As a Student Representative, you will get the opportunity to attend 3 Student Voice Groups every year.

By participating in these Student Voice Groups, you’re not only contributing to meaningful change at the university, but you’re also setting yourself up for success in your future career. The skills you develop—communication, leadership, teamwork, and problem-solving—will serve you well in any profession.

So let’s break it down.

How do we make change?

When we think of campaigning, we often think of protests filled with placards, chants, and grand speeches.

You will have seen this in our Student Leaders Elections every year – with candidates vying for your votes with signs, slogans, speeches, and explaining their priorities.

This is a lot of fun. But very rarely do we think of meetings as enabling change. Yet these are very much the front-line of how decisions are made in all sorts of contexts, especially in the university.

At the students’ union we match students like you with key decision makers – AKA, people who have power at the university to make changes to student experience.

Better yet, they want to hear from you – because improving students experiences at Essex benefits all of us. This is what the Student Voice Group or ‘SVG’ is all about. It’s an honest platform for you to explore the issues on your course, and make change happen.

Before the ‘SVG’ – gathering your research:

At the SVG, you are not expected to present a survey with hundreds of responses. You’re a volunteer, and there are full time staff members employed at Essex who undertake these surveys, like NSS to help us gain insight on a mass level.

Instead, you are expected to pick up on themes from students on your course especially in these areas:

Does your course feel fresh and up to date?

• Is your course challenging enough, or is it too easy?
• Does your course make sense?
• What is the quality of teaching like?
• Do you feel like you have gained relevant skills for your course?

These are the legal requirements for universities like Essex to meet, so you’ll want to speak to your peers about these themes.

At the ‘SVG’ – what to expect:

When you enter the working world, you’ll find that most meetings have an agenda – which is a set order of discussion topics. SVGs are no different.

They are usually an hour long and consist of an agenda like this:

• Introductions and ‘apologies’:
  All meetings start by welcoming each other in, and introducing any new faces
• Updates from the previous meeting
  This is a chance to check that the changes agreed at the last meeting have been made or are on track
• Departmental business
  Anything the department wants to discuss which they think is useful for students to know – this could be changes to courses or new opportunities
• Student Representative feedback
  The opportunity for you to raise your themes and have an open discussion about what change you’d like to see made

SVGs are usually an hour-long meeting which is held in person, although there may be the opportunity to join online.

What we want you to gain

Meetings take place at every workplace, in every country, around the world. So, it’s not exaggerating to say you’ll encounter this later in your life. This could be your first meeting with a client, your first parents evening as a teacher, or your first Monday morning catch up in the corporate world.

Once you graduate, we want your experience as a Student Representative to help you by making you the most impressive person in the meeting room. This is down to some of the skills we’ve spoken about in this article which you’ll develop after attending 3 SVGs:

• Preparing for a meeting in advance
• Using evidence to support your arguments
• Working with others to build solutions to issues
• Scrutiny to ensure work is on track
• Speaking to staff who are senior to you confidently

We also run a range of training sessions throughout the year which can help boost your confidence in public speaking and chairing meetings, keep an eye on your emails and our website for more information about our Skills Café’s and Advanced Rep Training.

So, what next?

We want you to take full advantage of this opportunity, engage with your peers, and make your voice heard.

The experience you gain in these meetings will make you a more confident, capable, and competitive graduate ready to thrive in the workplace. So, what next? Why don’t you email us at sureps@essex.ac.uk and find out when your next SVG is – write it down on your calendar and get ready to make change.

Written by

Harry David Jones
Education Manager – Essex Students’ Union
My pronouns are he/him/his