Want to find out more about the CSU Spring Elections? You’re in the right place!
Every Spring, we elect students to lead the direction of CSU – three full-time Officers, and several part-time Union Assembly Officers.
Nominations open for 2 weeks. Candidates then campaign for student votes, using a manifesto they submitted when nominating. Voting opens at the end of campaigning, and results are announced that evening. Every CSU member is eligible to vote (you’re automatically a member when you start at University of Chester!) and you’ll get an email with a direct link on the day it opens.
Nominations are now CLOSED. Candidates will be revealed soon!
Voting
Voting opens on the 11th March at 9am! You’ll get a link sent to your student email, or you can find the link on our website and social media.
Voting closes on the 12th March at 1pm, so you don’t have long to get your vote in!
You’ll be asked to sign in using your normal University login details – your student number email address and password. This is completely secure and done via the University sign-in systems.
The ballot will look something like this:
You can rank candidates in order of preference. You don’t just get one vote per role – you can rank every candidate from 1st to last. There’s also a link to read all of their manifestos before voting, so you’re making an informed decision.
You’ll see RON as an option for every candidate. If no candidate is speaking to you, you can select this. If RON wins a seat, we’ll hold another election for that role!
For information on the voting system we use and how this works, watch the video below:
Elections rules and complaints
Candidates must follow rules during their time as candidates to keep things fair and respectful.
The main rules you’ll need to be made aware of are:
- Candidates cannot campaign for votes during the voting period. This is 11th-12th March.
- Candidates cannot campaign using role-privileged information. For example, they cannot use their own society’s events to campaign, or use their campus/CSU job (including resources or social platforms) for campaigning.
- Candidates cannot spend more than their allocated budget. Full time candidates have £50 to spend, and part-time candidates have £30.
There are other rules and you can find these below.
If a candidate or any of their campaign team breaks the rules or makes you feel uncomfortable, please submit a complaint to csuelections@chester.ac.uk before the 12th March at 2pm. This complaint must include:
- Your name and student ID
- The name of the candidate (and the campaign team member if applicable)
- The rule they’ve broken, with any evidence and/or witness statements
We’ll then review the complaint in line with our procedures.
Read the full rules of the Election by downloading or reading the file below:
Events
Find Elections events below. You could come to our hustings – Quiz the Candidates – to find out more about the full-time candidates, attend the Elections Fair to grab some freebies and talk to candidates before voting opens, and come along to the big Results Night event to see the winners take the crown.
What is Union Assembly?
Union Assembly is CSU’s decision-making body. It is where your ideas and motions are discussed, debated, and voted on, which helps to lead the direction of CSU and your full-time Officers.
The volunteer Union Assembly Officers (also known as part-time Officers) represent different types or communities of students. They bring feedback, concerns, ideas and perspectives from that community to each Union Assembly meeting to ensure we hear your voice at the highest levels, as well as get involved with campaigns and CSU initiatives that are relevant to them. They may also be asked to sit on various University committees as a student voice, should the University request it.
The Union Assembly Officers can mandate actions for CSU or the full-time Officers to take, if they believe it is in the best interests of the majority of students. This means you can have a real input into what we do at CSU!
You can read more about Union Assembly on their dedicated webpage.
What is a full-time Officer?
The full-time Officers represent the student body as a whole, separated into three roles:
- President, who looks after governance and the sets the direction of CSU
- VP Education, who looks after student voice and academic interests
- VP Student Life, who looks after extracurriculars and student support
An Officer’s job is to ensure we are acting in students’ best interests, and doing what they can do create positive change at the University. They do this by running campaigns to improve students’ experiences, attending committees where they advocate for students to the University, and helping set the priorities for the organisation. They also sit as Trustees and the President is the Chair of the Trustee Board as well as a University Governor. No day is the same, and it’ll be a busy year!
Full-time Officers we elect in Spring will be employed/in office from 1st July 2026 until 30th June 2027.
Got any questions about voting, nominating, the roles, or anything else about the elections? Drop us an email on csuelections@chester.ac.uk and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
We understand that some of the terms used in elections can be inaccessible if you’re new to, well, Students’ Unions and democracy. We’ve made a glossary of terms to explain what everything means, but if there’s anything else you think we’ve missed, please don’t hesitate to reach out via csuelections@chester.ac.uk.
