This section provides you with practical information and tips before, during and after meetings in your role as student representative.
During meetings, all members meet to discuss the items on the agenda. This means that you will be attending meetings together with university staff such as teaching staff and professors.
Below you will find tips on how to prepare for these meetings, what to think about during a meeting and what to remember after meetings.
Prepare for your meeting
1. read through the material provided to you by us at SöderS and by the university
Before the meeting, you should receive an invitation and agenda with the items to be discussed. Before the meeting, you also need to read the attached meeting documents. Examples of meeting documents can be reading lists or syllabi.
2. Discuss with your fellow students what to lift
Different courses at Södertörn University can differ significantly in terms of the number of students and have different teaching arrangements depending on the course content. Because of this, you must decide for yourselves which forum is best suited to gathering views before meetings.
In the Gathering student voice section, we have gathered some concrete tips on how you can do this.
3. Do you want to raise a specific issue? Contact the Chair!
If you have a specific point to raise during the meeting, you can add an item to the agenda in advance of the meeting by contacting the Chair or the relevant contact person.
4. Does the meeting time clash with teaching? Remember to check with the course coordinator!
The university should make it easier for students to attend meetings by, for example, allowing students to change seminar groups if necessary or to make up missed sessions. The way in which missed classes are compensated for can vary from course to course and program to program, but often it is done through a compensation assignment and in some cases you do not need to compensate for what you have missed at all.
Remember that you always need to check with the examiner if a meeting clashes with an examining part. It is always the examiner who decides how these parts can be compensated.
5. Notify the chairperson if you cannot attend a meeting and contact any alternate
If you cannot attend a meeting, you need to inform the chair of the meeting and check if there is an alternate who can replace you. All student representatives including alternates can be found on the SöderS website.
Things to consider during a meeting
Your vote counts as much as any other member's
During the meeting, members meet to discuss the items on the agenda. This means that you will be attending meetings together with university staff, such as teaching staff and professors. At first, being a student representative in such a forum can be a bit challenging, so it is important to remember that your voice carries as much weight as everyone else's.
Remember the student perspective!
See Gathering the student voice for tips on what you as a student representative can raise during a meeting.
If you disagree with a decision, you can enter a reservation against it
Remember. If you feel that you have been deprived of information that others seem to have or feel that the information is insufficient - ask for the case to be postponed or submit a reservation against the decision. Decisions based on insufficient information do not make you feel good.
Remember!
Things to consider after a meeting:
- Contact the student and doctoral representatives if you are unsure how to proceed with something raised during the meeting
- Write down your meeting times
- Feedback and discuss with your fellow students after the meeting if there is information they should know.
- Do you have something to discuss? Join other student representatives in Google Chat and come to the Impact Forum!
Here's how the meeting works
Before the meeting, you will receive an invitation with an agenda. The notice states where and when the meeting will take place and who is expected to attend. The agenda is a list of the issues and questions that the meeting will address.
This is what a typical agenda for a meeting at the university might look like:
- Opening of the meeting
- Appointment of adjusters
- Approval of the agenda
- Previous minutes
- More information
- Students' point
- Teachers' point
- Doctoral students' point
- Other issues
- The meeting ends
Decisions outside the meeting
A chairperson's decision, or decision by an individual, is a decision taken between meetings. It usually involves contact via email, but can also take place over the phone or during a presentation. A chairperson's decision can, for example, be about deciding on a new examiner or deciding on new course dates. Here you need to consider the information and respond.
An answer can be as simple as "it looks good" or "I have no specific comments" or to ask follow-up questions if you think something is unclear in the decision.