What is a Campaigns Lead?

As you may know, me and Hauwa are your elected Student Campaign Leads for the academic year 2026/2027. But what does that mean? What do we do? And how do we work on representing you as students?

Our roles started this summer. But, as you may know, most students do not study over the summer. So, for the first 2 months, we will be spending our time training and gaining as many key connections as possible. Here’s what I've learnt so far:

What is Student Campaigns Lead?

As a Student Campaigns Lead both me and Hauwa get to cover 3 main roles each:

1. We are Beds SU Ambassadors, representing the students’ union when meeting students

2. We are Student Governors of the University, meaning we will attend University Committees and Board of Governors meetings on behalf of the students

3. We are Beds SU’s Company Directors and Charity Trustees, meaning we get to sit on the Trustee Board along with External Trustees and ensure the SU is well-governed and acts in students’ best interest

What is a Students’ Union?

Every university (with some exceptions) has a Students’ Union. Students’ Unions fulfil the legal duty universities have to provide their students with access to independent advice and representation. To do this, most universities pay their unions an annual block grant. Additionally, Students’ Unions may provide other services, such as social opportunities. 

How does the university work?

The university is a higher education provider that offers degrees through courses to its paying students. When you think of the university, you may focus mostly on classes and lecturers, but your tuition fee pays for more than that.

University staff include academic staff, such as unit coordinators, course coordinators, portfolio leads, heads of school, and other roles in between. They also include professional services staff, such as those working in Student Support (SID, Student Engagement, Student Money Advice, Mental Health, Disability, etc.), International Office, Library and Teaching Resources, Estates and Facilities, and other administrative departments.

One of our main duties as Student Campaigns Leads is to attend governance and leadership meetings or reach out to strategic leadership staff to ensure that institutional changes are taking place for the benefit of students.

How do other universities work?

To find out about other universities and their Students’ Unions, Hauwa and I took part in the Lead and Change conference organised by NUS (the National Union of Students). Here, we met with officers from Students’ Unions all around the UK and took part in a programme designed to help us better understand how campaigning works and how different types of officers take action on behalf of their students.

We also got to hear from other Students’ Unions through their sabbs (sabbatical officers) and membership services staff when we attended the Southern Unions’ Conference this August.

How does the Higher Education sector work?

To make improvements to a system, one must first understand the system. Once I became familiar with the internal networks of our university (policies and processes, structures, committees, hierarchies, and so on), I was able to attend the Advance HE training for Student Governors.

There, the WonkHE team delivered sessions on how universities are governed (through Boards, Committees, Sub-Committees, Working Groups, etc.) and regulated (by the Office for Students – OfS; the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills – Ofsted; the Competition and Markets Authority – CMA; UK Visas and Immigration – UKVI; etc.), as well as the relationships universities may have with the market, sponsors, local businesses, and partners.