External Trustee

External Trustee

Part-time, voluntary role.

Current opportunities are either a four-year term or a co-opted one-year term

We’d love you to join us at The Union, Manchester Met.

Who are we?

There has been a Students’ Union at what we now call Manchester Metropolitan University since the 1920s. Over the last one hundred years, we have been working hard to develop the ways we support our students to achieve their personal goals and ambitions.

As an independent charity, The Union’s primary aim is the advancement of education of all 33,000 plus students here at Manchester Met. We want to achieve this by helping students to build their confidence and skills, removing barriers to learning, and supporting them to make strong social connections and support networks. Every year, students elect a team of student Officers to lead The Union and represent their needs.

We employ 60 career staff and around 150 student staff. Together, we run a variety of services including sports clubs, societies, change campaigns, volunteering opportunities, student representation and an advice service. We also host a number of events in our conferencing facilities and operate a bar, shop, coffee shop, as well as study rooms that students can book. As a not-for-profit, charitable organisation, the money we make in our retail outlets is ploughed straight back into offering our members more and better services.

What’s the opportunity?

This is not a typical board: this is a unique opportunity to work alongside our five elected student officers as part of the nine member Trustee Board. The board will steer development of the ways that we help our members succeed as students of Manchester Metropolitan University: whatever their personal ambition, background or reason for study. Trustees are responsible for governance, strategy, finance and reputation of The Union. They hold a key role in supporting the CEO and their team to deliver The Union’s strategy and upholding its values.

What are we looking for?

Our trustees will need to be sympathetic to the aims of the organisation and more generally share a commitment to the broader values of the student movement: student representation, student rights and the student experience. They will understand the importance of students having a platform to help make these values a reality.

The role requires careful balance. The primary responsibility of the trustee board is to set the strategic direction of the union and to ensure the union is well governed, financially sustainable and legally compliant. As a membership organisation, all decisions of the board are also considerate of our student democracy. An eye for detail and the ability to see future opportunities are important.

We are also seeking to recruit people with specialist knowledge in the key areas where we need to add expertise. Whilst our primary funder is the University, we rely on our services to generate around 20 per cent of our income and would like to increase this further.

We are interested in hearing from applicants who have a commercial background and who are well networked in the city of Manchester. Recent experience of the further or higher education sector and of Students’ Unions themselves is particularly useful but isn’t essential.

We are particularly interested in applications from women candidates and black and minority ethnic candidates, who are currently underrepresented on the board.

Further information is available at: bit.ly/BeATrustee2019

To apply, please send a copy of your current CV, along with a covering letter (no more than one side of A4) to Eleanor Ibi at eleanor.ibi@mmu.ac.uk

This should identify the relevant experience and expertise you would bring to the role and why you would like to be a trustee.

Closing date: Noon on 7 May 2019.