Postgraduate Academic

Representation Handbook 2010/11

Postgraduate Academic Representation

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Contents
Contents 2
Introduction (Union) 3-5
Overview 5
Introduction (GSA) 6-7
Why Become a rep? 8
Personal & Professional 8
Development
Recognition 8
Group/Division/Section/Course/ 9-13
Representatives (Roles &
Responsibilities)
At the beginning 9
During the year Dealing with issues 10
Disseminating information 11
Monitoring 13
Departmental Representatives 14-18
(Roles & Responsibilities)
At the beginning 14
During the year Managing Section/Course/Group 15
Representatives
Staff-Student Committee (SSC) 16
meetings
Departmental Society 17
Academic & Welfare Officers 19-21
(Roles & Responsibilities)
At the beginning 19
During the year Faculty Academic and Welfare 20
Committee meetings
Working with Graduate Schools 20
Communication 22
Support and Resources 22
Meetings 23-25
Suggested agenda template for all 24-25
meetings
Useful Contacts 26
Useful Links 27
Introduction (Union)
Welcome to your new wonderful
position as an Imperial College student
Representative. This handbook has been
designed not only to assist you in being
the best Rep you can be, but also to
show you how to make the most of this
year! Alex Dahinton
Deputy President (Education)
E: dpeducation@imperial.ac.uk
Over 5,000 postgraduate students
T: 020 7594 8060, extension: 45646
currently study at Imperial College,
split evenly between PhD and Master’s
courses. Students work in their groups
or cohorts, but ultimately each student
is in a unique situation and experiences
their own interactions with College.
Problems arise every day and student
representation can provide many levels
of support to help resolve issues as they
materialise. This handbook has essential
information, advice and guidance that will Andrew Keenan
assist you through your year as a student Representation Coordinator
E: a.keenan@imperial.ac.uk
Rep. There will be times when it can
T: 020 7594 5387, extension: 45387
either give you the answer or show you
where to go for help. It is designed to be
used throughout the year.
Departmental Representatives and
Representation brings power to the Academic & Welfare Officers, within the
students. As a Rep you have been Graduate Students’ Association. Often
allocated the authority and control to problems can be solved by students and
bring up issues which College is not staff within the same area, but when they
aware of and “kick them in the shins“ are not solved to a student’s satisfaction,
(not literally!) when issues are not being help from individuals at other levels of
resolved. At Imperial, a sophisticated Union representation are at hand.
postgraduate academic representation
structure brings power to each student
through Division/Section/Group or
Course Representatives,

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 Introduction cont...
The following figure illustrates this
structure:

Union  President

Deputy  President  (Education) Representation  Coordinator

Graduate  School  Liaison GSA  President FU  President

Academic  &  Welfare  Officers  (AWO)

Departmental  Representatives

Masters  Course  Representatives Division  Representatives

Section  Representatives

Group  Representatives

The double arrow lines are there for a
good reason: two-way communication
is completely fundamental to a
successful year of representation! Any
break in the above structure means
either issues students raise are not
brought up in higher committees, or
the students become unaware of the
hard work being done by their reps.
Last year’s PG Welfare Survey showed
that postgraduate students can feel
isolated. Therefore, we aim to have a
student representative known to each
student as part of our efforts to develop
the work of the GSA and build a strong
postgraduate community.
Here’s to a successful year!
Alex Dahinten, and Andrew Keenan

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Overview
Course/Group Rep: Deals with their
immediate course or group; the ground
level of the system, reporting up to
Departmental Reps.
Departmental Rep: Organises the
Master’s and PhD course/group reps
across their whole Department; has
regular meetings with them, and reports
up to Academic & Welfare Officer.
Academic & Welfare Officer: One
AWO per faculty; each AWO organises
the Dep Reps of their faculty and meets
them regularly. AWOs attend Graduate
Schools meetings and are members
of the GSA Executive. These roles are
explained fully later in this handbook.
Postgraduate Tutor: Responsible
for the overall smooth running of all
postgraduate issues in a department,
whether academic or otherwise.
Postgraduate Administrator: The non-
academic administrative heart of each
department, useful for staff and student
details and disseminating information.
He/she can send emails out to your
cohort if required.
Course Director: The organiser
of a Master’s course, who takes
responsibility for its smooth running
and academic rigour. A good person to
approach with questions about a course.
 Introduction (GSA) events. As student representatives, it
is imperative that you help the Events
Team advertise by word of mouth.
Furthermore, collaborating with your
Departmental Society is a great way to
get your fellow postgrads to mingle with
each other socially and/or academically.

Throughout the year, we work closely

Deena Blumenkrantz
GSA President
E: gsa.president@imperial.ac.uk
Facebook Group: Imperial College
London Graduate Students’ Association
with both the Union, as well as the
Graduate Schools. Every postgraduate
student at Imperial is a member of one of
the two Graduate Schools – the Graduate
School of Life Sciences and Medicine
(GSLSM), or the Graduate School of
Engineering and Physical Sciences
(GSEPS). These provide transferable
skills training for research students

Hi guys! I’m Deena and I am the

Graduate Student Association (GSA)
President this year. The GSA is the
postgraduate arm of Imperial College
Union; it is student-led and supported
by both Union and College staff. It
operates as a network of postgraduate
students (you!) who proactively decided
to participate in moulding the educational
experience at Imperial. We aim to
build a PG community by representing
postgraduates when they need academic
or welfare related support as well as
bring postgraduates together, breaking
down faculty, department and divisional
separations by holding social events
and supporting online interactions. The
social side of the GSA is supported by
the Events Team, a group of enthusiastic
volunteers who plan, advertise and fund

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and quality assurance for postgraduate
courses. They also hold events and
recruit new students. Much like the
Union, they regularly review all their
programmes and bring staff together
to spread best practice. The Graduate
Schools will be celebrating their tenth
birthday this year and a series of fun
commemorative events have been
planned.
Finally, there are three Faculty Unions:
Royal College of Science Union (RCSU),
City & Guilds Union (CGCU) and
Imperial College School of Medicine
Students’ Union (ICSMSU) and there
are also two Constituent Unions: Royal
Society of Mines (RSM) and Silwood
Park Union. While the GSA integrates
postgraduates across faculties, the
Faculty Unions integrate undergraduates
and postgraduates within similar research
areas. Faculty Unions address issues
both socially and academically, organising
events such as balls, guest lectures and
competitions as well as offering support
and representation for their members.
I’m looking forward to working with each
and every one of you, and am sure that
together we can make sure that every
postgraduate at Imperial is both well-
represented, and enjoys their time at this
great institution!
Deena Blumenkrantz
 Why become a rep? What will I get out of it?
One who earns leadership of the masses
by working ceaselessly for people’s
welfare finally realises that he has been
rewarded with many added advantages.
Atharva Veda
Be reassured: the primary reward of
being a rep is in the satisfaction of
having made a difference. Not just by
helping your fellow students overcome
difficulties but also by influencing
opinions and decisions directly affecting
your group/department/faculty. The
changes you make will be apparent in
your and your fellow students’ courses.
It takes a stagnant institution to be free
of problems for resolution and there
will always be a need for academic
representation. The most satisfied,
fulfilled students will still have issues to
raise, and it is often the very best, most
effective staff who will take advantage
of our representative capabilities the
most. The College itself is aware of
the importance of an effective student
representation system, and is supportive
of your efforts – if students cannot
raise the issues which prevent constant
improvement of College’s academic
offerings, then who will?
Personal & Professional Development
But there’s even more in it for you.
Alongside the knowledge that you will
have made a difference to how well
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you and your peers have been taught
or supervised, being a rep is an ideal
way to work on your own development
which means your time as a rep can
have benefits long after your thesis is
completed and you start the next stage
of your academic career.
These benefits can be both personal and
professional, and can be an invaluable
boost to your employability. Being an
effective rep will mean being proficient
in teamwork, time management,
interpersonal communication, and
problem solving. The best thing is, you
aren’t learning these in the abstract – you
will be experiencing them first-hand with
real consequences, and employers value
that above almost everything else.
More information on what being a rep
can offer you, and how to develop your
skills, will be available from the Union
website.
Recognition
This year, we have introduced a
special award for the most dedicated
representatives. On top of receiving
Union colours, you could be singled
out as one of the best reps in your
faculty. The award can be won by any
kind of rep, and each faculty will have
at least one winner. We will be looking
at attendance throughout the year, as
well as enthusiasm and innovation in
representing your peers.
Group/Division/Section/Course
Representatives (Roles & Responsibilities)
Whichever kind of representative you are,
please read through this entire section
and make sure you understand the
responsibilities of each member of the
representation structure.
The representatives who work in closest
contact with their fellow students are
the Section/Group Representatives (for
PhD research sections/groups) or Course
Representatives (for MSc, MRes, CAS
and MA courses). If you are a Group/
Course Rep or volunteer, you will most
likely be appointed in the first few weeks
of the academic year. Congratulations!
In brief, your duty is to represent all
students in your immediate group or
course within your College Department.
You report to your Departmental
Representative. (see Page 14), passing
difficult systemic problems up to them
and feeding your communications and
achievements back to the students in
your year.
As a Group/Course Representative, your
duties are straightforward but vital. You
are the only representatives in direct
contact with the students you are serving
and therefore act as their first point
of call when problems arise. You are
instrumental in academic representation,
as the primary means of communication
between the representative structure,
College staff and the student body.
At the beginning
Your first task is to make yourself known
to your peers. Volunteering for or being
elected as a Rep is just the start; once
you are in the position, you must make
your role absolutely clear to your peers so
that they can use your power effectively.
Start off by sending an email to everyone
in your group or course (talk to your
course director or administrator to find
out how to do this). It may be best to
forward the email to them and ask them
to send it. In this email, you should:
•Introduce yourself as their
Representative
• Outline what your role is, including your
responsibility of relating issues to staff
and upwards where necessary
• Give them contact details - this is
usually just your email address.
• Also give them the name and email
address of your Departmental
Representative - you are accountable to
your fellow students, but if you are ill,
away on a conference or holiday or just
going through an intensely busy time,
your Departmental Representative is a
good next point of contact for them.
• Keep a relaxed, informal tone – you are
their peer – but write a smart and easy-
to-read email.
• Introduce yourself to key staff as well.
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 During the year: dealing with issues
arising
If you have made your role clear to
your fellow students, it won’t be long
before they first approach you. When
this happens, your first task is to gather
information on the issue. Ask yourself:
• What EXACTLY is the problem? If
it’s not an academic issue, it is out
of your scope: refer them elsewhere
(see Useful Contacts). Talk to all the
students involved in the issue until you
are completely clear about it.
• Who does it affect? Which student or
group of students? This could range
from one student to the entire college.
Issues affecting one student must
still be dealt with but may have to be
deprioritised in favour of problems
affecting many people, or may require
particular care to maintain the student’s
right to privacy or even anonymity.
• How does it affect those students?
In what way are they pressured or
disadvantaged? Try to assess the
nature and the extent of the effect by
talking to them.
 • If you are unsure of how a problem
Occasionally, you might be presented
with a problem that is best solved by the
College’s and Union’s welfare staff. If so,
direct the student to the right member
of staff – be that a College Tutor, the
Deputy President (Welfare) or the
Student Advisor.
At this point you are in a position to
decide where to take the issue. It may
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be appropriate to simply monitor the
situation. In this case simply drop
your Dep Rep an email to describe the
situation and notify them that you are
monitoring it. In the case that you feel
elevating an issue is appropriate, decide
whether or not it is best to approach
the staff you are familiar with or have a
member of the representation structure
bring it up with their superiors.
.
Broadly speaking, elevating an issue
means taking it along one of two
routes: directly to departmental staff,
or up to the next level of the student
representation structure. The appropriate
route is at your discretion.
• If you believe your issue could
benefit from consideration by your
departmental staff, make it happen.
Despite your usual point of contact
with staff being at Staff-Student
meetings, you do not need to wait for
these meetings to bring up issues.
Either drop into the office of your staff
contact, ring them or write them an
email, while the issue is fresh in your
mind.
might be solved OR a problem
remains unsatisfactorily addressed
after a Staff-Student Meeting OR there
is some complication (e.g. personal
privacy issues) you must elevate the
issue to the next level of the student
representation structure: your Dep
Rep. If they do not respond, notify your
Academic & Welfare Officer (see page
17).
Group/Division/Section/Course cont...
In certain circumstances, generally urgent academic problems that require immediate
attention, do not wait for the next Staff-Student meeting or for your next meeting with
your Departmental Representative. Speak to a member of your departmental staff
describing the problem and its urgency, or to your AWO/GSA President (see page 5).

During the year: disseminating information

Just as you are responsible for representing the views and experience of your section/
group or year to College staff and Departmental Representatives, you are responsible
for disseminating information down to the student body too!

All aspects of your active representation must be made transparent to the

students you are representing.

Where you are bringing an issue to the attention of staff or other representatives, you
must ensure that all students involved in the issue are informed and kept updated.
This might be an acknowledgement of the issue and a promise to investigate further.
It might be an explanation of the rationale behind the decision not to act or it might be
a proposed solution to the issue.

If you report an issue to staff, inform your students so that they know that the issue is
being dealt with.

If you receive any response from staff concerning the issue, report it to your students.

If you elevate an issue to other representatives, inform your students so that they
know that the issue is being dealt with.

Should you find out that any decision has been or could be made by your department
that could affect students’ academic affairs in any way, whether positive or negative,
try to inform your students as soon as possible to allow them to consider the decision
and respond through you.

Throughout the year, you will be asked by your Departmental Representative/

Academic and Welfare Officer (AWO)/ Deputy President (Education)/ Representation
Coordinator to disseminate information to your peers.

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 This may range from emails asking them to participate in one of our surveys, to vital
academic information updates. Please make sure that this info reaches the students
quickly!

Communicating your achievements and new information down to the students is

important for two reasons:

• Representation cannot be said to be effective if the communication is only one-way.

A continuous feed of information back to students is essential and gives students
perspective on the matter: if a request is unrealistic, the students must know.
Likewise, if a solution has been reached, the students must be informed.
• For the effective representation of any group of people, the group must have a high
level of trust in the representative. Much of this trust must be built from scratch; the
only way to do it is to prove your value as a representative by directly involving your
students in every matter you deal with. By creating trust in you, it is more likely that
students will feel free to make use of your representative capabilities.

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Group/Division/Section/Course cont...
During the year: monitoring
Your job is both reactive and proactive.
While primarily you are the first calling
point when your peers encounter
any sort of blip in your academic
environment, it is also very useful to go
out to collect information from them.
By keeping your ear to the ground and
picking up early anything that has the
potential to become a problem, you are
in a far, far better position to deal with it
than if you wait until the problem comes
to you.
This includes keeping a close eye on
your own personal academic affairs. You
are your best judge of the quality of your
course. Ask yourself:
• Am I enjoying doing this or am I finding
it particularly unpleasant? If I am finding
it unpleasant, is it a problem with the
teaching or administration that could
possibly benefit from representative
attention?
• Am I learning from this? If not, is it a
problem that could possibly benefit
from representative attention?
• Am I finding it difficult to keep up with
the work? Is it because I’m being given
too much of it?
• Is there any other problem that
is making it harder to learn than
necessary?
First, ask yourself these questions.
Then consider how others might answer
them. Ask some of your fellow students
directly, or stand in front of your peers
and poll them. Monitoring your group
or cohort for potential issues is a
continual process, so you should never
stop considering these questions. Be
prepared to ask your peers on a regular
basis what their feelings are.
In democracy everyone has the right to
be represented, even the jerks.
Chris Patten
If you’re not sure whether a problem is
worth tackling or not, whether it seems
completely insolvable or completely
trivial, elevate it anyway. It is always
worth trying. Imperial is only a world-
leading institution through attention to
detail and every detail is worth checking.
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 Departmental Representatives
(Roles & Responsibilities)
Dep Reps have an important role to play
for the Transferable Skills programme
run by the Graduate Schools. Forums
held have shown that first year PhD
students want to hear from 2nd and 3rd
year students in their department about
which courses would be most beneficial
to them. Gather information from 2nd
and 3rd year students on courses which
they have most enjoyed and pass this
on to new students. It is important that
people attend the courses that best
meet their needs, suggest that they
read the course descriptions (http://
www3.imperial.ac.uk/graduateschools/
transferableskillstraining) and use the
online calendar. If you have suggestions
for new courses or any problems with
existing courses, contact Caroline
caroline.hargreaves@imperial.ac.uk or
graduate.schools@imperial.ac.uk with
the information; often issues can be
resolved quickly and informally.
As Departmental Representatives, you
take ultimate responsibility for making
sure the postgraduate student voice in
your department is heard. You may have
been elected before the start of the year
in order to enable you to prepare for the
coming year and begin your job as soon
as teaching starts.
At the heart of the representation
structure, you are the link between the
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Course and Group Reps within your
department and the Academic & Welfare
Officer for your Faculty. If you drop out
of the structure, you disconnect your
entire department, preventing multiple
Master’s courses and several research
groups from being represented. It is good
practice to ensure your have deputised
your role in your absence.
It’s also your role to manage the
Section/Group/Course Representative
system below you and make sure it is
communicating upwards and downwards
and thus working effectively.
At the beginning
Every department will hold a PG
Induction event at the start of each
academic year, at which the Dep Rep
gives a short speech on useful contacts,
health and safety issues etc. This is an
opportunity to introduce yourself, and
the GSA, to new students. Try to meet
those postgraduates who miss these
initial events (e.g those who started
later in the year). We’ve put together a
template presentation for you, which you
can find on the GSA website (see usefull
links), along with the training materials.
Contact your PG Staff to ensure that you
invited to this event.
Before you can fulfil your role, Section/
Course/Group Representatives below
you must be in place, doing their job.
So your first task is to fill any vacant
Section/Course/Group Representatives
positions and brief them. The sooner
you do this, the sooner your department
will be effectively represented! Choose
an appropriate time to carry out both of
these things; they should happen about
two or three days apart, to give them a
chance to decide whether they should
stand for election or not. Contact the
Representation Coordinator for a guide
on holding elections.
(representation@imperial.ac.uk).
Briefing them involves presenting the
role of Representative to them: you must
make it sound appealing while ensuring
they understand the responsibilities of
the job. Remember to tell them when
you will be returning to hold the election.
You could bring some copies of this
guide for them to read: leave them on a
desk as you leave so that those who are
interested can consider standing at their
own leisure.
Holding the election is simple. A secret
ballot will suffice:
• Ask for those who wish to stand to
come forward
• Give each candidate a minute or two to
present their manifesto to the Cohurt/
Group and answer any questions
• Remind the class that they can also
vote to re-open nominations (vote for
RON) if they don’t wish to elect any of
the candidates
• Send the candidates out of the room
and count votes for each candidate and
RON
• Allow them back in and announce the
result of the election
If you so wish, you can hold an online
election. Contact
president@imperial.ac.uk for more
information.
Now that your Course/Group
Representatives “team” has been
established, make sure that you
introduce yourself personally to them
as their Departmental Representative
and take a note of their names and CID
numbers. Make sure you send this
list of names to the Deputy President
(Education) right after getting them so
that the Union can populate the Rep
database.
During the year: managing Section/
Course/Group Representatives
Just as Section/Course/Group
Representatives have a responsibility
to continuously monitor the students
they represent, picking up issues quickly
to minimise any negative impact, you
have a responsibility to monitor them,
encouraging them to keep all their
communication channels open and their
ear to the ground. As a representative
yourself, you should also remain very
close to the student body, being
prepared to talk to individual students as
necessary.
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 Departmental Representatives cont...
The contact you have with staff is similar
to the contact the Section/Course/
Group Representatives have: Staff-
Student Committee meetings, but you
should also make sure you have good
communication lines with your Director
of Postgraduate Studies (DPS). In effect,
your ability to engage staff in dialogue is
no different from theirs: anything you can
talk to staff about, they can talk to staff
about. So why should they elevate issues
to you? There are many reasons:
• A chance for dialogue: by bringing
issues to your attention and
the attention of their fellow
Representatives, you can explore
the issue in great detail: are any
other years of the course or research
area experiencing this problem? Did
previous years experience it? Is it really
an issue at all?
• It can then be elevated further: to your
Academic & Welfare Officer.
Your biggest responsibility lies in
organising meetings, allowing your
Section/Course/Group Representatives
to elevate issues to you in a formal
way. These meetings should occur at
least once a term where possible, in
time for faculty meetings. You and your
Course/Group Reps must attend these
meetings; it is fine for anyone else to
attend these meetings as well and it is
a good idea to invite your Academic &
Welfare Officer to attend.
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Where issues come to your attention,
your duty is very similar to that of a
Section/Course/Group Representative:
do some triage (see page 10 for
questions to ask yourself). If you believe,
following discussion between you and
your Reps, that bringing the issue back
to a Staff-Student meeting would be
beneficial, then do this. If you have hit
a dead end, or you believe the issue
has consequences with a wider range
than your department, or you wish to
discuss the issues with a more senior
representative for any other reason, then
elevate the issue to your Academic &
Welfare Officer.
During the year: Staff-Student
Committee (SSC) meetings
Staff Student Committee meetings are
your time to shine as Dep Reps. You
have the opportunity to bring up your
peers’ problems with your staff and can
monitor their willingness to deal with
issues. A few weeks before the meeting
takes place, make sure that your Reps
have collected a list of positive and
negative issues that affect them. Have a
Rep Meeting with them, and decide on
which issues are worth bringing up with
the Staff. You should not feel intimidated
by your College Staff; however always
remember to be respectful and
knowledgeable about what you have
to say (see Meetings section for more
information).
After the meetings, there are two vital
things you need to do:
1.Send a short (and relevant) summary
of the SSC meeting and what was
discussed, to the Postgraduates in your
department. Keep it short and sweet,
however make sure that students know
what is happening behind the scenes
is your department. There may be
circumstances where your Department
Staff will ask you to keep issues to
yourself for the time being, so please
respect these wishes.
 emember to cc in your AAO (see
R academic staff will readily investigate
Contacts) when you send these
reports to your departments.
2. A  s soon as you get access to the
meeting minutes, send a copy to
the Representation Coordinator
(representation@imperial.ac.uk).
Together with the Deputy President
(Education), he has a combined
responsibility to monitor the quality
of representation and teaching
across College. By condensing and
collating all of the SSC minutes and
correspondences from Departmental
Representatives at the end of
each term, your Deputy President
(Education) can:
• A ssess the effectiveness of
representation within each
department, by reflecting on the
readiness of the department’s staff
to listen and respond to the student
voice.
• Identify strong representatives for
recognition and nomination for Union
Colours awards.
• Let the Quality Assurance Advisory
Committee (QAAC) know how
departments are responding to the
issues brought up by students in his or
her termly presentations to them.
The strategic advantage of this is
enormous: College is very keen to
foster a culture of constant academic
quality review and improvement
involving student representatives.
Where a department consistently fails
to satisfactorily address issues raised
by Representatives, College’s senior
and make recommendations directly to
the department, concerning both the
original issues raised and their ongoing
responsiveness to students.
During the year: Departmental Society
Although the students you represent are
ultimately at Imperial to get a world-class
degree, they also want to have fun in
their free time! Departmental Societies
are a great way of getting to know the
people on your course through activities
related or unrelated to your subject.
These are people you already have
something in common with so can be
a good place to start finding friends. To
get involved with your Dep Soc, check
imperialcollegeunion.org.uk for the A-Z
and contact details.
Becoming active in your Dep Soc is a
great way of allowing networking and
team building opportunities to develop
within your department and they are
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Departmental Representatives cont...
usually generously funded by Heads of Department. Often all you have to do is ask
and they’ll cover reasonable expenses on food, drinks or even renting space for
sports tournaments! In addition, Dep Socs can use all the normal resources provided
to Union clubs including free black and white printing, web server space and a bank
account. If your course isn’t covered by a Dep Soc yet you can set one up – just get in
touch with us to find out how.
Academic & Welfare Officers
(Roles & Responsibilities)
As Academic & Welfare Officer
(AWO), you ultimately are in charge
of the representation network in your
Faculty. Whether you are in Medicine,
Life Sciences, Physical Sciences,
Engineering, or a non-faculty subject
such as Business or Humanities,
everyone is represented at Imperial and
it is your job to make sure that the Reps
you oversee are doing this job well. You
are the glue that keeps the rep system
within your faculty intact. Throughout
the year you will work closely with
your fellow AWOs, GSA officers, the
Deputy President (Education), and the
Representation Coordinator, as well as
College staff.
It’s your role to make sure that Group/
Section/Course and Department Reps
are doing their jobs, including reporting
up and down. Of all the reps in your
department, you will have the most
contact with the College and it’s most
senior staff through the numerous
different committees you sit on, such as
the Graduate School management and
quality committees.
All AWOs sit on the GSA Executive
Committee, alongside the GSA President
and Directors from the Events Team. The
GSA is the branch of Imperial College
Union dedicated solely to postgraduates,
and its overall aim is to create a strong
postgraduate community at Imperial
while fulfilling the representational and
social needs of its students.
At the beginning
The best way to start off your new job is
by making sure your Departmental Reps
know who you are. Contact them soon
and begin to come up with a strategy
for the year ahead. Just like for every
elected position, your Dep Reps will be
very keen to dive into their jobs once
they begin in October, so you should
aim to use this positive enthusiasm to
your advantage. Dep Reps will be full of
ideas at the start, so it is important that
you meet with them to capture these
ideas early on and discuss whether
or not actions are feasible within their
respective departments.
As mentioned elsewhere in this
handbook, your role is proactive as well
as reactive, so make sure to gather all
the manifesto points and proposals
of your reps, combine them with your
goals for the year, and begin to develop
your own agenda rather than waiting
for issues to come up. If you keep
the Deputy President (Education),
Representation Coordinator and GSA
President aware of these plans, they can
assist you, and make sure that effort
is not being unnecessarily duplicated
across College.
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 Academic & Welfare Officers cont...
It is vital that you remain in continuous
contact throughout the year with
your Dep Reps; establishing a good
relationship with them will make your
job much easier! Be approachable and
friendly with them, so that they feel
comfortable seeking you out for advice.
All this goes for the staff in your Faculty
too; representation is cooperation, not
battle, and maintaining a friendly rapport
with your staff will go a long way to
smoothing the path for your proposals.
Introduce yourself to them early if you
don’t know them already, and keep in
regular contact about the progress of
various issues and the latest news from
their Group and Course Reps.
During the year: Faculty Academic &
Welfare Committee meetings
As AWO, it is your responsibility to
organise the Academic & Welfare
Committee (AWC) meetings. These
meetings are a chance for Departmental
Representatives from within your
Faculty to come together and discuss
representation issues. There should be
a minimum of at least one every term,
although two are recommended. During
these meetings, every Departmental
Rep is asked to provide a short overview
about how things are running in their
department. If a representative cannot
make it to the meeting, still ask them to
send you an overview. The idea behind
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this is to engage the representatives
to help each other out, and to share
best practice between departments.
Unresolved issues which have been
brought to Dep Reps by their Group/
Section/Course Reps during other
meetings should be brought up here, as
well as any other (positive and negative)
issues they are working on.
Make sure that at the beginning of the
meeting one rep volunteers to take the
minutes and note down action points.
These do not need to be incredibly
detailed, but rather will serve as a
record for yourselves and as a way to
keep the Deputy President (Education),
Representation Coordinator and the GSA
President ‘in the loop’.
After these have been typed up, make
sure to send them to the Deputy
President (Education), Representation
Coordinator, GSA President and all of
your Dep Reps, within five days of the
meeting.
During the Year: working with Graduate
Schools
Every postgraduate student at Imperial
is a member of one of the two Graduate
Schools – the Graduate School of Life
Sciences and Medicine (GSLSM), or
the Graduate School of Engineering and
Physical Sciences (GSEPS).
The Graduate Schools have three key committees each, detailed below; the AWOs
are members of each committee, as are the GSA President and Deputy President
(Education).

The Graduate Schools remit is to provide Transferable Skills training for research
students, quality assurance for postgraduate courses, events to bring PG students
together in an informal setting and recruit new students. Much like the Union, they
regularly review all their programmes and bring staff together to spread best practice.
The Graduate Schools will be celebrating their tenth birthday in the coming months,
and a series of commemorative events have been planned.

College committees AWOs sit on:

Oversees the activities of the entire Graduate

School, and receives the minutes of the PQC
Management Committee (MC) and ATC. All Directors of Postgraduate Study
are members, as are the Deputy President
. (Education) and the GSA President.

Oversees the maintenance of standards

Postgraduate Quality Committee (PQC) in postgraduate courses and research
programmes, and approves new courses.

Oversees the training and transferable skills

Academic Training Committee (ATC) programmes for postgraduate research
students.

There is one of each committee in each Grad School; these committees each
meet between three and five times a year.

AWOs are also members of the Union’s Representation and Welfare Board (RWB) and
Union Council. RWB meets once a month to discuss representation and welfare of
both undergraduate and postgraduate students. It can also award grant money to the
GSA to support activities related to representation and welfare of postgraduates. The
Union Council meets once a month and is the ultimate policy-making body of Imperial
College Union.

The representation Coordinator will keep AWOs up-to-date with meeting times and
places, and the papers will be sent to each AWO in advance of the meeting.

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 Communication
The single biggest problem in
communication is the illusion that it has
taken place.
George Bernard Shaw
The importance of communication is
brought up in almost every section of this
handbook, but we think it is so crucial
to an effective system of representation
that it’s worth mentioning again.
Furthermore, it comes in many forms.
From the Deputy President (Education)
to each and every Rep for every single
course and research group, there must
be a constant flow of information back
and forth about the various issues being
brought up and solved. This allows
progress to be tracked and momentum
maintained. Otherwise, problems fail
to be solved and the crucial trust in the
representation system is weakened.
Division/Section/Group and Course
Reps must also be pro-active in seeking
out the opinions of their classmates or
fellow researchers– whether through
surveys and emails, or simply through
conversations with their peers. A
problem that is not communicated to
the Rep cannot be solved; a problem
that is sorted, but the students are left
uninformed, allows stress and anxiety
to persist long after it should have been
relieved.
Support and Resources
Starting this year, Imperial College Union
has a member of staff who will assist
and support the entire representation
system – Andrew Keenan, the
Representation Coordinator. His role is
to take the administrative and support
tasks away from Sabbatical Officers and
representatives, to allow them to focus
on their goals and their cohorts. If you
could do with assistance in your role,
such as help formulating a survey or
organising meetings, please get in touch.
We have also created a software-based
system to ‘capture’ and track issues
raised across College by representatives
to ensure that progress on every issue
is monitored, and no problem ‘falls
through the cracks’. You can add any
issues to this system by contacting
the Representation Coordinator and
the system is explained on the Union
website.

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Meetings
The best meetings are:
• Relaxed and enjoyable. Meetings are
not meant to be intimidating affairs.
As students, your task is to make the
meeting as productive as possible;
meeting etiquette is nothing special,
just common sense.
•P  roductive and satisfying. If there
is anything being reported to the
meeting, the chair should have emailed
it around to the committee members
beforehand as meeting papers, and it
is absolutely key that everyone who
attends has read these papers in
advance.
•T  imely. Start on time and finish
quickly.
•O  n topic throughout. If you have
an issue to bring up that is relevant
to the meeting but unrelated to the
topic being discussed, wait for an
appropriate moment so that the current
topic does not get unnecessarily cut
short.
Each member of a committee should
be prepared to contribute to any of the
matters arising in a meeting before it
starts; this is achieved with the agenda
and papers. Expect to be emailed an
agenda in advance of the meeting that
mentions each matter for discussion
in a list. If any matters on the agenda
involve a document of interest, be it a
report, a letter, an email, a proposal or
a page of lecture notes, you will receive
the document as a ‘paper’ attached to
the agenda. Finally, with the agenda and
papers you should receive a copy of the
minutes from the previous meeting.
If you are reporting to a meeting,
submit any papers as soon as the
Chair requests them, in order that they
can be distributed to all members of a
committee for reading in advance of the
meeting.
Check your emails to find the agenda,
papers and previous minutes. Read them
thoroughly in advance, and print them
to bring to the meeting. They can be
printed for free in the Student Activities
Centre (SAC) on level 2M of the Union
building. Where you have a comment to
make, highlight and make annotations so
that you are best prepared to bring it up
constructively in the meeting.
Finally, there is no such thing as a stupid
question. A meeting will not work if
each attendee is not on an even keel,
so if you have read the minutes from
the previous meeting and the papers in
advance, and you still are unfamiliar with
something, do not be ashamed to ask for
an explanation or a definition, and do not
be reluctant to give someone else such
an explanation.
A guide to getting the most out of your
meetings is available on the Union
website (imperialcollegeunion.org).
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 This year, College has agreed that “feedback” should be a standing point on all
meeting agendas. This means that you need to make sure that it is discussed
at every SSC meeting, and if it is not then bring it up with the Departmental
Representative. Feedback relating to the Transferable Skills Programme should also
be considered.

Feedback from supervisors and course work should also be discussed at Academic
& Welfare Committee meetings.

Suggested agenda template for all meetings

The template on page 25 has been prepared for two purposes:

• In departments where students historically set up the Staff-Student meetings, you
may find it useful to use this agenda as a starting point when you prepare agendas
for the meetings.
• It details the current standing agenda items as set by senior quality assurance
staff at Imperial. It is your responsibility to ensure that all of these standing agenda
items are discussed exhaustively. They should be points of discussion at all Faculty
and Departmental representation meetings as well, and the dialogue between
Representatives and students should always touch on these topics (particularly
feedback and supervision), in order that the discussions at all meetings are well-
informed.

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_____________________ Committee Meeting

Department/Division: ______________

Held on (date & time): ______ _______________ 20___ at ___:___

1. Apologies for absence

2. Approve: Minutes of the last meeting, held on (date) __________

3. Standing agenda items

3.1. Review Surveys
3.1.1. Comment on participation levels?
3.1.2. Comment on findings?
3.1.3. What actions will be/have been taken?

3.2. Personal Tutoring:

3.2.1. Comment on quality of personal tutoring/ Supervisor

3.3. Feedback:
3.3.1. Comment on quality of feedback from supervisors/coursework

3.4. Positive Developments:

3.4.1 Comment on noteworthy examples of good or improved practice

4. Matters arising from students

4.1. To consider: __________ raised by (e.g. Course Representative (MSC
Structural Steel Design))
4.2. To consider: __________ raised by (e.g. Departmental Representative)
4.3. To consider: __________ raised by (e.g. Group Representative (Control and
Power, EEE))
...

5. Matters arising from staff

6. Any other business

7. Date of next meeting

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Useful Contacts
Position Name Email Address
@imperial.ac.uk
Deputy President Alex Dahinten dpeducation
(Education)
Representation Coordinator Andrew Keenan representation

GSA President Deena Blumenkrantz gsa.president

Graduate Schools Liaison Caroline Hargreaves caroline.hargreaves

GSLSM Manager Sally Baker sally.baker

GSEPS Manager Sophie White sophie.white

GSA Academic & Welfare Officers

Engineering Shuoying Cao aoeng
Physical Sciences To Be Elected aophyssic
Medicine To Be Elected aomedic
Life Sciences Joe McKenna aolifesci
Non-Faculty & Business Llewellyn Thomas aononfac

Departmental Representative (fill in yourself)

Departmental Representative

Course and Group Representative (fill in yourself)

Departmental staff (fill in yourself)

Head of Department
Director of Postgraduate Studies
Course Director
Postgraduate Administrator

Other contacts
Advice Centre Nigel Cooke advice
Student advisor

College Tutors Mrs Magret Cunningham m.cunningham

Dr Mick Jones m.d.jones

Dr Simon Archer s.archer

Useful Links
Graduate Students’ Association
www.imperialcollegeunion.org/gsa
Graduate Schools
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/graduateschools
Student Hub
www.imperial.ac.uk/studenthub
Careers Service
careers@imperial.ac.uk www.imperial.ac.uk/careers/pg
Chaplaincy Centre
chaplaincy@imperial.ac.uk
College Guidelines for Proper Scientific Conduct in Research
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/secretariat/policiesandpublications/otherpolicies/
properscientificconduct
Computer Service Desk
www.imperial.ac.uk/ict/servicedesk
Disabilities Officer
disabilities@imperial.ac.uk
English Language Support Service
www.imperial.ac.uk/humanities/english
Ethical Permission
Imperial College Research Ethics Committee
www.imperial.ac.uk/research/researchethics
Health Centre
www.imperialcollegehealthcentre.co.uk
Muslim Prayer Room
islam@imperial.ac.uk
National Research Ethics Service
www.nres.npsa.nhs.uk
Registry Enquiry Service
www.imperial.ac.uk/registry/enquiries
Scientific Misconduct
www.imperial.ac.uk/secretariat/governance/charterandstatutes
Student Counsellors
counselling@imperial.ac.uk
Imperial College Union Tel: 020 7594 8060
Beit Quadrangle Fax: 020 7594 8065
Prince Consort Road Email: union@imperial.ac.uk
London Twitter: @icunion
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