Elections are run each year by student unions (SUs) across the country. They are the process by which new student representatives are elected to help lead the organisation across the next academic year.

SUs are democratically led organisations and all students automatically become members of their SU when they join university. The easiest and fairest way for all students to have the opportunity to choose who is going to help lead the SU is by a cross-campus vote.

Any student can choose to put themselves forward for an elected role, as long as they meet the relevant eligibility criteria for each role. For example, some of our part-time officer positions are specific to different sites and you need to be a student studying at that site in order to run.

Roles available

There are part-time and full-time paid positions available in the election. Read our elections announcement article to see a breakdown of each of the roles. You can also visit our roles page to see each of the individual role descriptions, with detailed eligibility criteria for each role.
 

How the vote works

We use a transferable voting system. When voting, students are asked to rank candidates in order of preference on the ballot. Students can select as many preferences as they like. For example:

If there were five candidates running for the role of Education Officer:

Candidate Number 1 – Ruth Morgan

Candidate Number 2 – Barry Hill

Candidate Number 3 – Oluwafemi Abadogi

Candidate Number 4 – Muhammed Satah

Candidate Number 5 – Susie Smith

Candidate Number 6 – Re-open nominations (RON)
 

A student may choose three preferences:

Number 1 choice for Education Officer – Sam Jones

Number 2 choice for Education Officer – Ruth Morgan

Number 3 choice for Education Officer – Susie Smith

What does RON stand for?

For each position, you will see all of the candidates who are running for the role. You will also always see RON (which stands for re-open nominations).

Students can choose to select RON as one of their preferences if they believe that candidates are not suitable for the position. If RON was to win as a candidate in an election, the position would need to go back out for another election or someone would need to be co-opted into the role.

Voting will take place between 6-8 February across a 48 hour period.
 

How can I get involved?

There is still time to put yourself forward for a role!

Nominations will open on 5 January at 12pm (GMT) and close on Monday 22 January at 12pm (GMT). You will need to submit a manifesto and photo as part of your nomination. If you would like support with this, come along to one of our workshops:

Before nominations open, why not join our interested lists! You will receive useful and important information about the election, as well as a reminder when nominations have opened!

If you have any questions, you can email: elections.su@coventry.ac.uk