Nominations stage

Yes, as long as you are a current Queen Mary student. The majority of positions are open to students that expect to continue their studies in 2024/25, but we also have a small number of positions available for students that expect to graduate in 2023/24.

The positions available cover a wide range of areas. A few examples are: School of History Rep, VP Welfare, Societies Officer, President, Student Trustee and Entertainments Officer (BL). Whether you’re interested in liberation, activities or the academic side of things if you’ve thought of it there’s probably a role for it! Most of the roles are part-time voluntary (unpaid) roles that can be undertaken alongside your studies, but we also have six full-time (paid) positions available.

Have a look at the full list of roles to find a role that matches your interests. Some roles are only open to certain groups of students: for example, you can only run for Disabled and SLD Rep (BL) if you’re a have a disability or SLD and you’re studying within the School of Medicine and Dentistry, and you can only run for School of Geography Rep if you’re a Geography student. This is all explained in the list.

See the positions available

No, the most important thing is that you are passionate about being the voice for the students you represent.

We don’t require any prior experience, but we can guarantee that the elections can give you lots of experience and help you learn new skills (even if you don’t win). All candidates get access to resources and guidance on campaigning, and at the end of the elections period, you’ll have had the opportunity to develop your communications skills, organisational skills, time management and persuasion skills.

If you’ve never had a rep role before, you may be asking yourself if a rep role would be right for you. Ultimately, it’s only you that can answer this question, but the following questions can help you think it through.

Firstly, begin by checking the requirements for the role you are interested in. Many (but not all) of the roles are restricted to students that will continue to study in 2024/25, and most of the roles are restricted to a specific campus, academic area or demographic group. You can see the full requirements on the role description for each of the roles.

Secondly, it’s important to find a role you are passionate about. We have more than 50 roles available in the elections, so take some time to look at the different roles and find one you find really interesting. For example, Volunteering Officer could be a good match for you if you’re really passionate about developing the volunteering activities that are available to students. But if you’re more interested in the academic side of things, one of the School Rep roles might be a better fit for you.

Thirdly, it can be helpful to carefully read the role description and speak to the current rep to get a realistic picture of what the role would entail. You can book a drop-in session with the Executive Officers and the Elections Team, who can tell you more about the roles and answer any questions you have.

Finally, remember that the most important thing you can bring to the role is genuine interest and passion. If you’re really interested in a role, it’s likely that the role would be right for you!

If you’re thinking about running in the elections, we recommend that you begin by making a note of the key dates and deadlines. We want the elections to be fair for everyone, so we can’t make exceptions from the deadlines.

Have you already made the decision to run?

The next step for you is to submit your nominations form and the other required materials.

Let’s begin with a checklist:

• Nomination form (required)
• Candidate photo (required)
• 50-word statement (required)
• Trustee form (to be completed as part of the nominations form for Executive Officer and Student Trustees roles)
• Manifesto (optional)
• Plain-text manifesto (optional)
• Candidate video (optional)
• Social media links (optional)

As you can see from the checklist, there are some things you are required to do for your nomination to be valid, so it’s really important that you make a note of these and do them before the relevant deadlines. To make it simple for you to remember all the deadlines, we’ve created a downloadable timeline that has all the information you need.

To make sure you submit the required things the right way, please read the following carefully:

• Begin by completing the online nomination form. It’s available on qmsu.org/elections, and you’ll need your name, your student ID, your email address and your phone number. Once you’ve submitted your nomination form, you’ll get an email confirmation. If you do not receive an email notification shortly after submitting your nomination form, there may be a technical problem, so please contact su-elections@qmul.ac.uk to ensure your nomination has been registered.
• You must also submit a photo for your nomination to be valid. The photo should be of you (not your pet squirrel or a group of friends). Please provide a JPG or PNG file in good resolution (one taken with your phone camera is fine, but please don’t use a web cam!). Your image will ideally be landscape and just contain your head and shoulders, rather than your whole body. Please don’t submit an edited photograph or a photo saved from the internet as this will be too low quality. The photo can be uploaded as part of the nominations form on qmsu.org.
• It’s also a requirement to submit a short statement for your nomination to be valid. The statement can’t exceed 50 words. And no, you can’t just remove the spaces between all the words. The statement is your opportunity to tell students why they should vote for you. You may want to mention your key policies and ideas. You upload your statement as part of the nominations form at qmsu.org.
• If you are running to be an Executive Officer or a Student Trustee, you must complete a trustee form as part of your nomination form with some additional information about yourself.
• You can also decide to submit an optional manifesto. The manifesto is a longer document (max. 1 A4 page) outlining your policies and ideas in more detail. Your manifesto can also include information about your relevant experience, achievements, skills, values or other information that you find relevant for your campaign. If you choose to design a manifesto that uses colours, photos, graphics or other design features, you are also required to submit a plain-text version (a plain word document with a standard black font that contains the exact same information as your designed manifesto). Without a plain-text version, we are unable to accept your manifesto. For more information on how to write a good manifesto, please check the Campaigning page. You upload your manifesto and plain-text manifesto as part of the nominations form (where it says ‘Manifesto’) on qmsu.org.
• If you are planning to use social media profiles for your campaign, we recommend that you include these in your manifesto, so it’s easy for students to engage with your campaign. Simply include the links in the content of your manifesto (see manifesto requirements above). It’s up to you whether you want to use your existing profiles or create new ones for the purpose of the elections.
• Videos can be a great way to stand out from the crowd and get the attention of voters. If you plan to create a campaign video (or you are super-organised and have already created it), we recommend that you include a link in your manifesto. If your video isn’t ready yet, simply include a link to the platform you’ll host the video on (let’s say you’re planning to host your video on your Youtube profile, in that case you can include a link to your Youtube profile).

Have you still not made up your mind?

We know it can feel a bit daunting to nominate yourself, so we encourage you to reach out to the current Executive Officers and the Elections Team. You can book a drop-in session with the Executive Officers and the Elections Team on MS Bookings. The Elections Team are always happy to answer your questions and talk about the elections, so feel free to email us on su-elections@qmul.ac.uk if you have a question or want to know more about the elections.

If you’re worried about the workload, it’s possible to run on a so-called joint ticket. This means that you find someone to share the role with, and you run in the elections as one candidate. Please note that this is only an option for Part-Time Officer positions. For further information about this option, please contact su-elections@qmul.ac.uk.

Nominate yourself here

Joint ticket

You can run with someone else for a position and share the responsibilities of the role together. This is an option for all the positions available, apart from Executive Officer positions and Student Trustee positions. Please contact us on su-elections@qmul.ac.uk for further information.

Running as a slate

You can choose to run in the elections as part of a ‘slate’ – this involves a group of candidates campaigning together under a common campaign name, which also appears on the ballot. If you are running as a slate, you will need to agree on a name with the other candidates and include this when submitting the nomination form. A slate cannot have more than one candidate for each position. If you are part of a slate, you may share publicity and campaign for each other, however, in the interest of fairness, the candidate budget is reduced for each additional person who is part of the slate. For more information about budgeting see the campaigning page in the Candidates Hub.

We know some people need a little nudge, and that’s what Recommend a Friend is here for! Recommend a Friend allows you to encourage a friend to run in the elections. It’s completely anonymous, and it’s an excellent way to give someone a secret compliment.

(Recommend a Friend doesn’t nominate your friend automatically though – if you get recommended and you want to go for a role, you will still need to nominate yourself through the process outlined above!)

Click here