Your Voice: What does the Union Council Chair do?

Nominations are currently open for, amongst other roles, the Union Council Chair.  

But what is it and what does this role do? First things first, we’ll cover what the Union Council is, what it does and why it exists. 
 

The Union Council 

The Union Council is the highest student-led democratic decision-making body at the University of Plymouth. It is in place to make important decisions that affect the student body and ensure that the wide diversity of the student body is fairly represented in these discussions. 
 

The Union Council is made up of: 
 

• 13 Part-Time Officers 
• 4 elected Sabbatical Officers
• 15 School Representatives 
   

All the roles above are held by students or recent Graduates and the Part-Time Officer and School Rep roles are currently open for nominations from students, just like you. 
 

Union Council is also attended by the Chief Executive of UPSU and staff support members. The Chair of the Accountability Board also attends these meetings, to observe and ensure that they are taking place in a fair and democratic manner. 
 

You can find out more about what the Accountability Board is and the roles of the Chair and Members here; ‘What is the Accountability Board and what does it do?

What happens at the Union Council?

At the Union Council, members: 

• Give updates and feedback about the?things they are working on. 
• Discuss, organise, and support campaign, events and projects and ideas. 
• Debate policy proposals, and vote on whether to approve them to become the political policy of the union 

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The Union Council Chair 

The role of the Union Council Chair is a vitally important one. As the Chair your role is to ensure that these meetings are as effective as they can be and that all representatives are acting in the best interests of students. 

Your primary focus will be to uphold the democratic principles of UPSU and act in a fair and unbiased way to influence positive change to the student experience of your peers 

For a full description of this role, please click here

Commitment and duties 

The role of Union Council Chair is voluntary and we understand that your time is precious. In terms of time commitment, the Union Council meets on average once per month and the estimated time you’d be spending in this role would be 10 hours per month. 
 

These 10 hours will be spent: 
 

• Attending and facilitating Union Council meetings, including supporting the collation of agenda items and papers for the meeting and receiving apologies. 
• Working closely with the Chair of the Accountability Board to review and track actions given to representatives at Union Council  
• Attending relevant other meetings relating to the post and to represent and act in the best interests of students and to report pertinent information back to Union Council. 
• Providing an annual summary of activities and achievements to the Board of Trustees and at the Annual General Meeting. 
   

To find out more about this or any other representative role, please speak to our Student Voice team – studentvoice@su.plymouth.ac.uk 

Nominations for the Part-Time Elections are open until Tuesday 6th October at 12pm.