Eight days after completing my final examination, it was time for my final corporation meeting. As a student I was finished with Wilberforce, but as a governor I still had one last job to do.

My report for this term was rather shorter than were most of its predecessors. Whereas a year ago we had spent most of this term fretting about an end of year event (which was originally envisioned as an elaborate outdoor festival, but which after months of deliberation was reduced to a sweet stall at the back of a lunchtime musical performance), this time we had that responsibility lifted from us by the PE department. Their sports presentation evening doubled as the summer ball for the year, which left us as councillors fast running out of business. We were also running out of people.

As the weeks flew by and examinations eclipsed schooling as the primary reason for one to be present at college, we found that attendance steadily declined as councillors devoted time to urgent revision, or found that their examinations clashed with meetings. Before the end of May our president (Sohaib Muhammad) had actually finished his courses altogether and moved to Manchester. With the dawning realisation that our council would go extinct before it was dissolved, the decision was made to prorogue ourselves before the half-term break and not hold any meetings in June.

We did get some things done, though: After the announcement of a general election, we stepped up our efforts to get students registered to vote. Already this had been a project recommended to us, but at that time it seemed the only elections this year would be the local ones – and not even in our area. With Mrs May going to the country (coincidentally the 56th parliament sat last on the same day we resumed our meetings after Easter), this key to democracy took on new-found importance.

I  personally erected several large posters at key positions around the campus with the date of the registration deadline and the web address for the digital service. The college also sent group emails to students to reinforce this, as well making paper registration forms available from the main reception desk. On 18th May we forwent our penultimate plenary in favour of directly handing out such forms to students during the lunch period – although a breakdown in communications meant that this did not quite achieve what we had planned.

At our final meeting before adjourning sine die, we discussed possible measures to improve the effectiveness of the student council for future cohorts. Looking back at the previous two years, it was decided that recruitment should begin early, taking advantage of prospective students appearing at welcome days in June and July. We even floated the idea of setting up a shadow council during the early summer which could then hit the ground running come September. We also suggested to ditch the coordinators and subcommittees which, from our experience, existed only in theory and even then very faintly. There was support for having council meetings scheduled as an enrichment activity, giving it a full hour in a student’s timetable rather than being hastily packed into a lunch break. Finally, I was insistent that it had to be students themselves who did the majority of the talking – for in review of my minutes I found that invariably it was the staff-members who would dominate the dialogue.

I was given a round of applause after my presentation and thanked by the governors for my submissions at this and the previous five meetings. It has been mentioned to me several times that earlier student governors have rarely if ever attended so many corporation meetings during their tenures.

Membership of the student council – and attendance of the corporation – has been one of the defining features of my time at Wilberforce. I can only hope that my successor gets as much out of it as I did.