Students' Representative Council

The Students' Representative Council (SRC) was founded in 1884 by Robert Fitzroy Bell and gained statutory recognition in the Universities (Scotland) Act, 1889. It has responsibility for representation on teaching and learning, welfare, academic services, postgraduate affairs and external affairs and also for running Freshers' Week.

It was founded in 1884, with the initial aim of organizing student participation in Edinburgh University's Tercentenary Festival. The University authorities were anxious lest the celebrations be marred by the outbreaks of student rowdiness associated with other public occasions, in particular, the election and inaugural address of the University's Rector. The Senatus Academicus thus welcomed the initiative of a group of students headed by Robert Fitzroy Bell (1859-1908) and David Orme Masson (1858-1937), who argued that a representative council could aid in maintaining order and decorum, in promoting student social life, and in fostering a 'wholesome esprit de corps'. A first formal meeting of the Students' Representative Council was held on 17 January 1884, bringing together representatives from the university's many clubs and societies. This established the aims of the Council as representing students on all matters affecting their interests, establishing a recognized channel of communication between students and the University authorities, and promoting student social life and solidarity. The newly constituted council was the first student representative body in Scotland.

The SRC's first task was to maintain order at the inaugural address of Rector Stafford Henry Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh (1818-1887) and at the torchlit process that followed. This was accomplished so successfully that the SRC was entrusted with policing the Tercentenary Festivities. It was nonetheless dissatisfied with the limited place allotted to students in the official programme of events. After protest, the SRC was finally permitted to organize five events: a torchlight procession, a performance of a drama based on Sir Walter Scott's novel The Fortunes of Nigel, a reception for foreign guests, a formal ball, and an informal smoking concert.

The SRC used its success in the Tercentenary festivities to launch an appeal to fund its first priority: the opening of a Student Union. The highlight of the campaign was a Fancy Fair at Waverley Market in November 1886, which raised over £10,000. The objective was achieved with the opening of Edinburgh University Union in Teviot Row House, adjoining the new Medical School, on 19 October 1889. This is is the oldest purpose built student union in the world.

In the same year the SRC gained official recognition through the Universities (Scotland) Act 1889. The Act entitled the Council to petition the Senatus Academicus on any matter concerning the teaching and discipline of the University, and the University Court on any other matter affecting students. It also stimulated the creation of Representative Councils at St Andrews, Glasgow, and Aberdeen Universities and the holding of annual Inter-University Conferences for the combined students' councils of the Scottish universities.

In 1888, the SRC adopted The Student, first published by Robert Cochrane Buist (1860-1939) in 1887, as its official organ. The journal's objective would now be 'faithfully to record the passing events of University life' and 'to form a bond of union between present and absent sons of our Alma Mater'. More serious-minded than its short-lived predecessors, it aimed to interpret student opinion, document student social life, and reflect students interests in arts, politics, and sports. From 1895 onwards, the SRC also published an annual Handbook for new students (or 'freshers') providing an introduction to university life and institutions.

Where previous student publications had all been ephemeral, ''The Student'' would go on to provide a permanent focus for and record of student corporate life.

The SRC raised funds to acquire the Athletic Field and pavilion at Craiglockhart, which was ceremonially opened in 1896.

In 1932, the SRC assumed responsibility for organizing 'Rag Week', was organized by the Students' Representative Council in 1932.

The event had its origins in the student 'Rag' organized in 1867 by a group of students shocked by the levels of poverty in the streets surrounding Edinburgh University. They set up a body now known as the Edinburgh Students Charities Appeal to carry out a collection of used clothing to be given to the destitute. Further 'rags' and charity events were a prominent feature of university life over the next six decades. In 1931, however, the Students' Representative Council decided that too much time time and effort was being expended on individual charity initiatives which would prove more efficient and lucrative if centrally coordinated. It was decided to hold a grand Charities' Week in the summer of 1932, and to divide the proceeds among the various charities that students had hitherto campaigned for.

The form adopted in the 1932 Charities' Week remained constant for many decades. The centrepiece was a parade of floats accompanied by a street collection by students in fancy dress. A theatrical review was organized, taking the place of the traditional Students' Representative Ceenium, and a comic magazine published to raise further funds.

In the 1980s responsibility for organising the event passed from the Students' Representative Council to the Edinburgh Students Charities Appeal. Since 2006, it has been co-hosted by the ESCA and Edinburgh University Students Association and renamed as the RAG (Raising and Giving) Week

In 1973 Edinburgh University Students' Association was founded via the merger of the Students' Representative Council (SRC), the Edinburgh University Union, and the Chambers Street Union.

The early 1970s saw campaigns both to increase student participation in university governance and to unify all student bodies into a single organization. At the beginning of the decade, there were three discrete bodies:

The Students' Representative Council - Founded in 1884, the SRC was formally recognised as the official representative body of Edinburgh's students by the Universities (Scotland) Act 1889.

Edinburgh University Union - Founded in 1889, the Union was designed to be the focus of the collective life of the university's students. Nonetheless, membership was male-only.

Chambers Street Union - Founded as Edinburgh University Women's Union in 1906, it occupied the Chambers Street premises and assumed its new name in 1964.

On 5 February 1971, Edinburgh University Union finally voted to admit women. Previous attempts had been thwarted by the need for a 75% majority to effect any change in the constitution of the body. By this stage, the Chambers Street Union had already passed a motion admitting men. At a later meeting, on 21 April 1972, Edinburgh University Union voted to make all students automatic members of the Union.

Negotiations now began to dissolve all three bodies and create a unified students' association. It was soon established, however, that the Students' Representative Council could not be dissolved as it had been officially recognised by the Universities (Scotland) Act 1889. Nor was it possible to alter its constitution in a way that would permit it to take over responsibility for the unions.

In the end, it was resolved that the Students' Representative Council and Edinburgh University Union would continue to exist as discrete entities within the proposed association. Chambers Street Union, conversely, would merge entirely with Edinburgh University Union.

Edinburgh University Students' Association came into being on 1 July 1973. Each newly matriculated student would automatically become a member.

The Court now also includes three assessors elected by the General Council, four Senatus assessors, one assesor elected by members of the non-teaching staff, two fully-matriculated students nominated by the Students' Representative Council and eight co-opted members. The Rector (office of) is the President of the Court. The Vice-Chairman of the Court is elected triennially by the Court from among its members. Meetings are normally held seven times a year.

Related Events

• Tercentenary Festival, 1884
• Opening of New Medical School, 1884
• First Publication of the Student, 1887

Sources

• Robert Anderson, 'Ceremony in Context: The Edinburgh University Tercentenary, 1884', Scottish Historical Review, 87 (2008), 121-45 [[1], accessed 1 August 2014]
• Sir Thomas Henry Holland, 'Introduction', in A. Logan Turner (ed.), History of the University of Edinburgh 1883-1933 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1933), pp. xiii-xxx.
• Sir Ian Macpherson, George Gordon Stott, Alan Stewart Orr, and John J. M. Shaw, 'The Life of the Student Community' in History of the University of Edinburgh 1883-1933, pp. 338-61.