Getting your voice heard

This section is about how you can get involved in making sure the student voice is heard in decision-making processes and in maintaining quality and standards at Goldsmiths.

Student Voice Programme

The Student Voice programme is your chance to tell Goldsmiths what it's like to study here. At different points in the year, we’ll ask you to tell us about your decision to study here, your experiences of your programme, the Goldsmiths services that support your study, and living locally.

Why does Goldsmiths want me to complete surveys?
In the coming months, students and staff alike face stark challenges and difficult decisions.  To make sure we all rise to these challenges and make good choices, we need to hear students’ feedback. We want to make sure we're providing the services you want and need.  Listening to you is the best way to make things better for everyone, now and in the future.

Although this programme is new, Goldsmiths has long valued the student voice. For example, recent survey feedback showed us that longer library opening hours  and a new approach to academic feedback were important to students. We made those changes. We need your help to make more.

For each survey, you will be contacted directly at the right time of year. You can then go along to the new Student Voice centre, next to Loafers in the Richard Hoggart Building to complete the survey or complete it online.  For further information on each survey, please click the links on the right of this page.  If you have any questions, or would like to make a comment, please contact j.macgregor@gold.ac.uk.  To discuss an issue face-to-face, you can attend one of the Pro-Warden's Open Door sessions.

Goldsmiths committees

There are student representatives on a number of College committees, including Council, which is Goldsmiths’ governing body, and Academic Board, which is the main body dealing with academic matters.

The student representatives on Council are the Students’ Union President (full-time Sabbatical Officer) and the Chair of the Students’ Union Student Assembly (part-time Officer), who are elected by the student body through annual elections. Any Goldsmiths student (except visiting students) can stand in the Union elections; the call for nominations will be advertised in the autumn term. Further details and nomination forms are available from the Students’ Union (020 8692 1406), and on the website at http://www.goldsmithssu.org.

The four student representatives on Academic Board are from the elected Officers of the Students’ Union and the Student Assembly. They represent the educational and learning needs of students (postgraduate, mature, part-time, international and so on). In most other cases, students are represented on College committees by the Students’ Union Sabbatical Officers and part-time officers.

Departmental Boards

The most important committees in academic departments are Departmental Boards. There is one for each department and they advise Academic Board on academic matters. Departmental Boards have undergraduate and postgraduate student representatives (elected student representatives or Departmental Student Coordinators). Some Departmental Boards have a representative for each major programme in the department. Student representatives are elected by the students in the department and Departmental Student Coordinators are appointed.
 
If you are interested in becoming involved with committees at a departmental level, please contact your departmental office.

Programme monitoring and course feedback

You can give feedback about your programme of study either by attending your department’s staff/student forum, by representing other students on your programme as a student programme representative or by becoming a Departmental Student Coordinator (DSC) and representing all undergraduate or all postgraduate students in your department. 

Departments vary in how they organise their programme monitoring arrangements. All have staff/student forums, and most will have one for undergraduate students and one for taught postgraduate students. Forums are held twice a year and give staff and students an opportunity to discuss programmes of study and consider any problems or opportunities for improvement. In between forums DSCs will raise any issues of concern directly with the department. 

In addition to DSCs some departments have student representatives for individual programmes, who attend the staff/student forum together with DSCs, while others invite all students to attend the forum.

Even if you are not a student representative or a DSC you can take an active part in helping Goldsmiths to monitor and enhance quality and standards by keeping in touch with your DSC and by completing the regular anonymous feedback forms on each of your courses.

Students’ Union committees

The Students’ Union is led by students, so you have the ability to make substantial changes to the running of the Union through a number of channels. The two main committees in the Students’ Union are the Trustee Board, which oversees the activities of the Students’ Union and ensures that the Union meets its organisational objectives; and the Student Assembly. You can find out more about Students' Union committees on their website: http://www.goldsmithssu.org.