FAQs

Students can run for the following Sabbatical Officer (full-time, paid) roles:

• Presidents Education
• Presidents Community

As well as any committee member roles for any student groups you are a part of or eligible for.

You can nominate yourself through our nomination portal here. To submit a nomination, you will need to be logged in to the site with your student log-in (this is your university email and issued password).

If you have any issues submitting your nomination, please email elections@roehampton.ac.uk as soon as possible and before nominations close.

We recommend taking a look through the descriptions of each role and thinking about which one you align with the most.

If you’d like to have a chat about running in the Elections or discuss any of the roles, please do come for a drop-in session and speak with our friendly Election team! Drop-ins will be running every Tuesday (13:30-15:00) and every Thursday (10:30-12:00). Starting on Tuesday 10 February and running until Thursday 19 March.

Yes, absolutely! Anyone can run for a Sabbatical Officer role provided they are a member of the Union. However, if you are successfully elected for a full-time officer position, you will need to take a year break (a Sabbatical) from your studies to do the role.

All candidates running for a Sabbatical Officer position must have a pre-term meeting with the Students’ Union to understand more about the role, what this means for your VISA (if applicable), and what a Sabbatical year entails (if applicable).

Yes! All students can get involved in the elections, including postgraduate students, international students and distance learners. Every student has a right to run for a position and vote for the elected officers who will represent them.

We want to ensure our Election is accessible and fun for everyone. We have a series of accessibility support here, as well as information on how candidates can make their campaigns accessible here.

When announced, you will be able to view all of the candidates here.

As part of Student Leadership Elections, we encourage you to recommend a student who you believe would make a strong student representative. Recommendations are a way to recognise leadership potential and encourage students to get involved in our Elections.

If you know someone who would be fantastic for one of our available roles, why not tell them and make their day? You can use the form below to submit a recommendation, and we will email the student to let them know they should consider running for one of our roles.

This could be someone who leads a student group, an RSU School or Programme rep, or someone who makes an impact within their community or on campus. A simple recommendation could be the driving confidence for someone to submit a nomination.

You don't have to vote for every position, but we strongly encourage you to vote for as many positions as you’re eligible for. Elections are your opportunity to vote for who’s going to represent and lead you, as well as your opportunity to help shape your university experience. We would always encourage you to use your voice.

Yes – every position will have a RON (re-open nominations) option which indicates you wish to open back up nominations for other candidates to stand. This way you can still have your say in the election, even if you don't want to vote for any of the candidates standing.

If you can’t log in to the RSU website, or have any issues with your account, please email elections@roehampton.ac.uk as soon as possible. To ensure the team can respond to your enquiry in sufficient time, please ensure you contact us well before the closing of nominations and/or voting.

If you can’t log in to the RSU website, or have any issues with your account, please email elections@roehampton.ac.uk as soon as possible. To ensure the team can respond to your enquiry in sufficient time, please ensure you contact us well before the closing of nominations and/or voting.

If you can’t log in to the RSU website, or have any issues with your account, please email elections@roehampton.ac.uk as soon as possible. To ensure the team can respond to your enquiry in sufficient time, please ensure you contact us well before the closing of nominations and/or voting.

If you're having issues submitting your nomination, please email elections@roehampton.ac.uk as soon as possible. To ensure the team can respond to your enquiry in sufficient time, please ensure you contact us well before the closing of nominations.

We’re sorry to hear that! Please drop an email to our Elections team at elections@roehampton.ac.uk and they will provide you with support.

We’re sorry to hear that! Please submit the details of your complaint through our complaints and appeals form, and a member of the Elections Team will be in touch to support you.

To ensure complaints can be resolved effectively, we do require you to highlight which specific rules have been broken and provide evidence of this. If you’re unable to provide this, we’re still eager to support you and encourage you to email us at elections@roehampton.ac.uk.

Yes – you must hold a standard membership to your student group in order to run for a position or vote. If you are a current student group leader, you will need to ensure you have a valid standard membership for your group before membership sales close on 6 March. Please allow yourself enough time to acquire this.

If you’re unsure if you hold a membership, please email elections@roehampton.ac.uk as soon as possible, and before membership sales close. If you can’t log in to the RSU website, or have any issues with your account, please email elections@roehampton.ac.uk as soon as possible. To ensure the team can respond to your enquiry in sufficient time, please ensure you contact us well before the closing of nominations and/or voting.

We close membership sales to ensure that the elections process is as fair as possible. Closing membership sales before voting begins stops students who have not truly engaged with a student group throughout the year from voting in mass.

If you can’t log in to the RSU website, or have any issues whilst purchasing your membership, please email elections@roehampton.ac.uk as soon as possible. To ensure the team can respond to your enquiry in sufficient time, please ensure you contact us well before the closing of nominations and/or voting.

Yes, you can run for one or more positions across multiple student groups. Whilst there are no limitations for how many student groups you can lead, please note that you will only be able to assume one role per student group.

You will only be able to run for the positions listed on the nomination portal. If any additional roles open up throughout the year, you will have the opportunity to run for them at a later stage, which will be communicated to members by the student group leaders.

If you successfully are elected to become a student group leader, please note you will not start your role straight away. To officially start in your role, you will need to attend the RSU Training for all incoming committee members with the Student Opportunities Team – who will be your staff support throughout your time volunteering.

Your role will officially begin on 1 July 2026 -provided you have attended the RSU Training- so you can settle in, meet your new team, and plan ahead for your first activities in September 2026.

As an international student, if you do not have the right to live and work in the UK without restriction, you may be concerned about taking on a volunteering role at RSU as the Home Office places restrictions on ‘voluntary work’. All RSU student group leadership roles do not constitute ‘voluntary work’ and therefore do not contribute to your restrictions. This is because there is no contract with RSU, you are not required to undertake specific tasks at specific times, there is no renumeration of any kind, and you are not replacing a paid employee or formerly paid role.

Yes, this is to give all your members the chance to run for a student group leadership role and/or vote for who they want to see lead the group. Current student group leaders are able to nominate themselves for the same positions.

If a student group committee is not filled through the elections process, the group will be made dormant. After the results are announced, students will be able to adopt any student group without an elected committee through our usual Lead a Student Group process.

We recommend making full use of the resources on the Candidate Hub which will help you shape your campaign as well as support you in developing key skills. 

We recognise that elections can be a busy and overwhelming time for people and want to ensure that despite this everyone has a fantastic election experience.

There is always support available at Roehampton Students’ Union to support you during this fun Election period. You can find out more below:

• Candidate Breakfast – candidates are welcome to have breakfast at the Students’ Union every day during voting. Breakfast will be available between 09:00-10:00 at RSU Helpdesk.
• Drop-ins – we will be hosting drop-ins sessions across the entire Election period. More information about drop-ins can be viewed above.
• Wellbeing – the University have a dedicated wellbeing service that provides different wellbeing support.
• Elections Team – if you or someone you know has any accessibility questions or requirements, or needs some support, please do get in touch with our Elections team – they're friendly folk who will do their best to support you!

There are lots of resources available on the Candidate Hub to support you in developing and delivering your campaign.