Nominations are Open! But how do you do it?
Nominations are now open in our Michaelmas Elections 2026! Submit your nominations at: lusu.co.uk/nominate
Students are invited to nominate themselves for positions within College JCRs and PG Board, as well as positions of Student Trustee and International Students’ Officer. In this article, we want to explain the nomination process: how to do it, what to consider, and what happens next.
We know that nominating yourself in an election may be something you have never done before or come across again in your life after university. Hopefully, this will be a great first experience!
Before nominating yourself
Before submitting a nomination, you should decide which role(s) you would like to stand for. You can read more about the positions available in this election in our elections notice here.
All JCR and PG Board seats are up for their annual election. There is also the role of International Students’ Officer plus two Student Trustee positions available: one open for all, and one reserved for postgraduate candidates.
You cannot hold more than one position on your JCR Exec or PG Board, but we would encourage you to consider the positions of Student Trustee or International Students’ Officer which you can hold alongside a JCR role (you cannot simultaneously be a President of a JCR/PG Board and a Student Trustee, but every other combination is permitted).
Submitting your nomination
Once you have decided what position(s) you would like to stand for, you will need to submit a ‘nomination’ to enter yourself into the election. You can only nominate yourself, not other people. If there is someone you feel would be excellent in any of the positions available, speak to them and encourage them to put themselves forward.
Nominations close at 6pm on Monday 19th November - you must nominate yourself before this deadline. To do this, head to our nominations platform on the Students’ Union website at lusu.co.uk/nominate.
All you need to do is fill-in the form! The information you submit will be visible in the voting platform when students cast their votes in Week 8.
Fill-in the Nomination Form
Once you’ve gone to lusu.co.uk/nominate and signed-in, you’ll be invited to complete the nomination form.
Join Frank, LUSU Student Insight & Voice Manager to better understand the nomination process as he goes through the nomination form here.
Your Manifesto
As part of your nomination, we ask that all candidates for all positions provide a manifesto.
A manifesto is a short statement in support of your candidacy. It will be readable by voters on the ballot paper. Voters will be able to see your photo & name, then click through to find out more about you (i.e. see your manifesto), before casting their vote.
Manifestos must be less than 250 words (the form does not allow manifestos over 1625 characters).
Manifestos can only be plain text. The system will not allow you to include any formatting or coded parts in your manifesto.
Your manifesto should have cover two main areas:
Who you are: introduce yourself & provide the skills, experiences, and attributes that make you the right person for this role
What you want to do if elected: list the activities, initiatives, campaigns, events, or other things you plan to achieve if elected. Make sure these are relevant to the role – if they aren’t, you may want to reconsider the role you are applying for!
Here are all the manifestos from last year’s elections: Michaelmas Elections 2025, All Manifestos
Your Photo
It helps voters to be able to put a name to a face. When they cast their vote, students will be able to see your name, face & manifesto . We ask that you upload your photo in the nomination form.
Your photo needs to be square and under 3MB in size.
Images will be fairly small on the ballot so we would suggest using a well-lit, smiley photo that clearly shows your face and matches photos on any campaigning materials you prepare.
What happens once you submit your nomination
Congratulations, you are now a candidate! Once you nominate, we will invite you to the Candidate Briefing. This is where we go through the elections rules and discuss the campaigning and voting period in more detail. It is vitally important that you attend.
This briefing will take place on Wednesday 11th November via Teams, and you will be sent more details once you have submitted your nomination.