You won’t be travelling the world, but we guarantee you’ll be leading your Students’ Union and getting paid to do it!
For 12 months, you’ll spend one amazing year being the director of our £2million charity, getting paid a salary of over £18,000 to do it. You can either take a year out of your studies (if you’re currently in your first or second year) or graduate and spend the year with us gaining valuable work experience, before beginning the career of your dreams.
This is no ordinary job but we can promise you a truly extraordinary year; running campaigns which are vital to ensuring a great student experience for over 23,000 students at Birmingham City University. One day you could be planning a campaign to increase the number of microwaves on campuses, the next you could be lobbying transport companies in the West Midlands to offer reduced travel costs for our students. This, coupled with helping to make a number of varied day to day decisions such as staff recruitment, Freshers events, or choosing venues for our Graduation Ball, means that no two days are ever the same!
The year will definitely be what you make it; you’ll get out exactly what you put in. Our core staff team are always on hand to help and support you, to ensure you lead us in the best way possible for our students. BCUSU is run by our students for our students and ultimately they will have a say in whether you spend an unforgettable year with us.
We have 5 positions available:
- President
- Vice President Equity & Inclusion
- Vice President Student Voice
- Vice President Academic Experience
- Vice President Opportunities & Community
You can read all of the job descriptions by clicking on the 'Roles' tab above.
As this is no ordinary job, there’s no ordinary application process! Once you’ve chosen which position you want to apply for, you will need to write a manifesto. A manifesto is where you set out those changes you would like to make at Birmingham City University if you were to be elected into one of the 5 student officer positions. This may sound a little scary, but you can take a look at our Strategic Plan (which sets out our priorities right up until 2020) to give you some inspiration. It’s also worth thinking about what could improve your student experience, as this will be the same for many of your fellow students. There’s a word limit as to how much you can write in your manifesto, so it’s worth keeping it concise and to the point.
Click on the Apply tab above to apply for one of our positions. Alternatively if these roles aren’t for you, but you know someone who would be perfect, you can nominate them to stand.
You can also apply to become an NUS Delegate!
The National Union of Students represents you nationally as a student at BCU. Each year they hold a National Conference to find out from students like you, what their priorities should be for the coming year and is an opportunity to discuss current issues across the country. They also elect their national student leaders which any student can put themselves forward for.
We want to make sure your opinions are heard. Which is why we have five student places available to attend this conference where you can discuss and vote on what is important to you, on behalf of the 23,000 students here at BCU. Last year, NUS National Conference voted to have a fairer representation of women at Conference, for this reason we have three reserved positions for women as part of our delegate entitlement.
You will be provided with travel arrangements, accommodation and a daily food budget which will be reimbursed after the event. To find out more have a look at this link http://conference.nusconnect.org.uk/ or email voice@bcu.ac.uk
Thinking about whether to stand?
Read our 5 reasons why you should!
If you are a student of Birmingham City University and you opted in to be a member of your Students’ Union (BCUSU) when you enrolled, then you ca
n vote. If you aren’t a current student or if you didn’t want to become a member of BCUSU, then you won’t be able to vote.
Voting is a serious business and you need to make sure you’re voting for the candidate who will help you to have the best student experience here at BCU! Read through all of the manifestos which the candidates have written, where they pledge what they will do if they are elected. Read more about the candidates in the 'Roles' tab.
Vote for all positions and click submit. You will be automatically entered into a draw to win one of 6 MacBook Air’s, so check your email as you may be the lucky winner! Click here to vote now.
In our Leadership Elections, you will notice that we use something called Single Transferable Voting (STV), which is different to how you may have voted in local and general elections in this country. STV is a system of preferential voting which is designed to minimise ‘wasted’ votes and provide proportional representation.