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If you would like to be kept informed about Student Consultation and Student Voice opportunities and outcomes, plus sometimes other opportunities to be involved in University quality enhancement activities, please join our mailing list by completing the mailing list form.

What does being an online Student Consultation volunteer involve?

As a volunteer, you will be invited to share your views on an online forum hosted within the Consultation Forums website open for around two weeks. Each consultation includes some background information and questions to which the University would like to hear your answers.

All we ask is that you answer the questions posted, contributing your views constructively to the discussions as an individual volunteer, drawing on your rich vein of experience as a student,and you are invited to engage with other students and staff in discussion about the topic. Each consultation has some staff, including tutors, and Students Association representatives reading the forums to see what you've got to say and respond if appropriate.

You may post as many or as few times as you wish, and you can withdraw at any time using the online withdrawal form. The Student Consultation Office also publishes further guidance about being a student consultation volunteer to help you in your role.

At the end of the consultation, the views expressed will be summarised. We are committed to closing the feedback loop after each consultation so that you know how your views have been acted on. You will be informed in the weeks or months following the consultation what action has been taken in response to your views. This may not be immediate as sometimes the consultation will be part of a wider project that will take time to make recommendations to the relevant University committees and see them implemented.

You can see how forums works in practice on the Consultation Forums website.

We expect all participants to respect other students' opinions, adhering to University’s Student Charter, Code of Practice for Student Discipline and the Computing Code of Conduct.

More information about how we look after your data is published in the Student Consultation Privacy Notice.

Why should I get involved?

Listening to our students is incredibly important for us. You know best what it’s like to sign up for a qualification, work through module materials, attend a tutorial, submit a TMA or sit an exam. And we can learn a great deal from hearing about your experiences as a student, however new you are to OU study, and make better decisions and improvements to University policy and practice based on those experiences.

Becoming a consultation volunteer is also a great opportunity to talk to other students and OU staff about key developments at the OU, and in the process:

• make a real difference to what happens in the OU in the future; and
• develop skills and experience that employers find valuable.