Following a thorough consultation process with a number of societies and students - including current Elected Officers and former elections candidates - we've made the decision to change our Elected Officer model for the 2026-27 academic year. This is an exciting change for Herts SU and our students!

• New Elected Officer Team to Consist of Two Full-Time Roles

• In a big move a few years ago, we reduced the number of full-time Officers we had so we could offer more part-time positions and represent even more students. This left us with just the one full-time role of President. Being the only full-time member of the Elected Officer team, we've found that the President has ended up with too much on their plate and simply not enough time in the day to do it all, let alone speak to you on a regular basis. Upon reflection, we feel this is an unfair ask and not the most impactful model. As such, we proposed a change that was approved by our Board of Trustees and has since been presented at Student Council. As of next year, our Elected Officer team will be formed of a President Community and a President Education. As you can see, they both have a specific remit that will enable them to have a greater impact on the student experience. Your academic success is one of our top priorities and we want every student to feel connected to the Herts community, so we feel these new roles address these areas best.
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• Part-Time Roles Remodelled

• We wouldn't want to take part-time opportunities away from students, nor the great representation work our part-time Officers have been delivering over the last few years. But following a review, we feel these would be more effective as part of our SCO team. We already have School Community Organisers doing amazing work in their Schools of Study. We'll be introducing Student Community Organisers to do similar work for under-represented groups of students. They will be appointed, trained and supported in the same way our School Community Organisers are. Recruitment for all our SCOs will open up in March.

Thank you to the students that supported us during the consultation phase of this big change. We're confident this new model will have every success.