Student representation

Student representatives are undergraduate and postgraduate students elected by the student body to represent their views and interests.

The School of Law is managed by the Head of School with various directors and heads of discipline areas, as well as student representatives who meet in the various committees. 

Student representatives are elected on annual basis. There are two election sessions: one in autumn and one in spring. In autumn the elections are open for the postgraduate and first year students, while the spring elections are open for all the other students.

At undergraduate level, there are usually:

  • LLB: 4 student representatives per year
  • Law with Politics: up to 3 student representatives per year
  • Law with Criminology: up to 3 student representatives per year
  • BA Criminology: up to 2 student representatives per year 
  • 1 Head Representative

At postgraduate taught level, there is usually one student representative for each of the LLM/Criminology/Healthcare, Ethics and Law streams. However, the International Business and Commercial Law stream can have up to 3 student representatives.

At postgraduate research level, there are usually 2-3 student representatives per year.

Role of the student representative

"As a student representative, you provide the vital link between the students and academic staff. Student representatives are essential in providing support and advice to their peers throughout their degree. Student representatives need to have the initiative and knowledge to tackle problems on behalf of the student body".

– Former Head Rep

The main purpose of the student reps is to be a point of contact between the student body and the staff at the School of Law. Students can contact the student representatives at any point to express their views, say what goes right about their courses, as well as pass on their complaints if anything goes wrong.

In turn, the student representatives are charged with voicing these views to university staff involved in the programmes. Student representatives are also given the responsibility of providing feedback results to fellow students. Finally, they also provide student involvement in development and planning of programmes. This is done through a series of committees on which the student representatives are invited to sit. 

Participation at School committees

School of Law Committees

The School has several committees to manage its various functions. These include the Undergraduate Staff-Student Committee, Postgraduate Staff-Student Committee, Postgraduate Research Committee, Postgraduate Taught Teaching and Learning Committee, as well as the Undergraduate Teaching and Learning Committee.

UG student representatives typically serve on the Undergraduate Staff Student Committee; whilst postgraduate student representatives serve on its postgraduate equivalent. Additionally, individual students are elected to sit on the Undergraduate Teaching and Learning Committee, Postgraduate Taught Teaching and Learning Committee, Postgraduate Research Committee, IT Committee and the School Board.

Staff-Student Committee

The Undergraduate Staff Student Committee is the main opportunity to raise and discuss in detail matters of undergraduate student concern, whilst a similar Postgraduate Staff Student Committee deals with the concerns of postgraduate students.

"As a student representative I collect and forward on student issues to relevant staff and law school committees. I have assisted in bringing up issues from Criminology students regarding the law school Welcome Week events and lectures. The issues were addressed and, in the most recent Welcome Week, staff from both Criminology and Law led the talks to the new students, ensuring that both subjects were covered equally".

– Former 3rd Year BA Criminology rep

Terms of reference:

  • The nurturing of good staff-student relations within the School and the discussion of academic and University affairs so far as they affect the School of Law
  • Election of student representatives to serve on the various Law School committees

Membership:

  • Chair - the Director of Student Experience/ Head Rep
  • Undergraduate Programme Directors
  • Director of External Relations
  • Director of Undergraduate Studies
  • Director of Teaching and Learning
  • Law Librarian
  • between two and six representatives of each undergraduate programme in the School of Law

By invitation:

  • Manchester University Law Society officers
  • all undergraduate students

Other Committees and the School Board

The Undergraduate Teaching and Learning Committee, Postgraduate Taught Teaching and Learning Committee and the Postgraduate Research Committee look after the particular degrees - undergraduate, postgraduate taught and postgraduate research within the School to cover the three discipline areas - Law, Criminology and CSEP (Centre for Social Ethics and Policy).

The School Board, as the senior School of Law body receives minutes of all the other principal Committees and deals with general policy issues. It is important that the detailed debate takes place in the sub-committees where possible, to enable a considered view to be put to the full School Board, which does not have time to go into the detail of every matter in the School.

Queries

Please address any queries to the Teaching and Student Support Office or Postgraduate Research Office as appropriate.