Sabbatical officers, are elected student representatives responsible for advocating for the interests of the student body. Their roles can vary widely depending on the institution, but generally, they focus on:

• Representation: They serve as the voice of students, conveying their concerns, needs, and suggestions to the university and relevant authorities.
• Campaigning and Initiatives: They often run campaigns on various issues affecting students, such as mental health support, diversity and inclusion, academic policies, sustainability, etc. They may initiate or support projects or events addressing these concerns.
• Policy and Decision Making: Sabbatical officers might sit on university committees or boards where they contribute to decisions regarding academic policies, student services, and other matters affecting the student community.
• Support Services: They work to enhance student support services, advocating for improvements in areas like counseling, accommodation, healthcare, and academic resources.
• Engagement and Communication: They engage with students through various means, such as organizing activties, using social media, and hosting forums or meetings, to keep the student body informed and involved in relevant discussions.
• External Relations: They might also collaborate with external organizations, local authorities, or student unions from other universities to address broader issues affecting students on a regional or national level.

A School Rep is a part-time student representative who plays a vital role in ensuring that the voices of students at the University of Plymouth are heard - they are at the centre of the academic representation system within each school. There are 12 School Representatives in total (one per School)

School Reps collate feedback from the Course Reps, and progress it (where relevant) from programme to School level. They meet with their Faculty Rep and the VP Education, to progress any feedback from students to the Faculty, as well as the Associate Head for each School to improve your student experience.

To find out who your School Rep is, search for your rep here.

A Course Rep is a student that is either elected or self-nominated (dependent on your Programme Leader’s choice) to represent the students on their course’s academic feedback. They provide a paramount link between students, University Staff, and UPSU.

Course Reps listen to their cohort's views and share that information with staff who can then act by making any necessary changes. Afterwards, they close the feedback loop to make their peers aware of the impact that their feedback has had.

To find out who your Course Rep(s) are, search for your rep here.

Wellbeing impacts everyone and as a crucial aspect of your university experience, we want to expand the pathways you can use to feedback about current wellbeing initiatives and shape future ones.

By sharing the responsibility for wellbeing across all the Sabbatical Officer roles, any student can share their thoughts with any one of our Sabbatical Officers and be confident that their feedback will be heard and progressed in the most appropriate way, it will not be dependant on speaking to one particular person.

By making wellbeing everyone’s responsibility, a more holistic approach to wellbeing support can be created, ensuring that student wellbeing is considered at every level of the University and Students’ Union, meaning that the voices of all students are heard, including those of under-represented students.

Being student led is at the heart of all sports clubs, societies and volunteering projects and without the dedication of the passionate students that lead and participate in them, these opportunities would not exist. Your voice will continue to be heard within these spaces and the staff team will continue to support the practical needs of the student groups.

When it comes to getting involved in representative spaces, we invite any students, especially the leaders of student groups, to join the SU Networks and come along to the SU Open Meetings. These are student-led spaces with the express purpose of bringing students together to share concerns, find solutions and shape projects to improve all aspects of the student experience.

The full-time Sabbatical Officers attend those meetings and will help to progress your feedback and ideas to the right spaces to be addressed, and as a team of four, they attend every high-level meeting within the University and Students’ Union.

When it comes to representing University of Plymouth students at British Universities and College Sport (BUCS), the President Students’ Union role will attend the meetings alongside the staff team.

Voting for the Sabbatical Officer roles will remain online through the UPSU website, this will be a secret ballot which means that no-one will know how you have cast your vote.

Any student who is enrolled on a UK based University of Plymouth course, at the time of the election, is eligible to stand for the role. Successful candidates must be able to be present on the Plymouth main campus for the duration of the term of office which runs from June 2024 to July 2025, during typical office hours (09:00-17:00, Monday -Friday)

Whilst the Presidents of the Faculties have representative responsibilities for the students studying within a particular Faculty, as part of the Sabbatical Officer team, they share responsibilities to be the lead representative for other groups of students. Each Sabbatical Officer will support a number of student-led Networks and individual Sabbatical Officers may take lead on specific projects. They all have responsibility to represent students studying with a specific Partner College.

The Sabbatical Officers work collaboratively as a team, so even if you are unable to contact one particular individual, the priority of all of the Sabbatical Officers roles is to represent students and they will all help you in any way they can!