Article - Have your say - student opinion and ideas

This article explains how you can have your say and share your opinions and ideas on the Students’ Union and University activities.

Have Your Say is UPSU’s direct democracy platform. It allows Portsmouth students the chance to share their ideas for making changes to their student experience and to bring forwards campaigns to make sure that change takes place.

It’s basically a petition system whereby student ideas can be shared and supported by other students. The more support and backers an idea gets, the likelier it is that the campaign will happen.

This process has several key steps.

Step One: For a student to submit an idea onto the platform they will need to login to the system and then click ‘submit your idea’.

Step Two: They then have to complete several criteria for their idea or campaign. The idea will need a title, something that clearly sets out what the idea is. Then they will need to give a brief summary of what it is that needs to change. Finally, they will need to consider how their idea will benefit students and give some suggestion as to how it might be implemented.

Step Three: Once an idea is submitted it will need to receive 15 ‘backers’. Any Portsmouth student can support an idea so share it with as many students as possible

Step Four: Once your idea has at least 15 backers, the Student Council (which is a collection of UPSU’s elected representatives) will discuss the idea and agree on a course of action.

Step Five: If the Student Council approve the idea the last step in the process sees that students are supported with their ideas so that it reaches a positive outcome for students.

Many students have interacted with ideas year on year that came from the Have Your Say platform. For example, the hugely successful ‘Rainbow Laces’ campaign emerged through the process. Have Your Say also helped the BAME Student Network run their ‘Race in Your Face’ event, in which BAME students and Academics were able to discuss their experiences of Higher Education.

To view the platform and any current student ideas, follow the link here.