Would you like to be a student representative for a day? OUSA (Open University Students Association) in Scotland is currently seeking volunteer students to attend a meeting with the Open University to represent student views.
The meeting, known as Scottish Committee, is an annual event which will be taking place on Saturday 17th March in Edinburgh. As well as students, there will also be senior support and academic staff of the University and representatives of Associate Lecturers. Student representatives attend the meeting to give a student perspective on the items under discussion and are encouraged to take a full part in the meeting.
OUSA is entitled to send one student to represent each OU catchment area (there are 36 geographic catchment areas within Scotland). Would you like to be one of these 36 students? You would need to be available for an all day (approximately 10am to 4pm) meeting in Edinburgh for which reasonable travel / accommodation expenses are paid. You also need to "belong" to the catchment area you are representing. This does not mean that you must be resident within the actual town, just allocated to it by the O U.
As well as attending the meeting you will need to allow a couple of hours about a week in advance of the meeting to read the meeting papers. You are also encouraged to discuss the papers in an online environment with your fellow student representatives prior to the meeting.
As yet we do not know what will be on the agenda. However we do expect the O U in Scotland's Strategic Plan to be a major item. Other topics that have been discussed in the past include postgraduate provision, science degrees and virtual tutorials. The meeting is usually in two distinct parts: one part being the business meeting and the other part being focused on small group workshop sessions.
If you would like to be the student rep for your catchment area please contact OUSA in Scotland by the 31st January on executive@ousa-in-scotland.org.uk quoting your PI number and catchment area* (essential), and include a couple of sentences as to why you would like the opportunity to attend this meeting. In the event of there being more than one applicant for any catchment area the O U S A in Scotland Executive will make a decision based on this statement.
This is a one-off meeting and no further commitment will be required.
We look forward to hearing from you.
* if you are unsure of your catchment area, this information is available from the profile section of your Student Home page or contact the O U office in Edinburgh.
