General Election Information

The vision for the UNE Student Council (UNESC) is to serve the students of UNE impartially and without bias, fostering active participation in a fair and equitable tertiary experience that promotes higher thinking and intellectual growth.

The values underpinning the activities of the Student Council are:

• Equity: To ensure a fair, reasonable, and just experience for all students.
• Advocacy: To champion the best interests of the student body.
• Impact: To be a vital contributor to enhancing the future of students.

The Student Council represents student opinions and interests impartially, candidly, and with integrity, maintaining students' best interests and fostering a partnership between students and staff. The Student Council is dedicated to building resilient and authentic student representation and promoting a valued student voice at UNE.

The Student Council:

1. serves as the formal representative body for all UNE students, ensuring their voices are heard in university governance, policy development, and external engagement;
2. promotes initiatives that improve student well-being, academic quality, and access to resources, fostering an inclusive and supportive learning environment;
3. partners with university stakeholders, including Faculty and administration, and management to co-create solutions through structured forums, ensuring equitable student participation in decision-making;
4. harnesses the diverse perspectives of the student body to facilitate innovative practices, programs, and policies that benefit the UNE community; and
5. maintains open communication channels between students, staff, and external entities, providing regular updates on Student Council actions and outcomes.

Duties and Responsibilities: The role of UNESC Representative carries a high level of responsibility to work in partnership with UNE and staff to meet the purpose of the UNESC. This includes making efforts to collaborate, liaise and communicate with other representatives and staff, attend meetings, and participate with students’ best interests in mind.

UNESC Representatives are tasked with:

• collating student opinions, concerns and suggestions from their consultation, recording these, and reporting agreed upon solutions back to the student body or providing updates on work being conducted towards finding an appropriate solution.
• preparation of reports and papers, which are circulated prior to meetings and are assumed to be read before the meeting. Meetings will focus on respectful debate and discussion of any issues arising from reports, points of clarification, and confirmation or otherwise of the proposed resolution. All meeting papers are provided electronically.
• supporting students by listening to their issues and pointing them in the right direction of services that may be of assistance.
• providing handovers at the conclusion of their term to ensure the continuity of UNESC.

For further information on the roles and responsibilities of a UNESC Representative, please take time to read the UNESC Constitution.

Skills and Experience: The role of UNESC Representative requires an interest in representing student opinions and needs impartially, candidly, and with integrity, maintaining students’ best interests and promoting partnership between students and staff. The UNESC is dedicated to building resilient and authentic student representation and promoting a valued student voice at UNE.

In addition to their representative roles, Committee members are expected to undertake governance training and assume other official responsibilities as allocated or determined by the Executive.

Conduct of UNESC Representatives: UNESC Representatives are required to abide by the UNESC Constitution, UNE policies and the law at all times.

Attendance: Representatives are required to attend at least 9 UNESC Committee meetings per academic year. Should a Representative be unable to attend a meeting, they are required to send a written apology. All meetings will be conducted via digital meeting software, in addition to any in person accessibility.

Email: Regular attention to UNESC related emails is important for all Representatives. Urgent matters for decision may be distributed via email for consideration.

Additional Roles: UNESC Representatives may be elected to serve on the Executive Committee as Chairperson, Deputy Chairperson, Secretary, or Treasurer.

Beyond the Executive Committee, UNESC Representatives will also be invited to fill roles on a number of UNE governance committees, including:

• Academic Board – the Chair of the UNE Student Council (or nominee) serves as an ex officio member;
• Academic Board Standing Committee – the UNE Student Council member of Academic Board serves as an ex officio member;
• Curriculum Committee, Teaching and Learning Committee, and Research Committee – one UNESC Representative, nominated by the Student Council, serves on each committee, with the ability to appoint an alternate should the nominated member be unable to attend. Please note that the Research Committee representative must be a Higher Degree by Research (HDR) candidate.

These roles provide Representatives with the opportunity to contribute directly to university governance and advocate for student interests at the highest levels of academic decision-making.

Acknowledgement of Contributions: The UNESC Chairperson is eligible for a nominal honorarium in acknowledgement of the additional duties required of the position. UNESC Representatives will receive a formal letter acknowledging their specific contributions to the University when requested.

The UNE Council Student Member serves as an ex officio Committee member with responsibility for facilitating communication between the UNE Council and the Student Council. Please note the UNE Council Student Member is not eligible to serve as Chairperson of UNESC.

All other members of UNESC are elected in the following categories:

• 5 x Online Student Representatives
• 2 x General Student Representatives – Undergraduate
• 2 x General Student Representatives – Postgraduate or Research
• 2 x International Student Representatives
• 1 x Residential College Representative
• 1 x On-Campus Student Representative
• 1 x Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Student Representative
• 1 x Equity and Access Representative

As detailed in clause 16(4) of the UNESC Constitution, nominees for election must meet the following eligibility requirements (as at the date of the Roll (21 July 2026)):

• have at least 3 Trimesters remaining in their course;
• not be a full-time permanent or full-time fixed-term staff member at UNE; and
• have no recorded breaches of the UNE Student Conduct Rule (formerly known as the UNE Student Behavioural Misconduct Rule).

Please contact returning_officer@une.edu.au if you have any questions.

• Find out more about UNESC and understand, as outlined in brief above, the role and duties of UNESC Representatives. You are welcome to discuss the roles, in the first instance, with the Chair of UNESC via unesc@une.edu.au or Deputy Returning Officer, Jenny Croaker, via returning_officer@une.edu.au.
• Check the eligibility criteria (see Q4 above). This criteria has also been outlined within the call for nominations email.
• Consider the time commitment required, including attendance of at least 9 meetings per academic year and a 2-year term of membership to which you would be committing. Please note, should you be elected to UNESC and subsequently cease to meet the eligibility criteria for the position to which you were elected (e.g. you conclude your studies at UNE) then your role on UNESC would also conclude at that point in time.
• If you are eligible and wish to nominate, follow the instructions you will receive in the call for nominations email from BigPulse. You will be asked to answer a number of questions, make a number of declarations, and provide a short candidate statement (of 200 words or less) outlining why you would like to be an UNESC Representative, and what you hope to bring to UNESC. You can also upload a photograph as part of your nomination.
• Please be aware that:
  • Nominees for election agree to abide by Code of Conduct for UNESC Election Candidates.
  • Members of UNESC agree to:
    • abide by the UNESC Constitution;
    • comply with UNE policies at all times;
    • abide by the law at all times.

The electronic Nomination Form is accessed via a link in the “Call for Nominations” email from the election provider, BigPulse. This email will be received by eligible students from 22 July 2026. If you do not receive an email and you believe you are eligible to nominate – please check your “Junk” emails in case your security settings have not recognised the BigPulse email. Your email will be from the “UNE Student Council Elections” and @bigpulse.com, with a subject including the words “UNE Student Council Elections 2026”. If you still have not received an email and you have checked the eligibility criteria (Q4 on this page), please contact the Returning Officer or Deputy Returning Officer at returning_officer@une.edu.au.

The Nomination Form must include:

• a candidate statement;
• confirmation you understand and accept the duties and responsibilities of a UNESC Representative; and
• confirmation you will abide by the candidate guidelines for elections.

Nominees are encouraged to upload a profile photo to their nomination.

There is no submit button on the nomination form. Instead, you should select Save and Exit each time you make a change to the form.

You will receive an email with the subject line "Nomination data complete for Poll: [Poll Name]" once all mandatory fields have been completed – this confirms your nomination is complete.

If you need to return to your nomination form at any time, you can do so via the link provided in the email with the subject line "Nomination form access link for nominee: [Your Name] to Poll: [Poll Name]".

Yes, you may nominate in one or in all Representative categories for which you are eligible.

Some examples:

An International student undertaking a PhD at the Armidale campus may be eligible to nominate in the following Representative categories:

• General Student Representatives – Postgraduate or Research
• International Student Representatives
• On-Campus Student Representative

A student who identifies as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander undertaking a Bachelor degree and living at college may be eligible to nominate in the following Representative categories:

• General Student Representatives – Undergraduate
• Residential College Representative
• On-Campus Student Representative
• Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Student Representative

A student who has a disability and is undertaking a Masters (by coursework) online may be eligible to nominate in the following Representative categories:

• Online Student Representatives
• General Student Representatives – Postgraduate or Research
• Equity and Access Representative

If you would like to nominate for more than one representative role, please complete your first nomination form, then return to your "Call for Nominations" email and click the nomination link again. You will be able to auto-populate your second and subsequent nomination forms with the information from your original nomination, and then edit the content should you wish.

UNESC Committee elections are conducted using a preferential electronic ballot, as specified in clause 16(2) of the UNESC Constitution.

All eligible students are entitled to vote for candidates across all Representative categories, regardless of which category or categories they may be eligible to nominate in themselves.

Under preferential voting, voters rank candidates in order of preference (1, 2, 3, and so on) rather than simply selecting one candidate. This method ensures that the candidate elected best reflects the collective preferences of the student body.

The Returning Officer will advise when campaigning may commence.

All campaign material is to be authorised by the Returning Officer prior to use, as outlined in the Code of Conduct for UNESC Election Candidates.

Those candidates whose nominations are declared eligible for election by the Returning Officer, will have their candidate statements (which are provided as part of their nomination) published on the UNESC Elections webpage.

The "Invitation to Vote" email will be sent to eligible students by the University's election provider BigPulse on or around the 17 August 2026. This will include a link to the election webpage, so that potential voters may view all candidate details.

Please contact the Deputy Returning Officer, Jenny Croaker or the Returning Officer, Sue Crew at returning_officer@une.edu.au.