Staff Elections to University Court

Outcome of Voting 

Steven Logie has been elected to serve on Court as the member drawn from the non-academic staff of the University.

Steven is eligible to serve for a period of four years, commencing on 1 August 2011.

Polling closed at 12 noon on 12 May.   331 members of staff cast their vote over the eight days that the polls were open.  The details of the count (conducted under the Instant Run-off voting system*) are as follows:

Elected:   Steven Logie

Stats:

Number of Ballot Papers Issued:         829
Number of Ballot Papers Returned:     331                 Turnout:    40%
Invalid Ballot Papers:                           3
Valid Ballot Papers submitted:            328 

Instant Run-Off Process:

M Hameed was eliminated after the 1st Count as the candidate with fewest first preferences.  H Warner was eliminated after the 2nd Count as the candidate with fewest first preferences and re-distributed votes.

L Young was eliminated after the 3rd Count as the candidate with fewest first preferences and re-distributed votes.

At the end of the 4th Count, S Logie had gained most first preferences and re-distributed votes and is thus the winner.  G Bishop is the runner-up.

* Note: The Instant Run-off system of preferential voting aims to ensure that the successful candidate has more than 50% of votes.  If no candidate has a majority of first preference votes after the initial count, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and votes for that candidate are redistributed according to the voters' second preferences. This process continues until one candidate receives more than half of all votes cast (or until the votes are exhausted). 

Information about the position

The non-academic staff member of Court is an integral part of the University's governing body.  The position is specified in the Constitution of University Court and provides an important input to the discussions and decisions of Court.  The member participates in meetings of the Court and one or two of its sub-committees as well as the annual strategy meeting involving the Court and the Principal's Executive Group (PEG). 

The successful candidate will contribute to Court discussions using knowledge and experience from their own background -including their experience of working at the University.  They cannot, however, be 'mandated' or otherwise represent the views of others.

Under our governance structure, the successful candidate fulfils their duties independent of the people who voted.  S/he is expected to voice views as an individual who is broadly representative of rather than directly representing the non-academic staff of the University.  

Further information about the nature of Court members' responsibilities is available here.    You can download information on Court from the Governance Intranet site. 

The appointment will be for four years from 1 August 2011 and the successful candidate will join Court at the first meeting of Court in Session 2011/12. 

Voting

Staff were able to vote from Wednesday 4th May 2011 until 12.00 noon on Thursday 12th May 2011. Voting was conducted via e-mail, with an alternative available for staff without access to their own e-mail account.

Staff were eligible to vote if they were employed under permanent non-academic contracts that are either full-time or part-time.  Copies of the election regulations are posted below.

The 'Instant Run-off' method of preferential voting was used.  This means that voters were asked to rank candidates in order of preference (1, 2, 3 etc) rather than by making a single choice with a cross.

Information is available from the link below to explain more about how voting worked.

Information and documents

  Copy of the general election regulations (pdf file). This is an important document for guiding the conduct of the election, including specifying who is eligible to take part.

Information on Court's responsibilities (link to the Governance Intranet pages)

To find out more about how voting will work, choose help (link to another Intranet page)

For more details please contact the 'returning officer': 

John McDermott
Governance Officer (Court Committee Support)
Governance Services
Room 7.B.16 
Sighthill Campus

t: 0131 455 6408
f: 0131 455 6269

e: j.mcdermott@napier.ac.uk