PRE-REGISTER FOR YOUR NEW CAMPUS NETWORK...
GETTING FEEDBACK FROM STUDENTS AND HOW TO USE IT
To be an effective Student Rep you’ll need to work closely with both students and staff. To do
this we suggest you make sure that the students you’ll be representing and the staff with which
you will be negotiating know who you are!
Ideas for getting student feedback: -
- Put a photograph of yourself on the student reps board in your department, if you
can put it alongside a suggestions box so students that prefer to be anonymous
or who don’t want to see/email you can still relay their problems to you
- Introduce yourself to your course convener, and request that there are really
important pieces of information that need to sent out to the whole course, that
they allow you to send out an all course/department email
- Ask lecturers to give you a couple of minutes at the beginning or end of a lecture,
time that you can use to: -
_ introduce yourself to the students you are representing;
_ highlight any areas of concern upon which you need feedback
_ request feedback (either there or then, or tell students how they can
contact you)
_ in future lectures use the opportunity to give a generic thank you to those
that responded to you last time, and update the lecture on what happened
as a result of their input (only do this with things that effect a wide range
of students and not with information that was given to you confidentially)
- Talk to other students on your course (not just your friends) to ask their opinion
on agenda items that are coming up in a committee meeting that you’re going to
attend
Resolving issues informally
Your most important task will be to convey the needs and views of the students you have been
elected to represent. Remember that your own personal views may not reflect the view of the
rest of your course/school/department so bear in mind that you’ll need to make enquiries into
all opinions on an issue, not just those that match your own or your friends.
It won’t always be appropriate to take issues straight to a committee meeting. Often, issues
raised by students can get resolved at the most local level – by making a phone call, writing an
email or having a simple conversation with the appropriate person e.g. staff member or tutor.
This is the best way to ensure that you are as effective as possible and that you only raise
broader issues at a committee level – by doing this you will gain the respect of the committees
you sit on and the staff with which you work. However, when it’s not possible to resolve
issues at this level, it may be that you need to consider taking the problem to a committee
meeting.
Think about the importance of the issue and how it can be resolved. Problems tend to fall into
the following groups: -
- Issues that are resolvable at a local level: often approaching relevant staff
members can resolve a problem immediately, often to the satisfaction of the
student/s concerned
- Issues that require further research: it may be that you take a problem to a
member of staff but the staff member you speak to needs to look into the
answer/remedy for you, and will give you a timescale in which they will get back to
you. If they don’t get back to you or their answer is not to the satisfaction of the
students you are representing you may want to consider taking the issue to the next
committee meeting (unless it is a complaint, in which case you will need to suggest
that you student/s concerned follow the University’s complaints procedure)
- Issues that affect students in other departments/schools across the university:
If you think that you have identified an issue that may affect more than just your
course/department, raise it in on the student reps forum and/or student reps meeting
and alert the Education Officer in USSU to check if other schools/departments are
aware. This way, issues of wider concern can be raised at the appropriate university
committee
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