It is important that as a course rep you represent the interests of all students on your course.

Make sure that you are not only voicing your own opinion, but the true opinion of the range of students you may represent – mature students, part-time, distance learners or those with extra responsibilities.

Below is a list of suggestions of ways to ensure you gather as much feedback and information from your peers as possible

• Make yourself known to your peers! Students on your course won’t talk to you about their experiences if they don’t know who you are. Make a poster with your photo and put this up in classrooms, email everyone on your course, or do a shout-out at the beginning of lectures to announce who you are, what your role is and how you could help.
• Think about all the different ways available to you to communicate with your peers – not all students use Facebook for example. Being creative about the ways you communicate will help you to contact more students!
• Hold a discussion forum – getting students together to talk about their experiences is a great way to gather lots of opinion. Try doing this after a lecture or seminar, or maybe online.
• Feedback to your peers what the complaints or problems are that you have received, and what you have done or plan to do. Also, make sure you feedback any changes that have occurred thanks to their input. Making sure that your peers know that their contributions make an impact, the more willing they will be to engage with you.
• Conduct a small survey – create a short survey, up to five questions, that you can circulate via email or other channels to your peers. From this you should be able to see what issues are more important than others to give you a focus for your campaigns.