Planning a Guest Speaker event
If your group is planning to host an external speaker as part of an event, you must follow a specific process to ensure that we can help you with this. The SU, like other charities and Higher Education insititutions is bound by specific laws ensuring free speech, so this process is in place to ensure that we comply with these as an organisation. You must follow this process for guest speakers, regardless of whether your event is on or off campus.
Timescale
The most important part of planning a guest speaker event is the timescale for planning. For any guest or external speaker event, regardless of the location, size of the event or profile of the speaker, you must submit your event proposal and guest speaker form 21 working days' in advance of the event. If the form is received later than this, the event will automatically be rejected, and instead we will have to ask you to propose a new date and time for the event to happen.
Proposing your event
To arrange a guest speaker event, you must submit this in the way you would submit any other event proposal, including a guest speaker form. You can see the full details of how to submit an event proposal on the Event Planning page.
Assessing the risk
After you submit your form, the Student Opportunities Team will research your proposed speaker and assess any risks which might be associated with the event.
If the event is low risk, and your risk assessment is sufficient to cover this, your event will be approved.
If the event is medium risk, we will meet with you to discuss any additional risk mitigations which will be put in place to ensure the event can happen safely.
If a guest speaker is high risk, we will refer this to The SU Senior Management Team for review. With this information they will conduct a risk assessment to determine the level of risk and whether this risk can be regulated. The risk assessment and decision will be taken to The Board of Trustees and if the speaker is deemed high risk the request will be refused. If they deem it to be medium risk then we will contact you to discuss mitigating the risks so your event can take place.
Advertising your event
No guest speaker or other type of event should be advertised until this has been approved. This includes on the SU website, social media or in any other ways.
Cancellation
The SU reserves the right to cancel, prohibit or delay any event with an external speaker if our policy is not followed or if health, safety and security criteria cannot be met.
For more information, please see the full guest speaker policy below.
Guest Speaker Approval Form