Students' Representative Council - History and Presence

History and Presence

Students' Representative Councils in Scotland were established as part of the system of ancient university governance by the Universities (Scotland) Act 1889 in the four extant universities of the time: Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and St Andrews. The existence of an SRC was also incorporated in the Royal Charter of the University of Dundee, which adheres to the ancient governance structure.

More recently, SRCs have been established at the University of Strathclyde and at Heriot-Watt University's Scottish Borders Campus.

In general, SRCs have been submerged into wider Students' Associations, which are an umbrella term for various bodies which not only perform representation tasks, but also cater for student welfare, societies, entertainments (in the form of a Students' Union) and sports (in the form of a Sports' Union). In acknowledgement of this, Aberdeen University Students' Association has elected to use the name Students' Association Council for its SRC, despite its formal and legal title remaining unchanged. An exception to this system is Glasgow University Students' Representative Council which is not part of a Students' Association as a result of the university's retention of its separate male and female students' unions (in the form of the Glasgow University Union and the Queen Margaret Union respectively), although since 1980 both now admit both men and women as full members whilst retaining their separate identities.