The Union helps students make positive changes to student life at Southampton. You can share your ideas and concerns through our Academic Reps, Student Officers, and our You Make Change platform. You can also ask us questions about what we're working on, and hold us to account for our projects, events, services and more.

The Union is led by five Full-Time Officers who work full-time and are elected by you each year. These are paid roles and are taken on by students who either take a break from their studies, or have just graduated.

In addition to our five Full-Time Officers, we’ve also got many Part-Time Officers who play a really important role in running the Union. Elected during the Spring term, they are responsible for representing a range of different areas, including our many student groups and our international and postgraduate communities – plus much more.

Academic Representatives are there for you. They are there to listen and to relay any concerns and issues to staff and represent you to the University. Reps often get involved in wider projects with both the Union and the University, including helping promote surveys like the NSS. Organised, trained and supported by the Students' Union, in partnership with the University, academic reps are the voice of every Undergraduate and Postgraduate Taught student.

We have a range of reps who represent you at every level, from Course Representatives to Academic Presidents to the five Faculty Officers.

Our main elections are held every spring, where you can run for a position and have the power to elect our Full-Time Officers. You’ll be able to nominate yourself or vote for our Part-Time Officers who work on a range of different areas including sport, well-being and housing. Together, we are responsible for representing your voice at University level and across our campuses.

We have a variety of other elections for specific groups of students throughout the year in Autumn and Summer. For example, you can become a Course Rep or vote for the one you want to represent your views on academic issues and for the Halls Committee that you want to make decisions about your Halls. This means that you have an impact on the issues that directly affect you.

Our You Make Change campaign gives you the opportunity to submit suggestions on how we can improve your time at University. You can also ask us questions about what we're up to, and hold us to account for things we do.

We’ve put into action many of the suggestions made by our members, including more vegetarian and vegan options in our food outlets, microwaves at WSA, a forum specifically designed to represent our Joint Honours students, and more.