Being a Rep is a great stepping stone to becoming a Full-Time Officer and Fran explains why:

"Being a Course Rep over my 3 year degree was by far one of the best decisions I made at uni. I developed so many skills in both a personal and professional perspective, from speaking to fellow students to presenting student issues to university staff at pretty big meetings and even speaking at national events such as the National Rep Conference & Quality Matters (NUS). Having the support and training from the Rep Coordinators in the Students’ Union also really helped me build my confidence in public speaking, learning techniques to combat nerves and build on my voice projection. It also gave me the inspiration to set up the Rep Society on the Cambridge campus which then also helped me develop team leadership skills and event management through the founding of the Rep Conference.

The Course Rep role set me up so well for running in the election to become President of the Students’ Union as it meant I already had a good grasp of what students at Anglia Ruskin want and need. The public speaking transferred so well into the officer roles where we have to deliver inductions to 100’s of new students during freshers – talking to 300 new faces can be daunting if you haven’t experienced it before.

When you are a Course Rep, university staff really do take you seriously as you are representing all the students on your course. When you become an Officer, you are representing nearly 20,000 students so you can have a bit more ‘clout’ when it comes to getting the student issues across. I'd definately encourage any Course Rep who is thinking about running in this year's elections to find out more here."

Fran Rust

Students' Union President 2012-14

Don't forget there are 5 full time officer roles avaliable: President, Academic Officer, Communications Officer, Experience Officer (Cambridgeshire) and Experience Officer (Essex). Being a Rep is a great footing for all of these so, why not find out more?