STUDENT ASSOCIATION

What is a Student Association?

A Student Association is an organisation or function, operated by students in a college or university, whose membership normally consists only of students. The Student Association is there to:

• Provide Support, Advice and Representation to all Students
• Support students through their College/University experience.
• Promote Health, Safety and Welfare issues
• Organise and support events and campaigns
• Communicate issues of relevance to Students
• Represent Student  views and opinions on Committees and at Board level
• Listen to Student needs and act on their behalf to resolve problems, share ideas and/or provide support.

Meet your Student Association Team here

Student Association Elections

Student Association Elections

Elections for roles take place at various points within the academic year. 

The Student President and Vice President elections take place in April/May every two years.  We hold the elections at this time of year as Students usually have an idea about where they would like to go next and if taking two years out of study or full time employment is right for them.  These are two year posts, hence why elections are held every second year, with the exception of early withdrawal.  

These positions are both full time sabbatical posts and are only available to Students that are studying at West Lothian College the academic year prior to the elected position.  The term sabbatical means 'taking a break' from study.

The President and Vice President roles are both full time positions.  West Lothian College supports these positions by ensuring Students who are elected into these posts are remunerated (this means a payment is made to them on a monthly basis to cover their cost of living).   Whilst these members are not staff, payments are made to ensure that their cost of living is provided whilst in post.

Student Association Positions available 

1 Full time Sabbatical President £18,500 per year pro rata

1 Full time Sabbatical Vice President £17,500 per year pro rata

Roles description and the nomination form are attached below.  If you are interested in any of these positions please complete the nomination form below and return completed nomination form by email to mcochrane@west-lothian.ac.uk  

The process:  If any Student is interested please contact Micole Cochrane, Student Association Development Officer on mcochrane@west-lothian.ac.uk, telephone 01506 427 602 or pop into the Student Association Room for a chat about the role and what is involved. 

Student Association elections are conducted on Moodle.  Interested Students are asked to write a 100 word statement about why they wish to run for the positions and what they aim to achieve during their time in office if they are successfully elected. 

These statements are what Students read and vote on. 

All current West Lothian College students are eligible to vote in the Student Association elections.  If any Student does not have a Moodle log on, please contact any library member of staff and they can assist or email jtaylor@west-lothian.ac.uk

Executive Officers

The Student Association Executive team is made up of the Student President, Vice President and three elected volunteer students.  This team are the decision makers of the Student Association.  These members are all elected by the Students to best represent their needs.  This team listen to the needs of the Students by regularly speaking to Students, collecting feedback and ensuring Students have the best College experience. 

Executive Officer Positions are 3 volunteer roles which are available for all current students studying in that academic year. 

The Student Association elect Executive Officers in September of every academic year.  Successful Executive Officers are elected from September-June (in the same academic year)

These are great opportunities for Students.  You will learn many skills, meet lots of people and make a real difference. 

Roles description and the nomination form are attached below.  If you are interested in any of these positions please complete the nomination form below and return completed nomination form by email to mcochrane@west-lothian.ac.uk  

The process:  If any Student is interested please contact Micole Cochrane, Student Association Development Officer on mcochrane@west-lothian.ac.uk, telephone 01506 427 602 or pop into the Student Association Room for a chat about the role and what is involved. 

Student Association elections are conducted on Moodle.  Interested Students are asked to write a 100 word statement about why they wish to run for the positions and what they aim to achieve during their time in office if they are successfully elected. 

These statements are what Students read and vote on. 

All current West Lothian College students are eligible to vote in the Student Association elections.  If any Student does not have a Moodle log on, please contact any library member of staff and they can assist or email jtaylor@west-lothian.ac.uk

We have many Volunteer Roles for you to get involved with.  Each role makes a real difference to the Student experience whilst at College.  These roles assist the Student Association with their priorities in order to support Students.  If you are interested in any of these roles please contact the Student Association and they can help and support you with the application processes.  You can contact a member of our Student Association directly by popping into the Student Association Office at the rear of the library, contacting us on social media through facebook or twitter, call our office on 01506 427701 or email us: StudentAssociation@west-lothian.ac.uk 

Jobs and Volunteering  – As a Jobs and Volunteering Volunteer you will be involved in actively promoting relevant volunteering opportunities to all Students. You will network with voluntary organisations within the community and assist in setting up volunteer fairs as well as developing other opportunities and projects both within and out with the college. You will help to develop systems for monitoring the colleges volunteering activity and look to record monies raised through fundraising and charitable events. The aim of this role is improve the student experience in relation to relevant work experience and routes to employment and ultimately promote the college’s contribution to the West Lothian Community.

Events Volunteers – As an Event Volunteer you will be required to plan and implement events within the college for all learners.  You will also be required to work closely with other officers in order to market events which may include the distribution of materials such as flyers to students and staff; create and organise fundraising initiatives and events to promote awareness and an understanding of varied subjects, as well as working with external organisations and agencies to set up and maintain successful events. You will be required to work with the Student Association to pioneer a calendar of events and ensure each event is innovative and will engage students. You will assist with evaluating possible costs in order to report these to the SA President before a decision is made to ensure they are necessary and cost effective.  You will also assist in helping set up teams and social groups within the college.

Environmental and Sustainability Volunteers - As an Environmental Volunteer you will maintain a close relationship with staff to develop systems to ensure environmental issues are being addressed.  You will promote environmental issues and ways to reduce our carbon footprint, working closely with our events and communication volunteers.  

Communications Volunteers– As a Communications volunteer you will be required to improve communications between the student association staff and the student body. This will include working alongside the Student Association President, Vice President and Marketing team where appropriate in order to maintain the Student Association Facebook page and twitter account, creating and maintaining a positive image of the student association through various forms of media.  You will be responsible with the assistance from the SA team for communicating information for the students throughout the college. Creating, distributing and analysing surveys and questionnaires on various subjects affect college students and relaying the information back to the Student Association. Communications will also be responsible for constructing a newsletter and keeping a student blog up to date. 

Feedback Volunteers - As a Feedback Volunteer you will be required to provide feedback on a range of matters relating to student feedback.  This may include feedback on student campaigns and initiatives, feedback on regional outcomes, feedback for surveys or any other feedback that may be required to improve the student experience. 

What is a Student Association Ambassador?

The role of Ambassador is a really important role within the Student Association.  It is essential for the Student Association to find out how Students feel about their overall College experience.  However, as there are between 6000-8000 Students it is almost impossible for the Student President and Vice President to speak to every Student.  This is why we have Ambassadors.  Ambassadors are a team of 20-30 Students who can help us to speak to you, our Students. 

Ambassadors will visit full time classes, schools classes and even evening classes, to speak to students about their experiences.  They will use a document to help support them with this and so they know what questions to ask and how to record your answers.  This process is called SPARKLE.  The reason why we called it SPARKLE was be want to make our College Sparkle, and essentially ensure you have the best possible experience.  Being an Ambassador is an excellent opportunity to learn new skills, meet new people, add to your CV or UCAS applications and really make a positive impact on College life.  Click here for a full description

Sparkle is the Student Association evaluation tool providing quantitative and qualitative data.

This tool supports Students in being able to provide feedback about their College experience.

We carry our SPARKLE in November/ December and March/April each year

The Student Association is responsible for collating the data and issuing the information to all curriculum and service centres for continuous improvement purposes.

We then work in partnership in order to form a continuous improvement action plan.

We all want to ensure that Student feedback is at the forefront of decisions.

All minutes of Student Association Meetings can be found in this section.  If there is anything in the minutes that you are unsure of or would like to find out more please do not hesitate to contact the Student Association on:

StudentAssociation@west-lothian.ac.uk

Please see our Calendar of Events for a programme of exciting things to come:

A lits of Sporting events are below too!

LGBT Group starting Feb 2016.  If interested please pop into the Student Association or email StudentAssociation@west-lothian.ac.uk

Click Here For More Information In Our Work Opportunities Section

The Student Association Constitution is a legal document which is agreed between the College Board of Governors, the Student Association and follows legislation set out from the Scottish Education Act 1994. 

These are the rules and regulations which the Student Association have to follow.

Please feel free to contact the Student Association at anytime for further clarification on what this means and how the Student Association do this.

Strategic Plan

A Strategic Plan is a plan in which details the vision, aim and values of a company or organisation (our Student Association in this case) and their objectives on how to achieve these goals.

It is a necessity for an organisation to have a Strategic Plan as it allows everyone to understand which direction they want the organisation to go in and what objectives they want to achieve.  It also provides evidence to employees/students/stakeholders of the vision, value and aim of the organisation.​

There is so much support available for Students whilst you are at College.

Recharge

Recharge is a tool to support student health and wellbeing.  Recharge is a self-referral scheme open to all students and can be downloaded below.   The purpose of this tool is to encourage Students to take ownership of their own health and wellbeing and provide ways and tools in how they can improve this. 

Any student who feels that this tool will be of help to improve their Students can self-refer by downloading the document below and completing the online form.

By doing this you will receive information on how to access free personal care products; gym membership, hair and massage/beauty treatment and guidance and self-support resource toolkit.   The scheme looks at a“holistic approach” with the aim of supporting students and providing support to encourage positive health and wellbeing.

We continuously want to improve the service we provide for Students, so it is essential that we evaluate the impact of your experience.   Once you have downloaded the pack, you will be asked to complete an evaluation form on a monthly basis, over a period of 4 months, in order for us to measure the success of this referral system and to see if you feel any improvement to your own mental health and wellbeing.  You will not have to provide any data in this evaluation which will identify you personally.  This data will be used for reporting purposes and to evaluate the impact, so we can offer this in the future.