This Agreement has been drawn up to establish what student volunteers can expect in becoming Student Representatives (Reps), and how the Student Representative System operates within SOAS.
As volunteers Reps are not under any obligations and can step down at any time; however to get the most out of the experience of being a rep, both personally and for the wider student body, Reps are encouraged to access the training available and apply the skills gained to ascertain and represent students views for the academic year by participating in the various meetings and forums Reps are invited to attend.
Outlined are the commitments of the School and Students’ Union (SU) in running the Rep system and the reasonable expectations of what volunteers agree to do by volunteering to undertake the role. The underlying principle of the Rep system and this Volunteer Agreement is to strengthen the student voice in the decision-making around and the monitoring of the quality of teaching and learning, curriculum, accessibility and the student experience at SOAS.
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To coordinate with fellow Reps in the department as a team from each year and degree level, to fairly divide up who will attend the meetings and forums open to reps; this includes choosing a School-level Rep (which can be rotated within the group), and various Student Liaison and Student Interests roles (respectively, these roles link either to other established School services, or to more general activities of importance to students);
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To collect and report module and programme-level student feedback and to articulate student views to the relevant academic and/or administrative staff;
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To inform students of the major issues discussed in any meetings they have attended;
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To partner with and support the School-level Student Representative by communicating student concerns and feedback for review and consideration at Departmental meetings and the School-wide Student Feedback Panel (SFP);
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To engage with and be engaged by the student community through the SOAS Student Representative BLE page(s), the S.U website and other SOAS platforms, and to engage with S.U forums and where possible support the S.U’s work around other priority areas, such as democracy and education initiatives, equality, liberation and welfare campaigns, and events and activities;
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To listen to students, respect confidentiality guidelines and signpost available support across the School, while always maintaining a reasonable boundary between being a Rep and being a student at SOAS;
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To attend core training sessions and consider the additional training opportunities; if unable to attend a training after having signed up, to make every effort to cancel in advance as a courtesy to the trainer and to ‘free up’ this space for other Representatives;
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To attend occasional Rep briefings and meetings organised by the S.U and receive news updates on issues relevant to reps;
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To feedback on their activity as a Rep through submitting a pro-forma report at the end of term 1 and term 2 of the academic year;
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To alert the S.U of any ad-hoc issues which require attention at higher levels of the School, or which go beyond the role of a Representative;
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To inform fellow students of how best to contact their Rep(s); to have their name and SOAS email accessible for student representation purposes to other Reps, the S.U, department staff and Student Experience team; to be named as a Rep on the S.U and BLE Reps web pages;
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To help achieve student participation in departmental reviews and other quality assurance processes, and to be consulted on any reports and recommendations arising from SOAS-specific and sector-wide surveys of students;
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In the course of volunteering as a Representative, to follow the policies and procedures pertaining to confidentiality, equality, inclusion and accessibility; by undertaking all of the core training sessions, Reps will become familiar with these policies, and be confident in referring cases of discrimination, sexual harassment or personal problems to the relevant bodies and in helping to champion to values of the School and;
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If deciding to step down as Rep, to inform the Head of Department, department support staff (in particular, the Departmental Student Support Officer) and the S.U of this decision so that a new election or co-option process can be arranged.