For mobile phone users: Rotate your screen for the best experience.

 

Course Representatives are student volunteers who procure feedback from their peers and propagate this at departmental meetings. This process is referred to as ‘Student Voice’ and is all about gathering honest, balanced, and up – to - date student feedback in order to improve teaching, learning and assessment.

Each academic year Course Representatives (also known as course reps or student reps) are elected to represent their fellow students. Course Reps play a central imperative role in helping Bradford College to provide the best learning opportunities for its students!

 

What is Student Voice?

The Student Voice is about listening to the views and opinions of students with the help of course reps to make positive changes to the learning experience of everyone!

It is really important that you are given the opportunity to give feedback about the quality of your course or your student experience here at the college and discuss any issues that you may have about your course or the college and that those views are listened to. You deserve the best possible experience while you’re a student at Bradford College.

There are lots of ways for you to make your voice heard at Bradford College Students’ Union.
 

 

What is a Course Rep?

Each academic year course reps are elected by their class to represent their course.

The main function of being a course rep is to volunteer to gather feedback from their fellow students. This will then be shared at Learner Forums (FE) Programme Committee Meetings (HE) and Departmental Meetings – this process is referred to as Student Voice.

The process of Student Voice consists of obtaining valid, current, honest student feedback whether it be good or not so we can improve Teaching, Learning & Assessment and make the Student Experience outstanding.



Why should you be a Course Representative?

Looks excellent on your CV.

Able to become an ambassador for student experience for your course.

Able to access training and support which is ongoing throughout the academic year from BCSU. 

Develop working networks and gain experience in the real-life context.

 

Good Practice for Course Reps

Communicate - make sure all of your classmates know who their course rep is:

Introduce yourself to all of your class (don't forget those who have been absent or started late).

Set some time aside each week to deal with student queries and feedback from your peers, this could be over email, by setting up in person meetings or MS Teams meetings etc. 

Make sure that your classmates know how and when they can contact you.

Keep up to date and get involved - Help support your Students' Union by: 

Registering on the Bradford College Students' Union website (www.bradfordcollegesu.co.uk) so you can find out about BCSU: events, clubs/societies, campaigns and more!

Following us on social media

 BradfordCollegePlus
 Bradford College Plus
@BradCollPlus

 

Collect Feedback

As a Course Rep you should collect all the feedback from all the students on your course. Remember to use a range of communication methods to reach everyone. Some examples are: Arrange in-person or group meetings, Online MS Teams’ meetings, Social media groups.

Filter Feedback

Review the feedback received by grouping this into emerging popular themes both positive and negative. Remember – we want to hear about the issues you face, and we also want you to shout out about the outstanding staff that go out of their way to support you.

 

Raise Feedback to Staff

Complete the correct template report that was shared with you in course rep training. Depending on the level of study you are on this will be the FE or HE course rep template. This can also be found in the Course Rep MS Teams’ group chat for your course. This can also be found online either on Share Point or the SU website.

 

Close the Feedback Loop

Share all the information gathered in your meetings with staff when you attend your meetings. These are Learner Forums or Programme Committee Meetings. A good practice is also to share the feedback with your class after the meetings have been conducted.

 

The Do’s – Course Reps

Help make positive changes.

Represent everyone's views in your group (this means those that you don't agree with too!)

Listen to feedback and speak with your class on a regular basis.

Deal with course related problems. An example of this would be your classes are being cancelled often or you have limited access to laptops in College.

Work with students and staff to solve problems, this includes new ideas on how to improve the course.

Attend department meetings and BCSU events and training sessions.

Give constructive feedback at meetings – share your ideas, solutions, views. 

Signpost students to other Bradford College student services across the college.

 

The Don'ts – Course Reps

Deal with student's personal problems (relationships, health, money etc.) if in doubt speak to BCSU! ​

Deal with other college issues, such as, food served in the canteen and social areas for students. For these issues ask students to contact staff in BCSU.

Take on personal projects, remember that you must have feedback and information that a group of students feel the same about an issue. ​

Please bare in mind – The BCSU is always here to support you.

 

Some Things I Should Collect Feedback About

Your college induction - are you aware of the services available to you (e.g. Students’ Union, library, safeguarding/wellbeing, bursary/ bus passes, enrichment & careers) 

Quality of teaching - classrooms, lesson materials, resources and equipment etc.

Opportunities available to you - work placements, enrichment/personal development opportunities etc

Equality & Diversity - does everyone in the class have the chance to achieve their full potential regardless of gender, religion, and disability etc.? Hint – how is the teacher meeting the needs of all learners in your class?

Other feedback and concerns – anything that does not fit into any of the above categories

 

 

Helpful Tips

Make sure your fellow students know who you are and what you do.

Know what works for your course, every course is different, so it is important to find the best ways of communicating for your course.

Use your creativity and use different ways to collect feedback, it might be through social media, WhatsApp or email.

Don't forget that you can also reach out to your fellow students during class.

 

 

How Can I get Student Feedback?

You can use Google Forms, Focus Groups and other voting polls on social media. Hint – why don’t you create your own Focus Group, MS Teams chat or come together and decide what works best for you.

Keep your questions simple and don't ask 'leading' questions, this means when a question is written to encourage a certain answer. 

Use Email

Use college MS Teams to collect your feedback! 

Remember that the College conducts surveys called Student Experience Surveys a few times a year. You can ask the Students’ Union for the survey results for your course.

Create your own class team in MS Teams and use tools such as the whiteboard to get your class talking about the course. 

If your using email keep it short, straight to the point and use a catchy title in the subject line.

 

 

What Should I Do With Feedback?

Review feedback.

Sort the data into both positive and negative comments that you have received from your peers.

Do you need to ask for more information or evidence? (list amount of numbers voicing the same emerging themes).

Decide on the most important feedback that you are going to deal with. 

Remember to represent all of your class, this includes feedback that you might not agree with! 

Have ideas and solutions to problems that students have told you about, you might need to go back to your class to ask them what they think will help make things better. You can also drop into the BCSU to discuss this with staff.

 

 

Who Do I Give This Feedback to?

Once you've got your feedback and have reviewed it, you are now ready to communicate it!

Speak to your course tutor.

Take feedback to your department's meetings.

Being a course rep is about working with your fellow students and Bradford College staff to make changes that would benefit everyone at the college. Have a chat with your course tutor first to let them know what feedback you have received and the ideas/solutions to make things better. You should record this as part of your course reps report to bring to meetings as actions completed - this is a positive! 

If things do not change, or cannot be changed just by speaking to your tutor then the next step is to bring your feedback and ideas to your department's Learner Forum/Programme Committee meetings or speak to someone at BCSU.

 

Meetings

As a course rep you will attend your department’s: 

Learner Forum meetings (FE course reps)

Programme Committee meetings (HE courses reps)

 

What to do before meetings?

Make sure that you have completed your course rep report using the correct course rep template (either FE or HE). These can be found in your course rep MS Teams chat or the SU website. 

Know when and where the meeting is taking place in advance! 

Read the minutes/notes of the last meeting (this does not apply to your first meeting).

 

What to do during the meeting:

Raise the feedback that you have collected and written in your course rep report. 

Keep sensitive information confidential, never give student names, personal details etc. 

Be respectful, listen to what everyone has to say and don't be afraid to ask questions. 

Complete the rest of your course rep report with any agreed actions as a result of the meeting.

 

What to do after the meeting:

Carry out any actions that you may have from the meeting.

Know when and where the next meeting will be.

Let your class know how the meeting went to keep them updated!

Let BCSU know, we want to know about the great work that you are doing! Make sure that you send your completed course rep report to StudentVoice@bradfordcollege.ac.uk

 

 

Download

Course Rep Handbook

 

Links

	Student Services linktr.ee./bradfordcollegestudentservices
	Student Voice www.bradfordcollegesu.co.uk/student-voice