The Student Academic Representative elections are to be held online next year, following a decision from the Students’ Union and two successful pilot schemes.

The proposal is expected to ensure a fast, transparent and reliable elections process with improved clarity for students. It is also hoped that there will be an additional gain as these electronic elections will ease the administrative burden on departments while still making them an internal affair.

This scheme is being introduced because of the need to reform the Academic Rep process. In the Student Opinion Survey conducted in December 2007, (completed by 2,099 students), 77.9% of students feel it is important to know about the role of Academic Representatives but 52.5% know very little or nothing at all about the position.

The idea has already been tested in a pilot scheme participated by some departments earlier this academic year, including MLES and Chemical Engineering. The results of this pilot have been encouraging, as Tom Milburn, VP Education explained; “Overall the pilot was judged to be successful because all students that wanted to run, could, and all those who wanted to vote, could. There were also useful features such as candidates being able to have a manifesto and a slogan to run with.”

In the VP Education’s report to the Senate, he predicts that “Online elections would provide a simple way for students to elect Academic Representatives and a campus wide election process would make promoting the role more efficient and create more awareness.” It should also be stressed that online elections would not remove the role of Departments from the appointment process.

The role of the Students’ Union shall be to provide the elections software that would ease pressure on Departments’ while enabling students to run a publicity campaign for the position.