Rep FAQs

Enrolment to be a Course rep takes place September - October, with School Rep elections taking place in November and March.

To be a Rep, you must have spoken to your course leader, signed up with Arts SU, and attended training provided by Arts SU. The Course Rep role is not an elected role.  

Course Reps and School Reps should then start by introducing themselves to their fellow students (on their course for Course Reps, across their school for School Reps). You can do this by sending an email, saying hello before or after class and/or asking your Course Leader to introduce you to students alongside them. 

After you have introduced yourself and students have got to know you, you can then start gathering feedback from them about their academic experience.  

There are various ways you can do this that we will share with you below.  

Everyone course across UAL should have at least 1 Course Rep per year of study. Therefore, students at all levels from Pre-Degree to Undergraduate to Postgraduate Taught to Postgraduate Research are encouraged to become Course Reps! This is also true for Low Residency and Distanced learners.

Regardless of your level of study and how often you visit campus (if at all!) you will be welcomed as part of the Rep community through bespoke training, our monthly newsletter, reward system, and development resources.  

The Course Rep role is a volunteer role that supports student voice across UAL. You can read the full role description here.to understand the expectations and benefits of being a Rep.  

As a Course Rep, you work alongside your peers to collect student feedback across your course which you then feedback in Course Committees each term. It is also your responsibility to feedback to the students on your course to let them know how their feedback has been actioned in order to close the feedback loop. 

As a Course Rep, you are not just a representative for your course but also for the wider Students’ Union. Our Reps are expected and encouraged to be active members of the SU, by communicating with the EQ Team, voting in elections, and making the most of the opportunities available from the SU.  

1. Please ensure you are trying to register or sign in to a student account: your student ID will not work with a staff/guest account. 

2. Please make sure you've completed enrolment as you won't be able to register until you are.  

3. If your enrolment has been completed and you are still struggling, it's probably a consent settings issue (i.e. Account not matched). Students can now update their consent setting by following these simple steps:  

Log in to your UAL Student Portal  

Look for my Enrolments tab -> my Study Details -> Update Consent button.  

Click update.  

4. After receiving confirmation, please wait 24 hours before trying to log in/register. If after this, you continue to struggle, please email us once again and include your name, UAL email address and student ID no.    

5. If you still can't sign in, please contact UAL registry on studentsystemshelp@arts.ac.ukThis link will open in a new tab to update your consent settings with us. 

It is crucial that you enrol as a Course Rep through the ARTS SU website AND complete all necessary training to be considered a Course Rep. For School Reps, you must have obtained your role through the official Arts SU election process (in either November or March. This is true even if you have been a Rep the year previous.  

Failure to enrol/ be elected through the SU systems and failure to attend the necessary training will limit the benefits and support that you are able to access in the role, including; our reward system, our monthly newsletter, official recognition as an ARTS SU Rep, an invite to the annual Rep Conference, and exclusive opportunities and events throughout the academic year.  

For students that start in January we provide live training in February to ensure that you have the same experience as other Reps. If, for some reason, you step into the role outside of our training timeline, we have remote training with a supporting quiz that can be completed at any time throughout the year - just let us know if this is the case so we can add you to our newsletter and invites!   

Thank you for volunteering for this role previously! We are so glad to hear that you are interested in continuing in Student Voice!

Each student is able to take up the Course Rep role for multiple years. We have students who take up the role of Course Rep during their entire time at UAL.  

If you would like to take on a new role and feel ready to have a wider impact on student academic experience we would suggest becoming a School Rep. This is an elected voluntary role, in which 2 students per school, work together to have impact beyond just their own course. You can be a School Rep and Course Rep at the same time. Read more about the role here.  

Alternatively, you might be interested in becoming one of our elected Sabbatical Officers. This is a paid role which you can learn more about here.

Reach out to the Education Quality team to discuss further!

There are different ways to gather feedback. 

Choose an approach that works for you and try different things if something isn’t working. 

If you’re struggling to gather feedback for any reason, speak to your Course Leader or the Arts SU Education Quality Team; they are there to help you. 

Here some different approaches you might consider for gathering feedback from students on your course or across your school: 

• Create an online survey with questions about your fellow students’ academic experience and send it to them via email. You can create an online survey using Microsoft Forms and there is an option for students to submit their feedback anonymously.  

• Create online polls for quick responses. 

• Ask your Course Leader and/or lecturers to allocate you 5 minutes at the end of class to speak to your fellow students and gather feedback. 

• Create a Teams Chat to stay in touch with other students on your course.    

• Update your fellow students about key meetings coming up (e.g. Student and Dean Forums, Course Committees), so they know to send you academic feedback in advance. 

Course Reps and School Reps collect feedback on students’ academic experience. 

Academic experience is defined as any feedback that relates to the students’ university learning and training.  

Key topics include: 

• Teaching and Learning 

• Assessments and Feedback 

• Course Organization e.g. timetables, Moodle.  

• Facilities and Resources (digital and physical) 

Feedback can be Positive and Constructive. 

Positive feedback is about finding out from students about what is going well on their course or across the school. In other words, what they’re enjoying about their academic experience and how it is helping them to develop and grow as artists and learners.  

Constructive feedback is about finding out from students about what they feel could be improved on their course or across the school. In other words, what they feel isn’t working so well about their academic experience and how it could be addressed to improve their experience.  

Gathering a combination of positive and constructive feedback is the best and most helpful way of ensuring students’ voices are heard.  

 If you are looking for conversation starters and/or useful questions for gathering feedback, try some of these: 

• How would you describe your experience of accessing and using your timetable?  

• How would you describe your access to resources (books, materials, computers, facilities, software) that you need? 

• How would you describe your experience of using Blackboard? 

• Do you feel that tutors provide feedback on your work in a timely manner? 

• Do you find this feedback helpful to your ongoing development? 

As a Student Representative, we understand that you will want to help students on a range of subjects. However, it is important to understand the most efficient ways to raise this feedback and to understand which feedback you are able to action.

All issues that are academic, such as course structure, marking and feedback, industry talks, course content, teaching and learning, should be collated and presented by the Course Rep to their course leader or other relevant staff such as course support/ technicians either in a Course Committee or at any point in the term that these issues are highlighted.  

For School Reps, the scope of topics will do beyond your own course but will still have a focus on academic issues/ those issues affecting the quality of education within the wider school that you represent. You will collect feedback on issues such as those in the paragraph above, but you will then work with the Dean, your College Officer, and the EQ team here at ARTS SU to spot patterns/ wide felt issues and work with different staff members to bring about change at a school level.  

For topics that are not academic e.g. cost of living, canteen prices, commercial spaces, transport costs, estate issues such as lift access, we encourage our Reps to signpost students to our ideas page here or reach out to our Democracy and Influencing team at: democracy@su.arts.ac.uk 

Don't worry, this can happened for a number of different reasons! Below are a few ideas to help with this situation. 

If you are finding that student engagement is low:

• Ask for support from your Course Leader. This can be in the form of them promoting your latest survey, or giving you time to speak to the students in person to collect feedback in academic spaces

• Send an email to students or speak to them at the start of a lecture/ tutorial to remind them of the importance of your role and student voice.

• Keep your course mates up to date with the changes that have been made in response to their feedback as well as updating them when this is taking a long time/ not possible and ensuring they are informed of why this is the case e.g. budget restrictions.

• Remind students of upcoming key dates such as a Course Committees so they understand the importance of a timely response.

As a Course Rep you have a network of support around you. Reach out to your Course Leader, School Rep, or the SU Education Quality Team is you have ongoing issues with student engagement.

If you send student feedback to Course Leaders and Deans and do not immediately receive a response, this does not mean they are ignoring you.  

Some feedback takes longer to respond to because it requires input from staff in another department or team. During busy periods, UAL staff will often need more time to process students’ feedback and respond to you. 

If this happens, please be patient. However, if you need an update from staff so you can share it with students on your course or at your school, please ensure all reminder emails and communications you send to staff are respectful. 

Here are some guidelines:  

• Establish a timeframe: when raising student feedback with your Course Leadr or another staff member at UAL, it’s helpful to ask a question like “when can you follow up with me?” and/or “do you think it’s reasonable to expect some progress before the end of term - what can I pass on to the course?” These questions establish fair expectations and a reasonable timeline.  

• Send an update to students: Once you have raised student feedback with UAL staff, the next step is to share an update with students to let them know this has been done. Even if you are still waiting for an update from staff, letting students know that their feedback was raised goes a long way. 

• If you’re a Course Rep, get in touch with your School Rep: if you feel that the feedback you’ve gathered goes beyond your own course, you can email your School Rep and ask them to consider raising the issue with a more senior UAL staff member.   

• If you’re a School Rep, get in touch with your College Sabbatical Officer: if you feel that the feedback being shared with you goes beyond your own school, you can email your College Sabbatical Officer and ask them to consider raising the issue with a more senior staff member.   

• Unfortunately, not all feedback can implemented: UAL staff and Arts SU want to do the very best they can for student, but there will always be some areas of feedback that we cannot implement. Course Reps and School Reps are not expected to solve all problems or implement every piece of feedback sent their way by students. Be transparent with your fellow students about what they should and shouldn’t expect from you in this role.  

If you feel like none of these are working, try get in touch with the Arts SU Education Quality Team at either coursereps@arts.su.ac.uk or schoolreps@arts.su.ac.uk.   

It’s important for students to priorities their mental health and personal wellbeing. The same is true for Course Reps and School Reps.  

One way you can do this is to establish clear boundaries when speaking to students who send you feedback. 

To establish clear boundaries, take some to remind students what you are NOT expected to do as either a Course Rep or School Rep.  

You are not expected to get involved with students’ personal problems or complaints about other individual students or staff members.  

This includes:  

• Personal disputes between students and academic staff or individual students, including allegations of harassment, discrimination or victimization.   

• Formal procedures including extensions, extenuating circumstances, academic misconduct, academic appeals and individual complaints or disciplinary procedures.   

• Financial and funding queries, including student finance and debt.   

• Health issues, whether related to housing, employment, immigration or wellbeing.  

Issues like these require a different kind of expertise to ensure the most appropriate guidance can be given.  

If a student brings any of these issues to your attention, please refer them to the Arts SU Advice Service or UAL Student Services. 

Sometimes a student might feel that the reality of their academic experience is different to what they expected when applying to study at UAL.  

If a student shares this feedback with you, the first thing to do is ask them for clearer information on what it is specifically about their academic experience that is failing to meet their expectation. 

You can use the four academic experience feedback topics listed above in Q3 to ask these questions. For example, you might ask them: 

• Is the teaching and learning failing to meet your expectations? If so, how?   

• Are the assessments and feedback you receive failing to meet your expectations? If so, how? 

• Is your course organised in a way that fails to meet your expectations? If so, how?  

• Is your experience of using the facilities and resources failing to meet your expectations? If so, how?  

You can also ask your Course Leader to help you address this feedback try and raise it at Course Committees and/or Student & Dean Forums.  

There might be times when students come to you with feedback about their academic experience that doesn’t reflect your own individual experience at UAL, or that you do not personally share.  

Even if the feedback you receive isn’t reflected in your own experience as a student, it is often still important and relevant, and something that UAL staff need to know about. 

The feedback you raise with UAL staff on behalf of your fellow students does not have to reflect your own personal beliefs or individual experience; however, it should always be related to one or more of the four academic experience feedback topics listed in Q3 above. 

If you receive feedback from one or more students that you’re uncertain about, it can be helpful to reflect on it by asking these questions: 

• Is the feedback this student has raised about their experience of UAL’s teaching and learning? 

• Is the feedback this student has raised about their experience of UAL’s assessment and feedback processes? 

• Is the feedback this student has raised about their experience of UAL’s facilities and resources? 

• Is the feedback this student has raised about their experience of how the course is organised? 

If the answer is ‘yes’ to any or all of the above, then despite your own personal view or experience, the feedback is relevant and should be shared with UAL staff. 

The Education Quality Team at Arts SU is available Monday – Friday to support Course Reps and School Reps in their role; if you have any queries or concerns, get in touch by emailing us at coursereps@arts.su.ac.uk or schoolreps@arts.su.ac.uk  

The Advice Team at Arts SU is available Monday – Friday to support all students with any complains and concerns to do with housing and accommodations, mental-health and personal wellbeing and formal academic complaints. Get in touch by emailing them at advice@arts.su.ac.uk  

If you want to speak your Sabbatical College Officer about a college-wide issue that is impacting student, or share your own ideas for a campaign or initiative, you can get in touch with them. Find your Sabbatical College Officer here.