Lancaster University Students’ Union is an exciting incorporated charity with an £8m turnover and one clear goal; helping every one of our 14,000+ students to have successful learning experiences.

Our vision is for the university to be a place where all our students can feel a sense of belonging and know that their students’ union is a positive force for change driven by their collective interests and welfare.

We’ve recently embarked on delivering a new strategy, dedicated to ensuring students’ voices help to shape their University experience. We're continuously developing activities to help our members overcome the challenges and barriers they face to feeling part of the university community and become impactful leaders and citizens, led by our fantastic student Officers and Representatives.

We support students to create activities, events and opportunities for each other, facilitating 200 student groups including societies, sports clubs and College Execs. We work with 40 organisations to provide community volunteering and have students placed in every school across the district. We support our members through crucial advice and support services as well as operating commercial services such as a student lettings agency, an on-campus supermarket and a nightclub.

The Chief Executive and staff team work alongside the Officer Trustees to run the union on a day-to-day basis.

The Role

Our five External Trustees work alongside six elected officer trustees and three appointed current student trustees to form our Board. As the governors of the Union our trustees ensure we meet our purpose, have an effective strategy for our members and serve the needs of Lancaster students for years to come. External Trustees are appointed for a term of up to four years, which can be extended for a second term.

To contribute effectively in this role, you will need a commitment to working with a diverse board, the desire to support individuals who might be in their first position of leadership, and the ability to articulate complex information in plain English.

We would particularly welcome applications from new candidates with finance, commercial or HR experience and a clear interest in membership organisations and/or higher education but not necessarily Lancaster.

 We’re looking to champion equality for all of our students and would especially welcome applications from people from a diverse range of backgrounds who can help us to achieve this.

Here's our website, the University's website, and our entry at the Charity Commission