Elections to Council

Elections

Eligibility

Academic Staff Members of Senate

To be eligible to stand for election, you must:

• be a non-professorial academic member of Senate, until at least 31 July 2026
• have a contract of employment that commenced at least 20 working days prior to the call for nominations on Monday 3 November 2025, and which runs to at least 31 July 2026
• be free from any conflicts of interest that might preclude you from serving as a governor and trustee of the University and meet the Office for Students' test of being a 'fit and proper' person
• if you have not already done so, agree to complete all of the How We Work at Essex essential training modules and additional training modules for University Committee members, within four weeks of being appointed or prior to attending your first Council meeting or event, whichever occurs first
• agree that you will, on appointment, accept the Governor Code of Conduct

Nominations

Please download 'Election to Council - Academic Members of Senate Guidance', which includes guidance for applicants and further information on the short forms that need to be completed as part of the pre-appointment process.

Submission

You will need to download, complete and submit the following by midday on Friday 14 November 2025

• Nomination form, including nominee declaration and personal statement (.docx)
• Fit and Proper Persons declaration (.docx)
• Fit and Proper Persons test (.pdf)
• Register of Interests form (.docx)
• Equality and diversity monitoring form (.docx)

Next steps

The nomination form will need to be signed by two academic staff members of Senate, one of whom will need to be from a different department or school from yourself.

All completed forms must submitted to the Governance Office by midday on Friday 14 November 2025,  via this secure Box submission link. Please also email elections@essex.ac.uk to confirm your nomination has been submitted. All nominations will be acknowledged.

The Fit and Proper Persons declaration forms and test will be reviewed by the Acting University Secretary, or their nominee, and assurance provided to the Nominations Committee. 

Election

Should it be necessary to hold an election for the appointment of academic members of staff to Senate, eligible members will receive an email confirming this, sent to their Essex email address. If required, the election will be held in early December.

Further information

Council normally meets in-person, four times a year (plus at least one away day), and holds an additional joint meeting with the Senate each July.

You can find out more about Council, the role description (.pdf), the members of Council (.pdf), Council’s primary responsibilities (.pdf), the Standing Orders for Council (.pdf), Council agenda, minutes and meeting dates, and the Committees of Council (.pdf) on the Governance webpages.   

Informal queries can also be submitted to the Governance Office, email elections@essex.ac.uk

Meeting dates

Find out the meetings dates of Council and Council committees on the diary of meetings, which is published annually.