After eight months of collaboration with students, staff, and key stakeholders and our Student Council. We’re proud to share the final report of our Democracy Review and the approved by council recommendations. You can read the full report here.  

We are looking forward to moving to simple structures for engagement, integrated digital feedback structures and equated representation by tackling systemic underrepresentation. 

 

 

The direction of travel was passed at Student Council on the 17th of June, now we are setting up a Working Group to develop an Implementation Proposal for next year’s Council, laying out the foundation for a modern, dynamic, and engaging Students’ Union model. 

 

 

The review provides a bold roadmap with 15 interlocking reforms. 

Some of the headline changes include: 

• The development of a new coherent Class Rep System giving us a clear mandate to reform and improve how class representation is delivered 

• The implementation of a new Community Organising Model that meets students where they are, rather than forcing them into outdated representation structures 

• A move from and exclusive Student Council to open Student Assemblies 

• A Student Executive to drive forward student priorities 

• A proposal to consider how we ensure that our Officer Structure is purpose-led and provides effective political representation 

• Eliminating the confusion of multiple naming conventions (groups, forums, clubs, networks) and a move to a new simplified structure where all students can belong either to a ‘Student Community’ (e.g. liberation, belonging, or academic identity) or a ‘Student Group’ (e.g. society, sports club, or project) 

• Improve training and feedback opportunities to support these structures throughout all levels. 

 

 

Simply put, a democracy review is a process to evaluate and improve how decisions are made and how students are represented within the Union. It aims to ensure that structures are inclusive, transparent, and reflective of the current student body’s needs and in our case in line with our values of being helpful, inclusive, and student focussed. 

 

 

Through this review, our goal has been to evaluate and transform the future of how we represent students at the University by reimagining our structures and creating a transparent, democratic framework fit for a modern Students’ Union. We’ve known for some time that there is a significant opportunity to improve how we effectively deliver on our role as the Student Voice. This process is an exciting opportunity to identify those improvements and put in place the systems needed to achieve them. 

 

 

We partnered with an external organisation, Coole Insight Ltd, who are experts in representation within the Students’ Union sector. By partnering with an external organisation, we can be assured that we are getting an independent assessment of our structures, and importantly access to expert knowledge of effective democratic structures within Students’ Unions. As part of this review, we first embarked upon a process of understanding better what students and key stakeholders thought of our structures.  

This process has included: 

• 607 survey responses 

• 6 student focus groups 

• Officer and staff interviews 

• University stakeholder conversations 

• Discussions at Student Council 

• Input from representatives attending the Class Rep Conference 

• Desk review of governance documents, officer roles, and sector-leading models 

Following this, Coole Insight Ltd got to work carrying out a thematic analysis of our results which showed that, despite the good work that goes on, our student democratic structures have been exclusive, visibility has been limited and have lacked coherence. Class Rep systems, and forums have operated without sufficient formal recognition. 

They then put together a detailed report outlining their recommendations on how we can get to work improving our processes.    

 

 

You can read the full report here.  

If you have any questions, you can get in touch with us via ausareps@abdn.ac.uk.