and the University. It is here to
ensure that students are partners in their education and have more active involvement in, and ownership, of
their learning.

The full aims of the academic representation system and agreements between the SU and the University are
outlined in Codes of Practice for Student Representation, which can be accessed here (taught students) and
here (research students).

Working in partnership with students to co-create high quality university experience is one of the
University's key commitments to its student body, outlined in its Vision and Strategy (under the 2nd pillar),
and Student Partnership Vision.

At each level of the University of Bristol’s structure, from Programmes, through Schools, Faculties, all the
way to the University as a whole, there is an academic representation system in place to ensure that each
student is represented on academic issues; that relevant people are talking to each other; issues are raised;
decisions made; and progress is monitored. Please see below the structure of the University with the
corresponding structure of the Academic Rep System.

ACADEMIC
UNIVERSITY STRUCTURE
REPRESENTATION

2. Your responsibilities

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 2.1. Key responsibilities chart
Your key responsibilities are summarized in the chart below. They can be a circular process: after gathering
student feedback and discussing it with staff at a relevant meeting (or at an appropriate time outside of
formal meetings), you will then communicate outcomes back to students, which, in turn, may generate
additional feedback to be discussed with staff at a later stage.

2.2. Additional opportunities:

• Improving a sense of community on your course through organising social activities
• Collaborating with relevant academic societies
• Working with the SU Networks or full-time officers on issues such as Sustainability, Wellbeing or
EDI (Equality, Diversity & Inclusion)
• Attending Student Academic Representation Network, a space co creating with our team and
university staff to discuss best practice and compare experiences across reps and staff
• Getting involved in Senate or Research Ethics Committee

2.3. Limits of your role

Things that you are not expected to deal with include:
• Personal problems
• Formal procedures: e.g., students appealing results, disciplinary hearings, plagiarism cases,
etc.
• Student welfare: anything relating to accommodation, employment, health, finance, etc.

Please refer to the signposting chart at the end of this handbook for advice on where to direct students for
support with the above. There are further signposting materials in the ‘limits of your role’ section of the
online training. If you are unsure on how to respond to or signpost a student, please get in touch with
[email protected], we would be happy to help.

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3. Key meetings, events, teams and networks

3.1. SSLCs and FSSLCs (Staff-Student Liaison Committees & Faculty Staff-Student Liaison
Committees)
These are spaces for students and staff to meet, where you can raise issues reported to you by students,
work on solutions and monitor progress. You will be sent invitations to your e-mail and should always
attend, unless you have a reasonable excuse. If that’s the case, please remember to send apologies to
the organizers – don’t just ignore the invite!

You can also always contact staff to resolve issues informally outside of these meetings, particularly if
time is of issue.

3.2. Student Council

As an academic rep you have the right to vote at Student Council, so make sure you use this privilege to
help shape the direction of the SU. Motions that pass become active policy for 3 years, so don’t just
think about using your vote but also whether there are any motions you think would benefit future
students.
3.3. Annual Members Meeting
This is the SU’s largest democratic event: all students can attend and vote. This is a great opportunity
not only to pass motions, but also to hold your elected Full-Time Officers to account.
3.4. University Quality Team (UQT) & Student Quality Reviewers (SQRs)
Each year, the whole University undertakes checks on the quality of teaching and education. This review
process is carried out by the University Quality Team, which is made up of academic staff and Student
Quality Reviewers (SQRs). Look out for an SQR getting in touch with you - it is part of your role to
provide them with information so that they can do their job! We also suggest that you request your
School to present the most recent UQT report to SSLC members.

3.5. Time commitment

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Most reps spend an average 1-2 hours a week on their role, which includes time spent proactively
communicating and feeding back to students, as well as fixed-time commitments, listed in the table below:

When What Duration

at least once a term SSLC 1-2 hours each
to be confirmed Rep Training Day 3 hours
once a term Student Council 2.5 hours each
once a year Annual Members Meeting 3 hours
at least once a term Education Network Forums 1.5-2 hours each
once a year UQT/SQR meeting 1 hour

4. How to be an effective representative:

4.1. Communicating with students
Why?
Your role involves communicating with students to meet your key responsibilities, particularly gathering
and understanding their opinions, and letting them know the outcomes and progress of how issues are
being addressed. As their representative it is really important that you let them know how you are
responding to their feedback and what is being acted on.

You may also be asked to share relevant messages from your department or the SU.

How?
You can use an online platform of your choice or schedule in-person meetings , but make sure you reach
everybody you represent with your message – to achieve this goal you may need to use several
communication channels.

Examples of communication channels: Whatsapp, Facebook, email, Blackboard, in-person drop-in sessions,
coffee afternoons etc.

So, for example, if you choose to set up a group chat on Whatsapp for your course-mates/ fellow PGRs, but
know that there are some people who don’t use this app, make sure to also send an email around.
Everybody has a university e-mail account, so it’s a good communication channel to always include
alongside any other forms of engagement.

You can also speak to university staff about setting aside some time at the end of a lecture/seminar to give
students an update on the most recent SSLC and let them know you are available to gather feedback from
them.

Speak to other reps to share best practice on what works!

Getting useful feedback:

Make sure you get in touch with students you represent regularly to gather opinions on how things are going
on the course, what is going well in terms of how the course is being run and delivered, what is causing
challenges, as well as to brainstorm ideas on how things could be improved. You will then take all this
information with you to report at SSLCs/FSSLCs, or you may act on some of those issues in informal
meetings with staff.

One way to approach gathering useful feedback is using the Traffic Lights System

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The Traffic Lights System:

What do you want to STOP happening?

What do you want to KEEP happening?

What do you want to START happening

In addition to gathering general feedback through such open-ended questions, you may also choose to add
some additional questions, focusing on a particular issue or area of academic experience.

Some useful documents that can help you identify areas to focus on are the University’s Vision and Strategy
2022-2030, as well as the most recent University Quality Team report for your School, which highlights
things that are working well and some suggestions to work on. Your school/course’s Education Action Plan
is also a good place to start, as this is based on recent feedback from students and outlines key areas the
department are developing.

4.2. Making the most of SSLCs/FSSLCs

Who will be there?
This can differ between Schools and Faculties, and from meeting to meeting, but here is a list of who you are
likely to encounter at those meetings:
• Reps: For SSLCs that would be course/PGR reps for each year and programme in the School; FSSLCs
are attended by School Reps and your Faculty Rep, who chairs or co-chairs the meeting.
• Chair (either staff member and/or Faculty Rep for FSSLCs);
• Faculty or School level academic staff
• Faculty or School administrators
• Professional Services where relevant (e.g. Library or Wellbeing)
• SU staff member (at FSSLCs)
• Some Schools invite representatives of Academic Societies to their SSLCs
• Staff from University management departments looking to consult on specific issues or projects (at
some FSSLCs)

How to make the most of these meetings?

1. Be prepared:
Gather opinions of students you represent in advance.
Read the agenda – ask for explanation if something isn’t clear, request to add items as required.
Read the previous minutes and Action Register (a document outlining and monitoring actions to be
taken following F/SSLCs).
2. Support your comments:
Support your comments with data: if you have carried a survey or distributed feedback forms, refer to
those in the meeting.
Use University-wide research and data if available/relevant.

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 Consult with fellow reps.
Provide examples to illustrate your points.
3. Be positive:
You don’t need to solve the issues you’re presenting, but bring some ideas on how they can be
addressed, if possible.
Discuss potential solutions with your fellow reps and students before the meeting.
Mention positives – what is going well, as well as any issues that need addressing.
Have an open, collaborative attitude and appreciate that change can take time.
4. Be representative:
Consider opinions of all students – make sure you’ve reached everyone with request for feedback and
allowed plenty of time for answers.
Don’t just speak from personal experience.
Be prepared to report views you personally disagree with.

Remember this is your space! Make the most of it, ask questions if you want something further explained,
don’t be afraid to disagree!

REP RESPONSIBILITIES
Before meetings • Let your course mates know the meeting is
happening, invite their feedback.
• Read the agenda, Action register, and
minutes from previous meetings, add
anything that’s necessary.
• Don’t just ignore the invite – if you can’t
attend, send apologies!

During meetings • You may be invited to co-chair on some

occasions to promote a shared space
between staff and students.
• Report on any progress on actions
assigned to you at the previous meeting.
• Take notes on important points and things
to feed back to your course mates on.
• Provide the student perspective, discuss
potential solutions and take part in
decision-making.
After meetings • Take responsibility for any actions
assigned to you.
• Keep any papers from the meeting filed
and organized, keeping any personal data
secure.
• Feedback meeting discussions and
outcomes to your course-mates, provide
updates on how any issues are being
addressed.
• Let your Faculty Rep know if you think an
issue needs to be escalated to higher level.

Things can also be handled informally outside of those core meetings, just by talking to a member of staff.
Informal meetings can help you build positive relationships, understand the reasoning behind decisions

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better, as well as to resolve issues more quickly. Please refer to our signposting chart for some general
guidelines on where and how best to raise different issues you may be approached with.

4.3. Handling personal data

As a Rep, you might need to handle personal data. Anyone who handles or processes personal data needs to
do so in line with the law. This includes making sure you know the basic principles of the General Data
Protection Act (GDPR).

Five tips for handling data

Only use it for the

For example, if you collect phone numbers to use in case of an emergency on an event, this
purpose it was
does not mean you can use their phone-number to then contact them outside of this event.
collected for
Unless, of course, they have said they’re happy for you to do so.

Make sure people know what you’re collecting or using their information for, where you’ll
Be transparent hold it, and when you’ll delete it. This also means you should not share data with other
people or groups, unless you have the data-owner's explicit consent.

In most cases to do your job well, all you need is a student’s name and email address so that
you could contact them as a rep.

GDPR specifies that you should only collect the information that you need to perform
Only collect the data necessary functions. There might be other things that you think would be interesting to
that you need know i.e. what proportion of your course mates identify as LGBT+, but you must not collect
data just because you’re interested.

If you did want to know about demographic make-ups, you could ask the SU to give you a
demographic report of your course. This will give you a picture of your course but won’t
make any individuals identifiable.

Set out when you will

GDPR says that you can’t hold someone’s personal information indefinitely. To make things
get rid of it, and
easy we’d recommend keeping data no longer than the end of the academic year. We have
actually get rid of it
confidential waste bins you can use in the SU office to safely destroy old, printed data.

When someone gives you access to their personal information, they are trusting you to look
Look after any data you after it. You should make sure it is stored safely and confidentially. You shouldn’t, for
hold example, share a list of contact details with anyone else, unless you have been explicitly
permitted to do so.

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4.4. Signposting Chart

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5. Rewards, impact and recognition

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5.1. LinkedIn recommendations
Once you’ve completed the online training, attended at least one democratic event (Student Council or
Annual Members Meeting), and one additional event including Rep Conference, Student Academic
Representation Network (SARN), Rep Conference or another event/focus group organised by our team, you
will qualify for a LinkedIn recommendation from us.

This will help boost your profile to potential employers and showcase the brilliant work you do as an
Academic Rep, as well as all of the skills you will have demonstrated in this role. Please get in touch with us
when you have met the above criteria. Your time spent volunteering as a rep also counts towards the Bristol
Plus Award.

Alongside LinkedIn recommendations, we also announce our Rep of the Month nominee every month in our
newsletter. If you know of another rep who does an outstanding job, demonstrating best practise and going
above and beyond, please be sure to nominate them for the award!

5.3. Further opportunities

Careers Service can help you identify transferable skills you’re gaining in the role, and how to talk about
your rep experience on a CV or in interviews.

We will communicate any upcoming events and opportunities relevant to your role in our newsletter.
Bristol Institute for Learning and Teaching often has work opportunities for students engaged in their
education experience. Keep an eye out on their website!
Each year in March elections, we elect lots of different kinds of student reps. You can take on a more senior
student leader position by becoming a Faculty Rep or a Full Time Officer, which are both excellent
opportunities to represent students and expand on the skills you have developed in your Course/PGR rep
role!

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