Volunteer to join your college’s board!

Student board member vacancies in Argyll, Inverness, Moray and Perth 

Want to help shape your college, and gain exceptional experience and skills? Volunteer to join your college’s board! 

Are you passionate about the student experience? 
Do you care about the positive impact of your college locally and within UHI? 
Do you have skills in communication, analysis and critical thinking… or want to develop them? 

There are vacancies for a student member of the Board of Management at UHI Argyll, UHI Inverness, UHI Moray and UHI Perth. Perhaps this is for you! 

Why is there a vacancy? 

There are places for two student members on the boards of management of UHI Argyll, UHI Inverness, UHI Moray and UHI Perth. It is the students’ association’s job to nominate them. 

We elect one Student Officer at each, who takes up one of those student board member positions. So we need to make an appointments for the other student board member positions, which will start on the 1st of July and run for a year. 

It’s really important these second positions are filled, so the boards have the insights and experiences of both their student members. 

What does being on the board involve? 

Boards of management are made up of a range of different people, which include the Principal, staff members, trade union representatives, and of course the two student members. The majority of the board are independent members who come from other roles or backgrounds, and they bring a different sort of expertise from their local community, industry, or other life experiences. 

Boards are responsible for the strategic direction of the college, so will discuss everything from finance, to estates, to staffing, and even the future shape of the college’s curriculum. That doesn’t mean that as a board member you need to be an expert in running the college – that’s what the senior management team and staff are for. 

Instead, as a board member you help to support, inform and constructively challenge the senior management. So that means you’ll receive reports from college managers, share ideas and perspectives with your fellow board members, or discuss what decisions might mean for the student experience. You’ll have a particular role as a student member, offering an insight into the student experience that not all other board members will have. 

Full board meetings take place online, in-person, or hybrid around five times a year, though this can vary, and there are sub-committees you will be invited to join too, which might relate to topics such as learning and teaching or an audit depending on your interest and skillset. There will also be time needed to read papers and prepare for meetings. So while all boards are different, you might find the board role taking up a couple of hours a week or sometimes up to five or more at busiest times. 

There’s plenty of support in the role too – from the Governance Professional (whose job is to ensure the smooth running of the board), from HISA, from your fellow student board member (the elected officer) and indeed from all the other board members. There is also plenty training available including nationally from the College Development Network. 

Being a student board member is unpaid, but you get expenses (for instance if you travel to meetings). Above all you get tremendous experience of governing a large public body, meeting new people, working as a team, and gaining useful insights into further and higher education. Student members in particular often talk about the great skills they’ve developed and the confidence they’ve gained for future roles. 

How do I find out more? 

If you’re interested, then firstly take a look at your local board’s information pages. There is specific information about the role for UHI Argyll, UHI Inverness, UHI Moray and UHI Perth. All you need is to be a student at one of those three academic partners. 

Secondly, contact HISA by 31st May if you’re interested, rather than the board directly on those pages above, because we are responsible for nominating the student members. Just send us a short paragraph about yourself, your interest in the board and what you think you’d bring and gain as a student board member. After that date we will be in touch – and we will likely suggest having an informal chat with you.  

You can also get in touch by the same address or pop into your local HISA office if you have any questions.