Student Staff Fora

The purposes of the Student Staff Forum (SSF) are to:

• To ensure that the feedback and concerns of students about their courses of study are discussed and that solutions/actions are co-created by student representatives and academic staff throughout the academic year;
• To ensure that the views of students are given proper weight in the processes of course and module review;
• To provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and information between the student body and the School in relation to their education and non-academic welfare. 
• To provide a forum for co-creation around areas of the school, department or division that have been raised.

General

• A Student Staff Forum (SSF) must meet at least three times in a 12-month period.
• Each school, department or division should follow the terms of reference and Student Staff Forum guidance document on the composition of its SSF. 
• Course representatives are responsible for effectively collecting feedback from their fellow students, representing their views at meetings, and disseminating feedback from the meetings. Schools, departments and divisions should help to facilitate this by providing a mechanism for student representatives to email or contact in some other way their fellow students.
• The Student Staff Forum must be co-chaired by the relevant Senior Course Representative and a staff member in the department, school or division.
• Senior Course Representatives are responsible for collating feedback from the Course Representatives that are assigned to them. This is so that an agenda can be created by the Senior Course Representatives and Staff Co-Chair and distributed before the meeting.

• Relevant staff can be invited to individual meetings based on the agenda under the discretion of the Senior Course Representative and the Staff Co-Chair.
• The school, department or division should display the names and contact details of the representatives on the SSF, SSF Action Logs, external examiner reports and school responses to those reports on an appropriate forum that is clear and readily available to students (such as Moodle).

Agendas, reports and action points

• The Senior Course Representative and the Staff Co-Chair set the Student Staff Forum agenda. There should be a simple mechanism for both staff and students to have items placed on the agenda for discussion.
• All meetings must have an agenda that contains the key topics/issues for co-creation, as well as any other key information that needs to be distributed to and/or through Course Representatives.
• After every meeting, and at the end of each Term, an Action Log should be distributed to all students in a school, department or division outlining the actions agreed within the relevant SSF by the Senior Course Representative and relevant University Staff as well as updated progress on each action.
• The Student Staff Forum Action Log must be taken into consideration in the school's monitoring processes.
• It is not expected that every action requested by student representatives will be implemented, but it is expected that they should be given proper consideration and the grounds for non-implementation should be explained.

For more information, please consult the following:

• Student Staff Forum Action Log Template 
• Student Staff Forum Agenda Template
• Student Staff Forum Terms of Reference
• Student Staff Forum Guidance Document