Nominations stage

Yes, as long as you are a current Queen Mary student. The majority of positions are open to students that are studying in the 2024/25 academic year.

The positions available cover a wide range of areas. A few examples are: Postgraduate Taught Rep, Degree Apprenticeship Rep and more than 100 Course Reps. 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! All the roles are part-time voluntary roles that can be undertaken alongside your studies.

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 Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, and you can only run for Barts Cancer Institue Rep if you’re a Barts Cancer Institute student. This is all explained in the list.

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 are offered training on campaigning, and at the end of the elections period, you’ll have had an opportunity to develop your communications skills, organisational skills, time management and persuasion skills.

If you’re thinking about running in the elections, we suggest that you make 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 a nominations form and any other required materials.

Course Rep positions (including PGR Subject Reps):

• Complete the online nominations 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 nominations 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.
• If you want to, you can add a photo and a manifesto. This is optional, and you can upload them directly to the website as part of the nominations form. If you experience any technical problems, please contact su-elections@qmul.ac.uk.

All other positions (Student Trustees and Part-Time Officer positions):

• Complete the online nominations 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 nominations 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 make sure to submit the photo in high resolution. Photos saved from Facebook are usually not in high resolution, so if at all possible, please don’t submit photos saved from Facebook.
• It’s also a requirement to submit a short statement (also known as a slogan) 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. We use MS Word to count the number of words, and if your statement exceeds 50 words (even if it’s 51), we’ll cut your statement after 50 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 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.

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. 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. For further information about this option, please contact su-elections@qmul.ac.uk.

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. 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 our guide to 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!)