full-time officers

All Full-Time Officers shall:

• Take a coordinating lead on issues relevant to their roles whilst being careful to involve other sabbatical officers and members of the Student Officer Committee;
• Contribute positively to joint Union events, projects, and meetings;
• Be accountable to the Union Council, reporting to each meeting on their activity and achievements;
• Maximise contact with students by engaging with them face to face and online;
• Monitoring key issues and problems affecting the student population and ensuring the Union is acting on these;
• Plan, promote, and run campaigns on key student issues;
• Represent students on University Boards, Committees and working groups;
• Promote group and team objectives and the campaign priorities to students, and reporting on progress;
• Adhere to and comply with the Articles of Association, Bye-Laws, and policies of the Students’ Union;
• Be Trustees of the Union (where eligible in charity law) having legal responsibility for the Union;
• Be Directors of the Union’s subsidiary companies (were eligible in company law) having legal responsibility for the Union’s commercial services;
• Be employees of the Union for the duration of their term in office, their terms and conditions of employment set by the Trustee Board;
• One Full-Time Officer shall be appointed by the Management Committee, to the position of lead delegate for NUS National Conference.

If you would like any more information on these roles, come along to an information session. you will find the dates and times for these on the key dates section of the website. Alternatively, you can contact the SU. If elected you are required to attend the following training days as part of your role so ensure you are able to commit to the below before submitting your nomination.

Who can be a Full-time Officer?

Any current UEA student can nominate themself.

Students who have Tier 4 immigration permission (leave) can undertake a full-time sabbatical officer post. You can read this article for more information on the specifics of this.

As Full-time Officers are trustees of the Students' Union there are certain categories of people who may not legally be a trustee or company director. So that the Union can be satisfied that you will be able to carry out the role if elected, you need to complete a charity trustee declaration and return it to the Returning Officer before the nomination can be confirmed.

What support do Full-time Officers get?

You can expect support and advice from the other officers and Union staff. Full-time Officers are allocated staff members to support them during their time in office and work closely with other staff members and officers on relevant projects.

Full-time Officers receive an extensive induction training programme and take part in a leadership course accredited by the Institute of Leadership and Management.

You may also wish to be involved in specialist training or make use of online material that may be available through national organisations such as the NUS or the Charity Commission.

KEY DATES FOR FULL-TIME OFFICERS (These are mandatory so take into consideration)

• Mandatory Training: April date TBC
• Handover period: June date TBC
• Offical role begins: July date TBC
• Residential: July date TBC
• Coventry Conference:  July date TBC
• NUS Lead and Change:  July date TBC
• Southern SU conference:  AUG date TBC
• SOC Refresher: Sept date TBC

See below for a breakdown of the individual roles.

Undergraduate Education Officer

The Undergraduate Education Officer shall be elected by and from undergraduates and shall take a lead on:

• Securing positive change for undergraduate UEA students in their education and research;
• Being the voice of UEA students on undergraduate education and access to the University;
• Working with members of University staff, through formal meetings and informal discussions, to achieve improvements in undergraduate education;
• Having joint responsibility for building support for changes in  University and Government education policy and practice by coordinating the collation of evidence of student opinions and commissioning new research;
• Having responsibility for developing, supporting and training undergraduate student representatives from across the University;
• Being politically accountable for the Union’s academic advice services;
• Being the Union’s main link to NUS’ Higher Education Zone; and
• Being the primary Full-Time Officer member of the Education Sub-Committee.

Postgraduate Education Officer

The Postgraduate Education Officer shall be elected by and from postgraduates and shall take a lead on:

• Securing positive change for postgraduate UEA students in their education and research;
• Being the voice of UEA students on postgraduate education and research to the University;
• Working with members of University staff, through formal meetings and informal discussions, to achieve improvements in postgraduate education and research;
• Having joint responsibility for building support for changes in University and Government education policy and practice by coordinating the collation of evidence of student opinions and commissioning new research;
• Having responsibility for developing, supporting and training postgraduate student representatives from across the University;
• Being politically accountable for support for the Graduate Students Association;
• Being the Union’s main link to NUS’ Postgraduate Section; and
• Being a member of the Education Sub-Committee.

Welfare, Community and Diversity Officer

The Welfare, Community and Diversity Officer shall be considered a “Major Union Office” holder under the Education Act 1994 and will take a lead on:

• Extending, promoting and defending the rights of students on issues relating to access to education, equality of opportunity and student welfare through lobbying and campaigning activity;
• Strengthening and developing relationships between students and their local community;
• Being the voice of UEA students on issues relating to student welfare, equality of opportunity liberation, diversity and access to education;
• Engagement with the University and other relevant organisations to achieve improvements on matters relating to, equality of opportunity student welfare and access to education;
• Developing of support for changes in policy and practice by presenting evidence of student opinion and commissioning new research;
• Being politically accountable for the Union’s welfare advice and housing services;
• Being the main link to the NUS' Union Welfare Zone; and
• Being the primary Full-Time Officer member of the Welfare, Equality and Diversity Sub-Committee.

Activities and Opportunities Officer

The Activities and Opportunities Officer shall be considered a “Major Union Office” holder under the Education Act 1994 and will take a lead on:

• Securing opportunities for students to participate in extra and co-curricular activities whilst at UEA;
• Improving the student experience by developing successful clubs, societies and student media groups;
• Recommending the allocation of the resources available, on a fair and equitable basis, between the Union’s clubs, societies and student media groups;
• Developing, supporting and training students who sit on the committees of the Union’s clubs, societies and student media groups;
• Ensuring strategies are in place to enable students to recognise their development in these activities and make use of them in future employment;
• Being the voice of UEA students on employability and student sport;
• Act as Publisher of Concrete, the student newspaper;
• Being politically accountable for the Union’s student opportunities services;
• Being the Union’s main link to NUS’ Union Development Zone; and
• Being the primary Full-Time Officer member of the Societies and Sports Executives.

Campaigns and Democracy Officer

The Campaigns and Democracy Officer shall be considered a “Major Union Office” holder under the Education Act 1994 and will take a lead on:

• Improvement of the democratic legitimacy and relevance of the Union through vibrant and accessible democratic processes and informal feedback mechanisms that make the Union truly student-led;
• Co-ordination of the process of democratic allocation of the Union’s resources;
• Ensuring that the Union is well-developed and well-resourced in order to enable it to make students’ lives better;
• Improving student engagement in the Union’s campaigning activity by developing campaigning networks of students in the Union’s clubs, societies and peer support groups;
• Development of and support for the Union’s Priority Campaigns;
• Ensuring that the Union’s commercial and non-commercial services plan for the changing needs of the Union’s members;
• External Union communications including those with external and student-run media;
• Development of, support for and training of Union Councillors;
• Being politically accountable for the Union’s communications and social enterprise teams;
• Being the Union’s main link to NUS’ National Executive Council; and
• Being the primary Full-Time Officer member of the Ethical and Environmental Sub-Committee.

Full-Time Officers shall begin their term in office on July 1st and shall have a transitional period of employment lasting no more than 10 working days prior to July 1st for the purpose of training only.