our new Structure

 

We’re going where no Student Union has ever gone before. We’re completely changing how we do what we do. We’re restructuring the Student Union in order to make it more open to the changes that you want to see.

Up until now, we have been structured like all other student unions across the UK:

A President at the top with 3 Vice Presidents and Officers responsible for all things Academic, Activities, and Equality & Diversity.

Now we have 4 Full-time Officers: President, VP Community, VP Wellbeing, and VP Education and no other officers. But don’t worry.

Our big change is how YOU create change. Why should you be limited to one role? No one fits neatly into one little box. WE ARE STUDENT LED! WE WANT YOU TO LEAD IN EVERYTHING WE DO!


Union groups

 

What if you’ve always been passionate about advocating for an underrepresented group? Maybe you want more events run throughout the year, maybe you want to do more to promote mental health & wellbeing, or maybe you want to help improve things academically. LET’S DO THAT TOO!

Introducing Union Groups:

These are groups that meet each month open to anyone that wants to make a change. Each group is focused around a different aspect of being a student at Heriot-Watt and is there to empower you. A Full-Time Officer sits on each Union Group, so if there’s something you want to do you have support directly from the people who lead the Union! You’ll also be surrounded by like-minded people who want to help create a positive change and will be willing to pitch in to help make things happen.

Here’s the best part – you aren’t limited to being involved in one group. You can attend any of the groups whenever you want to. You can be a part of all the groups and fix all of the problems or come along to one meeting, help with one thing and leave it at that. There’s no commitment.

So even though there isn’t one Officer to look after, for example, LGBTQ+ issues or Charities or Halls. We’re focusing on empowering you to fix the issues and be the change that you want to see. We’re not focusing on putting the issues into categories and assigning them by race/creed/gender/sexuality/area of study. Students that come along to the Student Wellbeing Group can plan campaigns to celebrate LGBTQ+ History Month and students that go to Student Life Group can plan parties and fundraisers! The most important part is that these groups can do as many different things at the one time that they want to do! There’s no need to wait for an Officer to organise something. Have an idea, come to a Union Group and do something about it!


Parliament

 

Say the change you want to make will mean huge sweeping reforms – you’ll need more support for that. So to tackle these issues we’re adding more support, not putting up barriers!

Parliament is made up of 21 Members:

Each Union Group nominates 1 member to be their voice with the exception of the Student Wellbeing Group which sends 2 members to Parliament as other aspects of life at Heriot-Watt are represented by at least 2 other MPs.

The remaining seat is reserved for 1 member of the Sports Union Executive team.

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