Thursday 30-01-2025 - 12:11

With spring fast approaching, we know you’re busy preparing for your upcoming elections. The election support service can help you, so here’s a recap of the different types of support included.

Firstly, register your election with us via this form. We ask that SUs do this per election, so we know this year's key election dates & have access to your rules.

Planning
The annual election report is published each summer and summarises key findings and nationwide trends from over 70 SUs - including benchmarking data and case studies across different elections topics. Also included are recommendations from the Returning Officer (RO) that specifically address issues we’ve seen crop up each year.

If you missed them or just wanted to watch them again, we’ve got a series of development webinars aimed at first time or returning elections staff, as well a specific webinar for small SUs. One webinar by Bates Wells focused on eligibility, historic conduct and VISA considerations for international student candidates. All webinars are available to watch back.

We also support the DRO Community of Practice, who meet to collaborate and share  practice and support each other with elections, details via the Workplace group, or the WhatsApp group ran by the CoP leads.

We continue to encourage SUs to gather demographic data on their candidates. However, if your SU doesn’t do this yet, we offer a free survey you can share.

During elections
During elections we’re here and can support you if things are getting spicy! We advise on queries & share guidance on dealing with complaints – or just give you a space to work through an issue if you don’t have that on the ground. Email us at elections@nus.org.uk as we monitor this closely during elections periods and triage queries by urgency. The RO can also rule on appeals via this form if you’re signed up.

We’ll also be hosting a drop-in triage every weekday 4:00-4:30pm from Monday 24th February to Friday 14th March if you want to chat over Teams.

Once your elections are over, feel free to request your bespoke RO report, that confirms your elections were conducted in a free and fair manner – perfect for board reports and sending across to your institution.

Any questions, we’re here to help via elections@nus.org.uk.