So you’ve finished your Student Representative training – now what

From introducing yourself in lectures to visiting common rooms and social spaces, this guide will walk you through some simple yet effective ways to establish your presence as a Student Representative. 

1. Give a lecture shout out

Sure, we know public speaking can be scary - but this is a tried and tested way to introduce yourself to your classmates en masse.

Ask your lecturer if you can introduce yourself at the start of the lecture.

Say hello and let them know you're the new Student Representative for the course - students can come to you if they have any feedback on their course (good or bad) or issues they want to raise.

You'll listen to them and advocate in their best interests.

Above all this gets your face out there and you can reach a lot of students very quickly.

If you want to practice your pitch before you do it, why not get in touch with us on the team at sureps@essex.ac.uk.

2. Post on course-based group chats

If you aren't already in a course-based group chat, ask around on your course and find out if there is one and ask to be added.

Once you're in, this works largely the same as an in-person shout out by introducing yourself and what you can support with.

You can also make use of the functionality in the group to add polls and surveys.

If there isn't a course-based group chat then why not make one? These are really handy for building community on your course, but also asking classmates for quick answers to easy questions - "does anyone know which room we're in", "has anybody got the lecture slides to...", "remind me, when's that deadline due in?".

But be careful – don’t spam the group chat or post too often, this might lead to students ignoring you or putting it on mute.

3. Visit common rooms and social spaces

It's likely that students in your school frequent specific areas of the campus or go to specific events that happen often. Let's explain why. 

There are a range of common rooms or social spaces across the different university campuses. These are the prime locations to put up posters, business cards, or getting chatting to students about their experiences at Essex.

Common room locations:

• Colchester HSC - The main entrance
• CSEE - 1NW.5.1
• Essex Business School - EBS Foyer & Bonds
• Essex Pathways - 4.11
• Economics - 4.11
• Edge Hotel - CB.20
• Government - 5B.303
• Language and Linguistics - The social space
• Law - 5s.6.17
• LiFTS - 5NW.6.1
• Mathematics - 6.314
• PHAIS - 6.143
• Psychoanalytic and Psychosocial studies – No common room
• Psychology - The STEM Centre
• Sociology - 5A.325
• SRES - ESA.2.20 or Timeout

4. Get in touch with Societies and Clubs

There also may be specific Societies and Clubs which may appeal to students in your school.

You can filter our list of Societies by 'Departmental' which allows you to see all the Societies which are affiliated with a particular course. https://www.essexstudent.com/societies/list/.

Whilst this won't capture everyone, you don’t lose anything from giving it a go.

5. Put up a poster

Building on the last point, why not put up posters on some of the notice boards dotted around campus and in your common room/social spaces?

Send it to us at sureps@essex.ac.uk and we can print it off for you.

Canva has a series of free templates you can use to get started - https://www.canva.com/en_gb/

You should include a photo of yourself and the best way for someone to contact you – but crucially avoid using personal phone numbers and stick to your student email.

6. Get the conversation going

Usually, most students won’t have much feedback to give at the start of term – they’re just warming up, and learning what life at Essex is all about.

So, when it gets to 3 or 4 weeks into the term – you should start to ask some probing questions like:

• How have you been finding the module?
• Do you feel like the course is challenging enough?
• What are you enjoying most about the course so far?
• Is there any part of the course material or teaching style that you'd like to see improved?
• Do you feel supported by your lecturers and the resources available?

This will help spur on conversation and allow you to uncover larger issues to raise at Student Voice Groups or to explore in further research.

Written by

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