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University of York

Online election of members to the Senate

As in previous years, the Senate election will be conducted by means of the online voting system developed by IT Services.

There will be nine vacancies for members of academic staff based in the Faculties to be elected to serve for three years until 31 July 2029. The vacancies to be filled are:

  • ​Faculty of Sciences: 2 vacancies
  • Faculty of Social Sciences: 3 vacancies
  • Faculty of Arts & Humanities: 4 vacancies

To be eligible to stand nominees must be members of academic staff on SM (Senior Management), TR (Teaching and Research), RL (Research Only) or TS (Teaching and Scholarship) contracts.

Candidates must also be seconded by one other member of academic staff, as set out on the nomination form.

While this is a democratic election with the outcome determined by voting in a ‘first past the post’ manner, Senate is particularly keen to strengthen the diversity of its membership and therefore encourages individuals to stand from under-represented groups (which includes female, black, Asian and minority ethnic, disabled, LGBT+ and gender-diverse candidates) and from across the full span of academic grades/roles.

Academic colleagues holding honorary titles of the University (including Emeritus Professor, Emeritus Reader, Honorary Professor, Honorary Fellow, Honorary Visiting Professor or Honorary Visiting Fellow) are not eligible to stand/vote in the election. 

Timescale

The first email from the system inviting nominations will be sent on Tuesday 26 May 2026. 

The final deadline for submission of the self-nomination form (with the completed seconder support and candidate statement) by email is Friday 19 June 2026 (17:00).

Completed nomination forms do not require a signature and should be submitted electronically as an email attachment to governance@york.ac.uk. Receipt will be acknowledged by the team with follow-up if required. If we receive more eligible nominations than there are vacancies, an election will then be held in the period 6 - 31 July 2026. The individuals with the highest number of votes, split by Faculty as above, will serve for three years from 1 August 2026 until 31 July 2029. 

Notes

Up to 18 academic staff members are elected to the Senate. These positions are divided equally between the three Faculties, ie six elected members from each Faculty.

Chaired by the Vice-Chancellor and acting in an advisory capacity to the University Council, the Senate meets four times per year and holds ultimate oversight of University academic policy and regulatory matters.

E-voting and confidentiality

Members of staff require an IT Services username and password to access the online voting system. In order to reassure colleagues about the confidentiality of e-voting, it should be noted that:

  • the online system conducts a data audit which records whether a given username has voted or not (so that an automatically generated reminder email can be sent to those who are yet to vote);
  • the system does NOT capture information regarding the candidates selected by individual voters but it does automatically count the votes submitted for each candidate, ie it is still a secret ballot conducted on a 'first past the post' basis.

Any queries relating to the election should be sent to governance@york.ac.uk.

Election dates

  • Tuesday 26 May 2026: email announcing election and inviting nominations
  • Friday 19 June 2026: deadline for nominations
  • Monday 6 July 2026: email invitation to vote
  • Friday 31 July 2026: deadline for voting
  • w/c Monday 3 August 2026: results announced