Vice President at MK:U

Location: Location: Bouverie House/Online

Length of term: 12 months

Role overview: The CSA is seeking an enthusiastic and engaged Vice President at MK:U to advocate for apprentices and express student feedback and opinions in a constructive manner. This positon is ideal for someone who is a team player and willing to actively engage and listen to fellow apprentices with good interpersonal and communication skills. The role provides an exciting opportunity to actively help advance MK:U and develop a student representation platform that will continue to evolve over the coming years. This is a great opportunity for a dedicated individual to contribute towards engagement and representation for your fellow apprentices.

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Guidance and Procedures

1. Introduction & Election Timetable

This guidance is designed to support you as a candidate for the role of CSA Vice President at MK:U. 

To Do: Nominate yourself via the CSA website (see below), design a manifesto & send the manifesto to csa@cranfield.ac.uk before 9am, 17th July.

Election timetable 2026:

3rd July - Nominations Open

9am 17th July - Nominations Close

20th July - Candidates Announced

21st July - Campaigning Open

2pm 30th July - Campaigning Closed

30th July - VP name announced

31st July - New VP role begins

 

2. Producing a Manifesto

A manifesto is your chance to tell other students why they should vote for you and sets out your ideas and plans. You should explain why you want to represent students and what changes or projects you would implement if you are elected.

It can be no more than one side of A4 and must be submitted in electronic format.

Candidates are advised to submit in a common format; the CSA will not be responsible for problems due to the use of other packages and will not edit documents to solve any problems.

 

Manifestos may include:

• a photo so voters will be able to recognise you

• your name

• be realistic and only make promises that you are likely to be able to keep

• try and use plain English and be clear and concise

• describe any involvement in the University/MK:U and/or CSA, or your skills, knowledge and experience you would bring to the role

• most importantly, state what they would like to do if elected

 

A manifesto must NOT

• refer to present or former members or staff of the CSA by name

• talk about other candidates, especially in a negative fashion

• knowingly contain factual inaccuracies

• contain opinion expressed as fact

• advocate discrimination or breach CSA equal opportunity policies

• be prejudicial to the fair running of the elections

 

No person other than the Returning Officer(s) and Election Manager(s) are allowed to view

the manifestos or know the names of candidates running for election until after the close of

nominations.

 

3. Support for candidates

The CSA doesn’t fund candidates for the Vice President position.

Should you have any questions during your election campaign, you can contact the CSA for support and guidance.

 

4. Campaigning

To get elected you need to gain more votes than anyone else during the voting period, as determined by the Single Transferable Vote system.

You can only begin campaigning after 09.00, 21st July.

 

5. Printed or social media publicity

Some campaigns in an election use printed or social media publicity.

The following points should be noted.

• No candidates’ campaign publicity may appear prior to 09.00, Tuesday 21st July.

• No form of CSA/MK:U or University insignia, logo, or any other indication that the candidate is in any way “officially endorsed” may appear on any publicity material

• Publicity is best focussing on 2/3 main reasons for a voter to support a candidate. Long wordy documents are difficult to read and off-putting to voters. Think about layout. Avoid too many capitals, changes of font or general messiness.

• Ensure that all publicity follows the rules of the election

• Ask before putting up posters

 

6. Talking to students

Whilst publicity impacts a lot of voters, nothing can beat talking to students and listening to their opinions.

Following are a few tips on talking to students.

• No campaigning may take place until after 09.00, 21st July. However, this does not mean that you cannot tell people you are thinking of standing, especially friends and classmates. Talk to them about issues of importance to MK:U apprentices. It’s amazing what you can find out!

• Be friendly and smile

• Don’t hassle someone who is busy, distracted or grumpy; it is a waste of time

• Explain who you are and the position for which you are running

• Highlight the main issue(s) that you want to address

• Don’t talk for too long; be short and to the point

• Listen to their opinions, but remember that you want to talk to as many people as possible

• Explain how they can vote and ask them to vote for you! If they already have a preferred candidate, ask them to vote for you as their Number 2 as this can be vital in the voting system

• Thank them for their time

 

7. The voting process

All votes will be cast online; there are no paper ballots. All voters will be informed of the

voting process and given access to the online system via their Cranfield University email

address.

Voting will be by the Single Transferable Vote system as defined by the Electoral Reform Society. https://electoral-reform.org.uk/voting-systems/types-of-voting-system/single-transferable-vote/

This means that voters are asked to rank candidates in order of preference. They may rank some or all candidates, or just indicate their first choice, it is up to them. However, if a voter only indicates their first choice, then their vote is of no use once (if) their favoured candidate is eliminated. Candidates should encourage voters to vote for them, even if it is only as second or third choice, as these “transferred votes” may be critical in the later stages of the count.

All ballots include the option to re-open nominations (often referred to as RON). This may be chosen if a voter thinks there are no suitable candidates for the position. RON is treated like any other candidate, both at the vote and at the count. It is rare for the RON votes to win, but it has happened in the CSA, and a RON vote is better than no vote at all.

Candidate names will appear on the ballot in alphabetical order of family name (then given name if family names are the same). It is the responsibility of the candidates to ensure that the Election Manager is clear as to a candidate’s correct and preferred use of names, for example diminutives, order of multiple names, etc. RON is always last on the voting list, after all other candidates regardless of their position in the alphabet.

 

8. The count

The Deputy Returning Officer will inform candidates of the time/date of the count and when the results are expected to be announced.

In the first round of counting, the first-choice votes for each candidate are counted. If a candidate has more than 50% of the total vote (not counting blank), then they are elected.

If no candidate reaches the 50% threshold, then the candidate with the lowest number of votes is eliminated and their votes transferred to the second-choice candidates on those papers. Those votes with no second choice are removed from the process. Therefore, it is vital that candidates encourage voters to insert their second, third, etc selections.The process is continued until a candidate reaches the 50% threshold of eligible votes and is declared the winner.

Election results will be announced as soon as possible after the results have been determined. They will then be posted on the CSA/MK:U website.

 

9. Complaints, grievances and breaches of good conduct

All complaints concerning any part of the election, be it campaigning, voting, counting or process, must be submitted in line with the CSA Constitution and Byelaws.