Friday 21-04-2023 - 10:44

NUS Charity, working with Guild HE recently comissioned some in-depth research in collaboration with six small SUs, looking at all aspects of the governance and structure of those organisations. The resulting report gave a really interesting insight into the opportunities and challenges for small SUs across FE and HE, as anecdotally there are many similarities across colleges and universities. 

As promised as part of the project, a suite of guidance documents has been created to support small HE SUs with their governance. Many of these can be adapted if your small SU is not yet a charity and has an advisory board rather than a trustee board, for example.

You can find the following documents on NUS Connect:

Board templates and guidance 

• Board Agenda template with explanatory notes
• Template front sheet for board papers
• Cycle of Business for Trustee Boards
• Trustee Board Role Descriptions
• Skills Audit for Board Members
• Trustee Recruitment guidance
• Board Action Log template
• Delcaration of Interest for Board Members guidance & template
• Trustee Code of Conduct template
• Terms of Reference guidance for sub committees 
• Delegation of Authority template
• Risk Register template and Risk Register guidance

Performance Management of staff 

• Guidance on Performance Management
  • SMART objectives template
  • One-to-One Meeting template
  • Staff Appraisal/Review template 

Annual Review/MOU

• Annual Review of Students’ Union Governance and Institutional Relationship Guidance

If you have any questions about any of the templates or guidance, or would like some more specific support with the governance and structures of your small SU (HE or not), please get in touch with uniondevelopment@nus.org.uk and we'll be happy to help.