Student Parliament at Heriot-Watt
What is Parliament?
Student Parliament is the Student Union’s primary democratic decision-making group. Made up of democratically elected Members of Parliament, this group meets a minimum of three times per semester to discuss issues raised along with possible solutions. 
What does Parliament do?
The main purpose of Parliament is to hear issues that are raised and discuss possible solutions. This could be tasking an FTO to raise the matter in a committee they sit on, creating a Short Life Working Group to focus on a particular project or passing a policy proposal to take a particular stance. During Parliament meetings, the Full Time Officers are also held to account for the work they’ve focused on since the last Parliament.
How do I feed into Parliament?
There are several ways to feed into Student Parliament. This can be done through speaking to any of the Full Time Officers or Members of Parliament. You can also get involved in any of the groups that feed into Student Parliament, such as Student Life & Wellbeing, EDI or Galashiels. This can result in them raising the issue at Parliament for you, or you being invited to Parliament to speak on the matter yourself.
You can also feed into the monthly Parliament stories on HWUnion's Instagram.
What did parliament get up to last year?
Parliament deals with a range of student issues, from the everyday to the big picture. Here are the three key things that parliament accomplished last year:
- Parliament made a short-life Housing Working Group to tackle issues affecting student housing. From this group, the Housing Report was created which was used to lobby the University to improve on-campus living.
- Parliament discussed the Israel-Palestine conflict and decided to release a statement as well as work out how the Student Union can best support the affected students at Heriot-Watt.
- Parliament supported the development of campaigns that Full Time Officers ran on in the March Elections. Such as the VP Community's Sense-Based Approach to Drugs.
How do I get elected to Parliament?
The main way to get elected to Student Parliament is through the Student Union Elections held in March. During these you can put yourself forward for a number of different roles, from Full Time Officer, School MP or Student MP.
You can also get involved in the Student Life & Wellbeing Group or the EDI group and put yourself forward for one of the MPs with specific remits.
If you’re a student at Galashiels, you could also get involved in the Galashiels Group and run to be the Galashiels MP.
You can find out your members of parliament here