The first Rep Council of 2025 saw some lively discussion on issues impacting students across campus, several of them reaching us for the first time - read on for a summary of the effort your elected representatives are putting in to help make you proud of your university experience. As always, you can read the Officer Team's update and the minutes of the meeting for yourself at staffsunion.com/studentcouncil.
Our Officer Team, particularly Precious, have been working hard on the crisis facing Ghanaian students after the Ghanaian government refused to uphold an agreement to pay tuition fees, leaving them unable to graduate and potentially placing them at risk of deportation. The University has agreed to negotiate payment plans for continuing students, but work continues and local MP Gareth Snell has been contacted for support.
A question about communication between Course and Subject Reps, and how it can be improved, provided the Voice Team with feedback that they hope to be able to put into place over the coming months. In the meantime, all reps are reminded that Rep Hub is available to them for anything they might need and are encouraged to share their updates, feedback, or any thoughts they might have on any part of their university experience. Are you a rep, but don't have access to Rep Hub? Your registration may not have been properly submitted - click here to fill in the short form and we'll make sure you're in the loop.
Previous discussions about workload emerged in a new form as Kota Brown and Lillith Tolley raised the presence of six-hour blocks of back-to-back lectures in their timetables. Without no downtime scheduled between them, breaks are left to the discretion of lecturers; which runs the risk that, in a particularly busy week, students wouldn't have an opportunity to stop between sessions and may end up working for more than the timetabled six hours if the last session runs over - six hours of course being the point at which the Working Time Directive requires employees be given a 20-minute break. The Officers are expected to investigate the possibility of timetabling these breaks - possibly by shortening sessions slightly, which would also allow travel time - to mitigate this risk. It was also requested that Officers seek to ensure mandatory sessions end no later than 6pm to allow students reliant on public transport to do so before sunset.
Kota also raised a concern with SiSo, the booking system used by Henrion Media Stores, which in certain circumstances had unexpectedly caused users' deadnames to be exposed to their peers. It emerged that the Stores team were already aware of the issue and doing what they could, but the Officers were tasked to explore options for a more long-term or permanent solution. Editor's note: This issue has now been resolved.
The ongoing works on College Road continue to cause concern, with multiple examples raised of students unable to access the Cadman building. Since the University has no control over these works, the Officers will reach out to the local council and MP to explore options.
Finally, Chief Executive Officer Ken Sankson dropped in to consult the Council on the Students' Union's response to the recent University rebrand. The University's name change necessitates a change to the Students' Union's identity, which needs to be supported by a referendum: the Council agreed that the current plan to present students with a range of options during the Leadership Race, and to keep this separate from the concurrent Officer election, was the best route forwards.
The next meeting of Rep Council is due to take place on March 26th 2025.