The UWA Student Guild is the official student representative body at the University of Western Australia, representing the interests of students to the university, government and the wider community, as well as providing services to students. As of 2021, the Guild is affiliated with the National Union of Students, the peak representative body for Australian tertiary students. In 2021, 96% of the 21,265 UWA students were members of the Guild.

Guild Council is the overall governing body of the Guild and consists of voting and non-voting members democratically elected at the annual Guild elections or at department annual general meetings.

Governance

Annual Elections Student representatives are elected to their positions by students in annual elections held in September. Elections are conducted by the Western Australian Electoral Commission. Elected office bearers take office as of 1 December in the year they are elected.

Guild Executive The Guild Executive consists of the Guild President, the Guild Vice-president, the Guild General Secretary, and the Chair of Guild Council. Both the Guild Vice-president and the Chair of Guild Council are elected by and from Guild Council at the first meeting for the Guild Year.

Guild Council The Guild is administered by a council of student representatives elected for one-year terms, beginning on December 1 and ending on the 30th of November in the following year. There are twenty-one voting members of council, and several more non-voting members. Members may hold a voting and a non-voting role concurrently. Unlike some other student unions, there is no financial compensation for student representatives, with the exception of the President and Postgraduate Representative who work at the Guild full-time and part-time respectively during their term.

Members of Guild Council are:

Guild President: the peak student representative at UWA. The 2025 Guild President is Nikhita (Nikhi) Talluri. Vice President: is responsible for assisting the President as a member of the Guild Executive. The 2025 Vice President is Oliver Barrett. Chair of Guild Council (or Chair): is responsible for chairing all meetings of Guild Council as well as presiding over statutes and by-laws of the Guild. The 2025 Chair is Aidan Kirby-Smith. General Secretary (GenSec): sits on several committees, publishes the agendas and minutes for Guild Council, and assists with organising the budget for the Guild. The 2025 General Secretary is Annika Leunig. President of Education Council: chairs Education Council (Ed. Council) which provides a forum for students to have a voice on educational issues. The 2025 Education Council President is Jay Williams. President of Public Affairs Council (PAC): is responsible for overseeing the activities of PAC as well as reporting to Guild Council. The 2025 PAC President is Aimee Chan. President of Societies Council (SOC): is responsible for overseeing the activities of SOC as well as reporting to Guild Council. The 2025 SOC President is Ethan Tan. President of the Postgraduate Students' Association (PSA): oversees the PSA which is the representative body for postgraduate students at UWA. The 2025 PSA President is Charlotte (Charlie) Backshall. President of the International Students' Department (ISD): is responsible for overseeing ISD which represents international students studying at UWA. The 2025 ISD President is Archit Menon. The 2025 Western Australian Students' Aboriginal Corporation (WASAC) Chair: is Ashleigh Petkovic. Women's Officer: is responsible for overseeing the Women's Department which represents women and non-binary students on campus. The 2025 Women's Officer is Ruby Membry. 13 Ordinary Guild Councillors (OGC). The 2024 OGCs are: Oliver Barrett. Ritika Menon. Kassidy Anderson. Jude Kamalddin. Katrina Soares. Naveen Nimalan. Lachy Flavel. Ojaswi Shrestha. Finn Penter. Aidan Kirby-Smith. Olivia Stronach. Archana Ashok. Rama Sugiartha.

Standing Invitees are not members of Guild Council but have the same rights and privileges. Standing invitees are:

Immediate past Guild President. Wellbeing Officer: is responsible for overseeing the activities of the Wellbeing Department which co-ordinates and organises the wellbeing activities. The 2025 Wellbeing Officer is Jeffrey Tang. Environment Officer: is responsible for overseeing the Environment Department which seeks to promote sustainability for the Guild and University. The 2025 Environment Officer is Julia Suffell. Sports Officer: is responsible for overseeing the activities of the Sports Department which seeks to promote active lifestyles for UWA students. The 2025 Sports Officer is Damian Zhang. Residential Students' Department (RSD) President: oversees the activities of RSD which is the peak representative body for students living on-campus. The 2025 RSD President is Elizabeth (Libby) Bailey, Bailey was appointed following the resignation of Anthony Sims. Pride Officer: is responsible for overseeing the Pride Department. The 2025 Pride Co-Officers are Aryaman Bhoosreddy and Ashel Siby. Access Officer: is responsible for overseeing the Access Department. The 2024 Access Co-Officers are Tabarek Alhaffar and Lucinda Bartlett. Ethnocultural Officer: is responsible for overseeing the Ethnocultural Department which serves as a representative voice for culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) students to Guild Council. The 2025 Ethnocultural Co-Officers are Selina Al Ansari and Reihaneh Gholilou. Volunteering Chair. Mature Age Students' Association (MASA) Chair. Any other Department officers.

Services provided The Guild runs a number of activities including Orientation Day (O-Day), the Weekly Tav Quiz and welfare events. Guild Departments and Subsidiary Councils run other events, such as Club Carnival run by the Societies Council.

The Guild supports and assists a network of more than 140 affiliated clubs and societies on campus through the Societies Council, catering to a very wide range of interests (religious, theatrical, cultural etc.). The Guild runs the majority of catering outlets on campus, including the Tavern, and a volunteering centre.

The Guild's Student Assist provides one-on-one academic advocacy, financial counselling, a food pantry, and interest-free loans.

Student media

The Publications Committee oversees print publications from student departments. This includes publications such as Pelican, Damsel Magazine (Women's Department), and Lighthouse Magazine (International Students' Department).

Pelican was established in 1930, making it one of the oldest student publications in Australia.

PROSH is a Guild initiative that began in 1931 and is the oldest and most successful single-day charity event in the country run entirely by students. The tradition sees UWA students dress up in costumes and sell the satirical newspaper to raise money for charity.

History

Foundation The first meeting of Guild Council was held on Friday the 11th of April in 1913 with Sir John Winthrop Hackett serving as the first Guild President. Due to tuition being free at UWA at the time, there were limited resources for social and sporting activities, this resulted in the Guild taking these activities on and charging a membership fee of a half-crown, two shillings and a sixpence.

Cruickshank-Routley Memorial Prize In 1955, following the deaths of two final year law students - Ian Cruickshank and George Routley - the Cruickshank-Routley Memorial Prize was established by the Guild. In July 1983, an inaugural Cruickshank-Routley Memorial Prize Dinner was held which has now become the annual Guild Ball, held in October. The Cruickshank-Routley Memorial Prize is awarded to the student who has made the greatest contribution to student life at UWA. In 2023, the prize was $500.

'New' Guild Building In 2021, the UWA Student Guild held a Guild Alumni event to celebrate fifty years since the opening of the New Guild Building. The event was attended by former Guild President, Kim Beazley as well as former Guild Councillor the Hon. Robert French AC.

Controversies

Racism controversy

The 2013 edition of annual charity newspaper Prosh caused significant controversy when a racist article, "dream-time horoscopes" lead to a public relations disaster for the Guild, with the Indigenous Communities Education & Awareness Foundation (ICEA) withdrawing support from the paper. SBS News reported that the horoscopes read "don't get stuck in a rut, shake up your daily routine and grab yourself a block of V-B instead of export". The Guild President at the time, Cameron Barnes, apologised for the article and committing to conducting an independent review of the newspaper's editorial processes.

Missing money In May 2014, the Guild hired audit and tax firm BDO to investigate financial irregularities in the Guild's 2013 accounts which identified between $800,000 and $900,000 in financial irregularities. Following the investigation, a staff member was dismissed as confirmed by the then Guild President, Tom Henderson. In 2018, a former financial officer of the Guild confessed to stealing more than $500,000 from the organisation. The financial officer was ordered to pay back $560,000 to the Guild's insurer as well as sentenced to four years in jail.

Past Guild Presidents YearNameRef.1913Sir John Winthrop Hackett1914Mr JJ Fitzgerald1915Mr JG Robertson1916Mr HS Thompson1917Mr J Shearer1918Mr HT Stables1919Mr AF Backhouse1920Mr E Grace1921Mr EW Gillett1922Mr HPD Lyon1923Mr F Maw1923+Mr TA Hartrey1924Mr SG Demasson1925Mr W Southern1926Mr GL Throssell1927Mr KL Cooper1928Mr RG Wright1929Mr AM Stewart1930Mr RV Nevile1931Mr HC Coombs1932Mr C Sanders1933Mr TG Wilsmore1934Mr TH Roberts1935Mr PWE Curtin1936Mr GP Paterson1937Mr NG Traylen1938Mr H Giese1939Mr S Johnson1940Mr AJ Williams1941Mr GB Hill1942Mr FM Bennett1943Mr JM Thomson1944Mr AL Arcus1945Mr FH Hibberd1946Mr GE Ross1947Mr DD Dunn1948Mr PD Durack1949Mr SB Rosier1950Mr DE Hutchison1951Mr JO Stone1952Mr RJ Hawke1953Mr BH Lochtenberg1953+Mr LG Wilson1954Mr JH McConnell1955Mr JFM Gillett1956Mr EN Maslen1957Mr JK Walsh1958Mr KB Paterson1959Mr RD Nicholson1960Mr EM Palandri1961Mr GG Harvey1962Mr RSW Lugg1963Mr AH Fels1964Mr DR Williams1965Mr SG Errington1966Mr RB Alexander1967Mr PG Edwards1968Mr D MacKinlay1969Ms SJD Boyd1970Mr KC Beazley1971Mr RJ Perry1972Mr JA McGinty1973Mr RB Porter1974Mr PM Alexander1975Mr DC Parker1976Mr NG Roberts1977Mr AD Fitzgerald1978Mr WR Grace1979Mr KW Strahan1980Mr DN Anderson1981Mr ERJ Dermer1982Mr MW Rennie1983Mr MJ Huston1984Miss DE Willmont1985Mr DJ Kelly1986Mr MT Schaper1987Miss JA Quinlivan1988Mr AC Tomlinson1989Mr MZ Sumich1990Mr TL Smith1991Bruce Baskerville1992Justin Kennedy1993Luke Forsyth1994Sarah Haynes1995Natalie Curling1996Simon Freitag1997James Fogarty1998Rosie Dawkins1999Emmanuel Hondros2000Tim Huggins2001Kristy Duckham2002Ryan Batchelor2003Myra Robinson2004Susie Byers2005Natalie Hepburn2006Mathew Chuk2007Dave de Hoog2008Nik Barron2009Dominic Rose2010Emma Greeney2011Tom Antoniazzi2012Matthew Mckenzie2013Cameron Barnes2014Thomas Henderson2015Lizzy O’Shea2016Maddie Mulholland2017Nevin Jayawardena2018Megan Lee2019Conrad Hogg2020Bre Shanahan2021Emma Mezger2022Amitabh Jeganathan2023Geemal Jayawickrama2024Indi Creed2025Nikhita Talluri2026Oliver Barrett

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