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Transcript of LUSU Department Rep Handbook 2011
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8/3/2019 LUSU Department Rep Handbook 2011
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advice.lusu.co.uk/dept-reps
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Firstly, congratulations on getting yoursel elected as the representative or your course.
Youll nd that getting involved in the Department Rep system will be an extremely worthwhile
and rewarding contribution to your Lancaster experience.
By becoming a Department Rep, you will nd yoursel making a dierence at Lancaster
University or yoursel, your course-mates and uture students.
As a student on the course, nobody knows better than you when something is done well or
when things could be better. This makes you the vital link between the student population
and the University and means that you are not only adding to your CV but are providing a
channel or change in your department, making your time at Lancaster more ullling.
Great achievements by Department Reps include gaining mentoring or Part 1 students and
shortening the turnaround time or essays. You now have the opportunity to act upon your
own and your ellow students priorities.
This is a great opportunity and we hope that this
handbook will help you take on this role; remember
that i there is anything that you are still unsure o,
even i its an unamiliar acronym, dont hesitate to
contact us we are here to support you and ourcontact details can be ound at the back.
Lastly, best o luck or your time as a Department
Rep, we look orward to meeting with you. Enjoy it!
Alexander Holley, Representation
Support Co-ordinator
Alex Carlin, LUSU Vice President Academic
The value of achievementlies in the achieving
WELCOME
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Welcome and thank you or becoming part o our
Department Representative system. The University
places great importance on eedback between sta
and students. Mostly this will happen immediately,
between lecturers and students on the course, but
sometimes there are more general issues which
the Department Reps are able to highlight to the
department and help to resolve.
The Department Reps also play an important role in
sta student committees, discussing new ideas and
helping to ormulate good solutions.
An important part o the role is communicating
back to your ellow students just how seriously their
comments and concerns have been taken and the
ollow up actions that the department will be taking.
I hope you will enjoy being a Department Rep and
getting to know more about your department.
You will also nd that being a Rep enhances your
communication and networking skills and sometimes
diplomatic ones too!
You may want to use the experiences gained as aDepartment Rep to help you achieve the Lancaster
Award.
Good luck and thank you.
Professor Amanda Chetwynd, Pro Vice
Chancellor, Colleges & Student Lie
achieve theLancaster
Award
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The heart o the role is in the name. You are an Academic Representative, so by extension
your role is to represent students on your respective courses.
You are the most important link between students, LUSU and the University. You will know
what students think, what they want and you will be crucial in getting out there and acting on
behal o students. Hal o it is simply being visible!
WHY YOU MATTER
Lets ace it, nobody is perect, and that includes the University. Thereore, it is important that
there are a number o channels available or eedback whether that is positive or negative
our academic representation is a crucial part o this process.
EXPECTATIONS OF YOU
You are required to attend and participate in all appropriate meetings held by Departments
and Faculties. It is urther expected that you should provide ormal apologies to meetings, i
non-attendance is known prior to the event
You will be expected to maintain regular contact with your department; however this
contact should not be limited to just ormal departmental meetings
You will be expected to represent the views of the students in your department, regardlesso your own personal opinions and belies, and where appropriate negotiate with the
department on their behal
Ask students how they feel about the course;
although you may not necessarily agree with their
opinions, it is your job to represent their views
You will be required to feed back information to
students in your department, including the actions
rom meetings you have attended, i.e. both
University and Union meetings
You will be expected to refer issues and casework,
where relevant, out to LUSU, University Support
Services and any other applicable bodies
You are expected to actively promote your position
as a Department Rep to students on the course
Reps are expected to campaign on relevant issues.
YOUR ROLE
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The role is entirely what you make o it. Being a Department Rep means you are actively
involved in the decisions made concerning your department, and more importantly... your
degree.
TRANSFERABLE SKILLS
There are endless transerable skills or you to pick up rom the role. The main ones are
public speaking, leadership, negotiation, diplomacy, networking, problem solving and time
management. Dont come into this expecting to be a pro at everything immediately, we all
start somewhere. It is a learning experience too!
LANCASTER AWARD SKILLS
Becoming a Department Rep helps you work towards your Lancaster Award, more
specically it ticks the Campus, community and social
development box. I you are involved in the award,
this is a great way to continue your progress.
EMPLOYABILITY
As you may or may not be aware, employers are
looking or more than just a degree certicate these
days. By being a Department Rep you will have shown
you can handle responsibility outside the realm o
academia.
FURTHER INCENTIVES
I transerable skills, making a dierence and Lancaster
Award status are not enough or you, then we are
thinking o holding a couple o Department Rep socials
well need your suggestions!
WHAT YOUREGETTING
PERSONALISSUESOne small thing to note,
particularly ater the
above section; it is not
your responsibility to get
involved in your students
individual complaints,
personal problems or
academic diculties. I
someone does come to
you with problems that
are o that kind, asking
you to attend a meeting
with them or similar, you
should reer them to LUSU
Education & Support. Bear
in mind that issues o this
sort carry the strictest o
condentiality and LUSU
are here to support you.
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HOW YOU FIT INThe diagrams below show where you t in both LUSU and University structures.
Communication is key to this process and its important that inormation should be ed back
to all parties.
STUDENT
DEPARTMENTAL
MEETINGS
Your issues will be raised by your Rep at
Departmental Meetings.
FACULTY MEETINGS
Your Faculty Rep will then take issuesorward to Faculty meetings.
UNIVERSITY SENIOR
COMMITTEES
The VP (Academic) will get inormation
rom Faculty Reps and meetings and
raise these at University level committees
and working groups.
SENATE
Senate has overall control over academic
policies and procedures. LUSU Full Time
Ocers sit on Senate and raise relevant
concerns.
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EXPECTATIONS OF YOUR DEPARTMENT
1) Departments will be expected to help in the
promotion o Rep elections and take responsibility
or the running o elections, as laid out in the
University Senate guidance document.
2) Departments will be expected to provide inormation
about meetings, dates/times and venues to the
Reps.
3) Departments should be expected to provide
documentation to Reps when requested, such as
previous agendas, minutes etc.
4) Departments should recommend appropriate
members o sta to reer Reps and student issues
to.
5) Departments should help encourage and acilitate
inormal relationships with student Reps, outside
o departmental meetings to allow or greater and
timelier eedback.
6) Departments should provide inormation on meeting
attendances o Reps to the LUSU VP (Academic), in
order to help with the quality assurance process of
accreditation.
YOUR DEPARTMENT
LANCASTER
TEACHINGAWARD
The Lancaster Teaching
Award recognises
excellent teaching by
giving students the chance
to nominate a teacher who
has had an exceptional
impact on you and your
ellow students learning
by going above and
beyond what you would
normally expect.
As a Department Rep
listening to the views
o your ellow students,you are well placed to
acknowledge when you
have benetted rom such
a teacher. So i you have
a lecturer or supervisor
whose passion and
enthusiasm you have
really appreciated thendont orget to nominate
them so that they can be
considered or the award.
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Firstly it has to be said that we are here to help you, not to do your job. Hopeully, with
our help we will empower you with the tools and the skill set needed to be an eective
Department Rep.
1) Training Day: Unortunately not a bit like the lm, but we will run a selection o
aternoons where you can come and gain the basic set o skills you will need or success
in the role.
2) Continuous Support: We are here to support you, and we will provide you with regular
inormation about what is going on elsewhere in the University, but or this to work out you
have to remain in contact with us, the system works better when there is communicationbetween us.
3) Newsletters: We will send you emails every month letting you know what is going on
around the University and the relevant issues in Higher Education. Wed like you to be
inormed in your role as a Rep i you have anything to contribute eel ree!
4)Accreditation: This goes on your Degree certicate, and we make sure this happens by
putting the inormation on LUSI. Youll need 66% attendance or this to happen, however.
FEEDING BACK TO LUSU
You will meet other Department Reps and your Faculty Rep at your aculty orum. This is a
great way to eedback into LUSU whats going on in your
area. But its not just the students who will benet rom
you eeding back inormation to them; the Students
Union also wants to hear about activity within your
department. The Union houses ull time employees
and a ull time elected ocer who are here to supportand advise you. Any concerns or uncertainties you
might have, or i youve stumbled across something
you think is important you should let LUSU know.
LUSU - THE
STUDENTS UNION
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LUSU Education & Support oers a ree, condential one-to-one advice service to all
undergraduate and postgraduate students. We have three qualied advisors who specialise
in a range o areas to meet students academic and welare needs. These include a trained
nancial management advisor and an international students advisor, in addition to a ully
qualied solicitor in attendance every Thursday.
Our ully trained team o advisors are dedicated to ensuring that students receive the correct
advice and guidance that is relevant to their individual case. You should never attempt
to advise a student yoursel; you should always signpost them to the LUSU Education &
Support where we will be able to assist them appropriately.
Students may approach you with a number of issues or questions relating to their academic
studies or well-being. I a student is acing a disciplinary, wishes to appeal to the Registry,
submit mitigation circumstances, wishes to intercalate or is acing a Standing Academic
Committee, our team o advisors can help them to decide what steps to take next and can
also accompany them to any university meetings. You may also come across students who
eel that their studies are being aected by their personal well-being or home lie. These
students should also be signposted to LUSU Education & Support where our experienced
advisors can oer them help and assistance with any housing, nancial, employment,sexual health or mental well-being matters. We can also provide students with guidance on
international student visa advice and assist students with any problems they may be having
with their landlord or employer.
We also provide a dedicated advice service or
postgraduate students, including supervisor issues,
disciplinaries, appeals, and Postgraduate Teaching
Assistant issues. Students can be signposted to
contact us directly or attend a Postgraduate Drop-in
session at the Grad College on a Thursday between
1pm-3pm.
If you have any questions regarding LUSU Education
& Support check out advice.lusu.co.uk.
EDUCATION &SUPPORT
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IN YOUR FIRST WEEK
Arrange a meeting with the Course/Scheme/Department leader this member of staff
managers your area o study and how it is delivered. They are a ountain o knowledge as
they will be experienced in their role and will be able to support you in your role. Also, it is
good to introduce yoursel as you will come into a lot o contact with them.
Arrange a meeting with your Representation Support Co-ordinator or VP (Academic). They
will be your point o contact or issues relating to being an Academic Rep within LUSU. I you
need surveys or ocus groups doing these are the people to contact.
Make a poster displaying your face, full name and contact details on your department notice
board. However, dont eel you have to give our personal email addresses or your mobile
number. Use this as an introduction to your peers; in addition, you may want to make yoursel
known at the next lecture that most o the department you represent attend. It is important to
give yoursel exposure.
SUGGESTIONS FOR THE ROLE
Ask your lecturer to give you a minute or so at the start of a lecture to introduce yourself and
your role.
Consider holding surgeries where students could drop in and have a chat with you. If you
eel it would be useul, ask your department or space
to hold one every so oten.
Set up a Facebook group where you can invite
people to make them aware o what is happening
as some people are more engaged by a Facebook
message than a mail to their webmail account.
Dont be afraid to ask questions at meetings.
Make your points clearly and positively.
Take notes at meetings, they will be important, even
i someone else is writing the minutes.
Get National Student Survey data for your course; it
will be useul to base your arguments or particularissues on. It can be a powerul tool.
GETTING THE MOSTFROM YOUR ROLE
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As a rep it is sometimes easy to orget that you are representing the opinion o your course
as a whole and not just yoursel. At other times it may be that you are representing a small
group of students with a specic problem. Nonetheless it is important you actively seek the
opinions o people on your course, outside o your own group o riends.
Luckily, there are many resources and opportunities available to help you do this. Being able
to communicate eectively is a crucial part o being a rep and we are here to help you try
these or some ideas:
USING DEPARTMENT ADMINISTRATORS
In your role they can be your best riend! Ask them or help in sending out emails to the
whole group o students to canvas opinion on a particular topic. Were not saying you should
get to know their avourite chocolate bar (perhaps you should!) but i they are on board you
will nd it much easier communicating to students.
In addition they will also be useul or getting space on notice boards in the department. You
should be using your poster that is provided by us to write the names and contact details o
all the reps in your department - make sure this is somewhere prominent; to be the student
voice you need to be known!
You may want to try and win use o pigeon holes within your department. This would provide
a condential space where your students could drop messages to you and youd have an
easily accessible place within the department to see them.
FACEBOOK
This is simple as it seems. Pretty much (but not
quite) everyone uses Facebook, and it is really simple
to create a group. You might nd it easier to make it
a closed group and accept people individually. Ask
your department administrator to send out the link in
an email.
LECTURES
You can breathe a sigh o relie as we do not mean
standing up and giving a 50 minute presentation! Some
lecturers are happy to have students use a couple ominutes at the end o a lecture to canvas opinion on a
topic, or even to just promote that you are the rep. Its a
good opportunity to get your ace out there.
HOW TO GAUGESTUDENT OPINION
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Your job is to represent the students who elected you; it is their issues that you need to
communicate. The ollowing list is intended to give you an idea o the types o issues that might
be raised which you may want to consider yoursel or your year in oce. This should serve as
a basic guide to the kind o issues that can come up!
WORKLOAD
Do you have too much work? Now pause for a moment and ask yourself again. Bear in mind
youre meant to study most courses in rst year or 10 hours a week. I this eeling is shared by
others, then bring the opinion to the council.
RESOURCES
Are the books you need in the library? Do you have access to the journals you need (in hard
copy or digital)? Are there enough books? It could be something you bring up in meetings.
Does the equipment in your labs/lectures meet your needs? Use the student voice and canvas
opinion to help your department make upgrades a priority.
ASSESSMENT
What is the weighting between course work and examination marks in your course? Find out.
Also, you might want to ask i you and your ellow students are happy with the balance and
amount o assessment on the course.
Are essays timed inconveniently? Do they clash with other exams o the same module, not
giving you enough time to work on them? Although you
are expected to be fexible as a student you may be
able to use your infuence to make the system more
fexible or students.
COURSE STRUCTURE
How much time is given to lectures and seminars
on your course? It is well known (and expected) that
Humanities have less contact time than Sciences,
but students on your course may have concerns over
how much time is spent in workshops - use your
infuence and refect the opinion o your course.
Does your course oten have lectures which clash with
other lectures or complimentary subjects? I enough
people are aected then change can happen!
WHAT ARE THEISSUES?
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We recognise that Postgraduate issues will be dierent and we have a ew examples o
where to take this role as a Postgraduate:
SUPERVISOR ISSUES
Postgraduate students will have a supervisor who can help them with many o their issues
but what happens i the supervisor is the issue? Problems can arise in many areas o this
arrangement such as having inadequate face to face contact, personality conicts between
supervisor and student or disagreements about the direction o the research and thesis.
Due to the personal nature o a relationship between supervisor and student then it might
be that you do not want to raise the issue directly with the supervisor. Most students
should have more than one supervisor which will give them another point o contact or
most issues. I this is not the case or the student does not eel comortable raising the issue
with their shadow/backup supervisor they can talk to the postgraduate studies director in
their department, the postgraduate studies oce in student registry, the LUSU PGR Cross
Campus Ocer, the PGSA, LUSU Education & Support or the LUSU VP (Academic).
Value
As a postgraduate, statistically you are likely to be sel unded. In addition to this,
postgraduates motivations or studying are dierent to an undergraduates. Thereore you
might want to use your position to bring added value to your course through your course
mates suggestions. Remember, it is up to you to nd out what your cohort want to know.
Other things
There is no limit to the range o issues you can
nd - your experience as a postgraduate is dierent
and we realise this. GTAs will have issues regarding
tutoring, most PhD students will have diering
provision regarding space and equipment; these are
all issues you might want to bring up/research as a
rep.
If you have any questions regarding your role with
specic concerns rom a PG perspective, dont
hesitate to get in touch with us - our contact details
are on the back!
POSTGRADUATESPECIFIC ISSUES
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As a Department Rep you will be expected to attend regular (as set by your department)
meetings. Mostly these will be Departmental Meetings, but you will occasionally be called to
a Faculty meeting organised by your Faculty Rep. Below is a list o terms which you may nd
useul, i ormal meetings are an unamiliar subject to you.
THE AGENDA
The list o things to be discussed at the meeting set out in advance. They will sometimes
contain attached documents like notes to read, and in most cases you should receive these
beore the meeting. I you receive an agenda and you are unsure o the topics, either speak
to LUSU or ask your departmental administrator or urther inormation.
THE CHAIR
The person who controls and conducts meetings. Their job is to make sure these meetings
run smoothly, that everything is discussed and that everybody gets their chance to speak.
AOB
Any other business. Simple as that. It is an opportunity or points which may have been
missed on the agenda or items which were too late or the agenda to be brought to
discussion.
THE MINUTES
These are the ormal notes recording the discussion,
actions and decisions taken at the meeting.
Generally at the start o a meeting the previous
meetings minutes are checked or accuracy as they
are a ormal document. I you eel you have beenmisrepresented in the minutes, you should always
raise this at the meeting.
MEETINGS
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Academic Council: Advises the Students Union about student policy on educational issues,
and represents student views to University bodies where decisions are made.
Faculty: Groupings o departments within similar subject spheres. There are our aculties at
Lancaster University, all departments sit within one o these. The Faculties are; Faculty o Arts and
Social Sciences (FASS), the Management School (LUMS), Faculty o Science and Technology
(FST) and the School o Health and Medicine (SHM)
Faculty Forum: A meeting o all the Department Reps or one o the our specic aculties.
Each aculty orum elects a number o Department Reps to sit on Academic Council.
Faculty Rep: A representative elected to voice the views o one o the our University aculties
in large University meetings. You will meet these people at your aculty orum; they are typically
elected in the LUSU elections, week 8 o Michaelmas term.
GTA: Graduate Teaching Assistant
LTA: Learning, Teaching, and Assessment
NSS: National Student Survey
PGT: Postgraduate Taught Student (usually Masters Students on one year courses)
PGR: Postgraduate Research Student (usually PhD students)
PTES/PRES: Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey
/ Postgraduate Research Experience Survey.
QAA: Quality Assurance Agency
SLA: Student Learning Advisers. There is one based in
each aculty to provide academic support to students.
TQSO: Teaching Quality Support Ocers are based in
each aculty and organise aculty based meetings.
JARGON
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FEEDING BACK TO THE STUDENTS
It is important and, moreover, essential to your job that you tell your students what you have
been doing, and make yoursel visible to them. When students come to you with a problem
about their course, it is critical that you get back to them and update them on the progress
of their request because it is, in reality, what you have been elected to do. You are the liaison
between students and sta. You are not a superhero, this is expected, but even i you cant
solve every problem, it is important to make people know you have raised the issue.
USEFUL CONTACTS
There are several people within LUSU Education & Supportwho will be able to assist you in
your role. These include:
Alexander Holley
Representation Support Co-ordinator
[email protected] // 01524 (5)92344
He is the person you will have the most contact with. Alex co-ordinates activities or reps and
liaises with Departments to ensure the smooth running o the Department Rep system.
Alex Carlin
LUSU Vice President Academic
[email protected] // 01524 (5)92202
He is the other person you will have a lot o contact
with. He is the ull time elected ocer who is
principally in charge o academic reps, campaigns and
a variety o other activities.
Pete Woodward
Education & Policy Adviser
[email protected] // 01524 (5)924327
Pete is a specialist in dealing with academic problems.
I you eel unsure o how to deal with an issue, you
should reer students to him.
FEEDBACK &CONTACTS