WHAT’S THE JOB?
We are looking for someone who is passionate about the student voice to join our team and make sure students get the best experience possible. The main parts of the role are:
- Making sure the student voice is amplified to make the student experience at Heriot-Watt the best it can be
- Building relationships with elected officers, students and university staff to develop understanding on the bigger picture, what the key issues are and working towards shared goals
- Ensuring student voice is understood, appreciated and running smoothly!
Ideally what we’re looking for is someone who has been involved in student representation and/or feels really passionately about empowering and developing students to reach their potential and make a difference.
This is a full time job – working 35 hours per week, usually Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm, although flexibility is expected depending on what we have going on so some evening and weekend work may be required.
WHO ARE WE?
We are Heriot-Watt University Student Union and we have one simple purpose, putting students first, always. We are led by elected student officers, who are guided and supported by staff to make students are represented across all areas of university life, with opportunities to expand their skills and employability while making meaningful and lifelong connections.
Ultimately our main goal is to make sure that Heriot-Watt students have THE BEST TIME whilst studying here. We live by five values – we are fun, welcoming, brave, empowering and student focused.
You’ll join a friendly, hardworking and professional team and have a real opportunity to make a difference to our members – while having some fun along the way. We have a display of staff baby photos in our office, and a gallery of our photocopied faces which we will probably ask you to add to!
WHAT DO YOU GET?
- Salary of £22,101 per year
- Generous holiday allowance starting at 37 days a year (including fixed days off for Christmas, New Year and Easter)
- A generous pension scheme is available
- Staff discount in Liberty’s, Geordies and The Shop
- Access to our Employee Assistance Program
- A fun working environment that is filled with a lot of opportunities for development
- Most importantly...you’ll get that warm fuzzy feeling inside that you’re helping the students of HW make the most of their Student Union
WHAT WOULD A TYPICAL DAY LOOK LIKE?
- You start your day by checking your emails, encouraging School Officers to find solutions to any challenges, and identifying recurring themes that might be strategically important. You forward some emails to the Advice Hub and take note of any issues the Full-time Officers need to be aware of.
- You have an email from the Vice President Education asking if they can grab you for half an hour to talk about the papers for the upcoming Learning and Teaching Committee meeting, so you schedule this in both your calendars for this afternoon. The papers have just come out, so you read through them and identify areas you think are relevant to students.
- You have a check-in with a School Officer who’s struggling to get their Class Reps involved. You help them come up with a plan to motivate and engage the Class Reps, to show them how important their feedback is on an upcoming issue.
- There was a School Member of Parliament Meeting yesterday, so you are finalising the minutes and action log to share on Teams. You remember that one student was raising a lot of great points and encouraging others to get involved so you send them a quick email to say how brilliantly they spoke, and to keep up the good work.
- There’s a Parliament meeting next week, so you send out the papers and remind students they need to send apologies if they can’t make it. You check the Chair notes to make sure they are up-to-date and schedule a catch-up with the Chair of Parliament.
- Phew, it’s lunchtime so you head down to the café and grab a bite to eat with other staff members and officers.
- After lunch you have your catch-up with the Vice President Education, you noticed in the papers that the University is planning on moving to a three-semester model, with all students expected on campus over summer*. The VP Education isn’t sure how students feel about this, so you encourage them to think about where they can gather information from students. Together, you come up with a plan for School Officers to ask reps, for the University to host a table at the next Academic Congress on the topic, and for the Marketing Team to put up a few questions on Instagram to get a snapshot of how students feel. The VP Education makes a few bullet points for the meeting.
- You’re not sure if the Senior Management Team knows about the University's plans to move to a three-semester model*, so you send a note to the Student Engagement Manager and highlight some of the challenges you think it could cause.
- Although things are starting to transition back onto campus, most rep meetings have been online to accommodate students in our Scottish Borders Campus (SBC). You haven’t met the SBC reps in person yet, so you want to head down and meet the School MP, School Officers and Class Reps in a few days’ time. You’ve booked a space and picked up some snacks, next you pull together an agenda and send it around to the reps, so they have time to speak to students before the meeting.
- You start looking a bit further ahead. With Academic Congress planned for next month, you want to make sure reps and staff have plenty of time to think about any topics they might want to discuss. You send out an email to the University’s Directors of Learning and Teaching, as well as the Staff Reps, with a deadline to apply to host a table.
- Phew, another great day over. You spend 5 minutes writing out your to-do list for tomorrow and then head home.
*Please note, these are just examples and aren’t necessarily current issues
IS THIS JOB FOR YOU?
If you answer yes to these questions, then apply now!
- Are you excited about students making a difference to their course and university experience?
- Have you been a representative, or have a good understanding of what student representation is in a university setting?
- Do you understand the issues facing university students in 2022?
- Can you motivate and empower people to get involved and make a difference?
- Does working with a range of different people from different countries, backgrounds and cultures sound appealing?
- Can you read policies and papers and pick out what will affect students?
- Can you positively challenge students to think outside the box, rather than jumping to your own solutions?
- Do you work well under pressure, delivering work on time, and going the extra mile?
- Can you work well in a small team, sharing relevant information and collaborating on projects?
- Are you interested in the wider picture, looking at national issues and considering how they affect students locally?
If you want to have an informal chat about the job, please contact Genna Nesbitt, Student Engagement Manager: g.nesbitt@hw.ac.uk.
SOUNDS GREAT, WHAT NEXT?
If you think this sounds like the job for you then click Apply Now below and fill in our online application form. Please take the time to tell us why we should pick you to work for us, using the job description to get a better understanding of what you would need to deliver.
Applications close on Tuesday 31st May at 9am. Interviews will the week commencing 13th June, in person at our Riccarton Campus.
Downloads
Click here to download the Student Voice Coordinator Job Description