Top 10 Sticky Themes Emerging from Alkhemy’s Democracy Review Work

Having been involved in quite a few Democracy and Representation Reviews Sol Gj?ines and I thought it would be a great idea to share an insight into some of the interesting insights and sticky themes that are emerging. Thanks to Andrew Bowie , Molly Knight and Barbara Pereira for letting us pick their awesome brains.

*** We refer to Students’ Unions, Associations and Guilds collectively as Organisations Representing Students (ORS) ***

ORS Democracy Reviews with Alkhemy

In the ever-shifting landscape of societal changes and evolving student demographics, the need for democratic structures within our Students' Unions (SUs) to adapt and evolve is more urgent than ever. As the educational landscape transforms, these structures must effectively represent the diverse voices and changing needs of the student body, ensuring an inclusive and responsive governance model.

At Alkhemy, we recognise that each Students’ Union is unique. Our democracy reviews are not a one-size-fits-all solution; rather, they are a bespoke journey of listening, questioning and co-creation. We can empower your members to actively shape the systems and processes that define their democratic experience, ensuring these structures reflect the specific needs and nuances of your organisation. We’ve recently worked with four very different ORS on their democracy and rep reviews.

Let’s explore the key themes arising from our democratic reviews and delve into new ways of thinking about SU democracy and governance. We invite you to reflect on these themes and how they resonate with your experiences, contributing to the ongoing dialogue about student democracy.

Theme 1: Understanding and Valuing Sabbatical Officers

A consistent theme in our reviews is the gap in understanding of the roles and value of Sabbatical Officers, particularly from a SU staff perspective. The complexity and multi-faceted nature of these roles can lead to confusion if not made clear to those that are interacting with them. Sounds basic, right? But this is a key and complicated issue. By enhancing the clarity of these roles, we can lay the foundation for effective collaboration, ensuring staff members recognise the profound impact these officers can have on the student body. ORS need a shared understanding and continued open discussion of how this dynamic works in their organisation, experienced leaders and student voice workers should support colleagues in how they "operationalise" and test this understanding.

Theme 2: Power Dynamics and Organisational Direction

Balanced power dynamics and shared decision-making processes are crucial in directing the work of ORS. Alkhemy's approach focuses on understanding the dynamics between staff and officers, advocating for a more equitable distribution of power and collaborative decision-making. There can be a focus on a perceived lack of clarity in “who” or “what” (group or committee) can actually make decisions and this can lead to frustrations from sabbs wanting to move things forward and staff members feeling they lack any clout in decision making. There’s also a need for distinction and shared understanding when it comes to those decisions that are “representative”, “operational” and “strategic”. It starts not with a democracy review but talking about it with colleagues. Try to create that space for these conversations

It’s also important to note that all the focus on where decisions are made probably takes the collaborative nature out of the work that follows when a decision is actually made. So if a group, like a senior management team, officer team or combination of the two make an unpopular operational decision please don’t be surprised when delivery staff are not invested in it. Collaborative decisions are the best for successful implementation.

Theme 3: Equity in Representation

We have found that there are lots of challenges in managing and facilitating representative roles, particularly for underrepresented or liberation groups, without financial compensation for the students we elect to undertake them. We often find ourselves striving for equitable representation but acknowledge the emotional labour involved and aim to foster a more inclusive environment by advocating for the compensation of these roles. But there is a danger that paying part time officers can force them out of the running for sabbatical officer roles as per the Education Act. There are ways to navigate this, depending on your context, and how radical you are willing to be.

Theme 4: Democracy Under Pressure

External pressures, such as institutional budget cuts, can significantly impact democratic structures within SUs. We have often found ourselves debating, with our partners, the necessity for SUs to prioritise student needs while navigating these institutional constraints whilst ensuring the integrity of democratic processes. There is very little point in proposing a new dynamic democratic approach if the resources are not there to deliver it.

Theme 5: Engaging Students in Democratic Processes

Increasing student engagement in SU democracy has to go beyond meeting attendance thresholds at Big Meetings. At Alkhemy, we like to propose innovative approaches to make these processes more appealing and engaging to the wider student body. Democracy isn’t who gets to vote or who attends a meeting - it’s a wider process of engagement and participation.

Who, what, where, when and how are key in determining this. But "why" is the best place to start from...

Theme 6: Overcoming Fear of Change and Growth Mindset

Resistance to change often leads to replacing old structures with similarly flawed ones, or just tweaking a fundamentally flawed system. We like to emphasise the importance of embracing change and innovative thinking in redefining democratic structures, encouraging a mindset shift towards constructive evolution. Why do you need big student meetings? Do you need sabbatical officers, or this many of them? Why? Can we look beyond representative democracy and explore other forms of democracy and keep within the constraints of our 30 year old statute? (I haven’t seen anyone celebrating the birthday of section 22 of the Education Act just yet).?

There is also an interesting phenomenon in the vast majority of reviews that we’ve carried out where folks are keen for radical change at the outset, but then you get to the nuts and bolts of what that could be it seems somehow unsafe - and we find ourselves dusting off those old ideas that we know provide comfort and safety. Get uncomfortable, that’s how you know you’re doing something worth doing…

Try piloting new approaches as well, usually for around 3 years, to see if they work. It's often seen as all or nothing, but a fostering a growth mindset with yourself and stakeholders can really go a long way. If a new system doesn't work then what's the worst that can happen? You go back to the current system (which also doesn't seem to be working!)

Theme 7: Addressing Performative Representation

In an age where performative activism is increasingly scrutinised, it’s essential to move beyond mere tick-box exercises in student representation. Yearly awareness weeks that don’t really create any tangible impact? The running of committees that year on year barely get off the ground? Legacy campaigns; justifying them by saying “We run them every year…”, “Yes! But why??”. Very often these activities are non-controversial and fit into ORS Communications and Marketing calendars but have little other impact than that. Campaigning is iterative and based on listening and context so how can representatives be expected to pop everything into a 10 month calendar? No thanks!?

We advocate for genuine, impactful campaigning based on listening and co-creation, challenging the existence of performative and ineffectual representation. But respectful of your context, always.

Theme 8: The Language of Democracy

The language of democracy can often be exclusionary and misused, leading to misunderstandings about inclusivity. Words like “council”, “motion”, “amendment”, “addendum”, etc are very much appealing to democracy geeks, but if you use them it’s likely the DGs will be the only ones participating of their own free will!

We advocate for clear, inclusive, and universally understood terminology within student democracy, simplifying policy and procedure documents to make them more accessible.

That’s if you insist on having a Big Student Meeting and having traditional policy making - if you can stomach it, we can push you to go further than that!

Theme 9: Humans over Structures

You can tie yourself up in knots trying to come up with the perfect structure or process. Don't lose sight of the user journey. Putting people – that’s students AND staff – before processes and structures is crucial. We suggest ways to ensure human-centric approaches in political decision-making, highlighting the advantages of such methods.

Theme 10: The Future of Sabbatical Roles and SU Structures

We have spoken many times in the last few years about whether the current sabbatical officer paradigm is fit for purpose for modern ORS. We can respectfully bring debate into your SU, examining the pros and cons of moving away from traditional sabbatical roles to a system that deconstructs the various roles (or "hats") or one that’s completely different, for example originating from grassroots empowerment and organising.?

It is not as simple as “Do we have sabbs or not?”, there are significant legal, reputational and operational considerations, but we have helped facilitate SUs to table these questions in a constructive and helpful way.?If you were building a SU from nothing, I'm not sure you would design it the same as they are today.

Nobody said it was easy

As the student experience (or rather students' experiences) continues to shift and evolve, so too must the democracies within ORS. Recognising each SU’s uniqueness, Alkhemy are ready to assist, tailoring our approach to align with your organisation's existing engagement landscape. We go beyond the surface, engaging in both qualitative and quantitative research, and ensuring a diverse range of voices is not only heard, but involved in co-created innovative new systems. Navigating these themes is often not easy but it is worth doing, and we can help with this.

Are you noticing a lack of diverse engagement in forums and meetings? Is your sabbatical structure out of date? Are your democratic systems not working as they should? This is our bread and butter, we love Democracy and Representation Reviews.

Your Team or Our Team - we can do both!

We help SUs with their reviews in two distinct capacities either (1) as an external consultant or (2) by being an embedded team member that adds capacity to your existing staff team. Either way we bring this expertise with us.

Ready to revolutionise your democracy? Contact us at [email protected] to start a conversation about how Alkhemy can add value to your organisation and empower your members to thrive in the ever-evolving landscape of higher education.