Reimagining Student Elections: How NCI Students’ Union Went Digital with evasys
Faced with high costs and limited flexibility from their previous provider, the National College of Ireland (NCI) Students’ Union (NCISU) sought the advice of their institution, who, in turn, recommended that the Union consider using evasys, to provide a smarter, faster and more affordable way to run their student elections and referendum.
What followed was a transformative shift — from paper-based limitations to a fully digital, user-friendly system that managed both student nominations and elections, engaged hundreds of students, delivered results in under two hours and laid the groundwork for long-term savings and scalability.
Key highlights:
The Challenge:
The National College of Ireland Students’ Union needed a more efficient, transparent and cost-effective solution to manage their student elections process. Their previous provider had delivered a functional system – but the cost was prohibitive.
Additionally, the existing process offered limited flexibility for customisation and input from SU officers. With newly appointed leaders and evolving student engagement goals, NCISU sought a solution that could better reflect their democratic values and operational needs, particularly in a blended learning campus environment.
Timescales were tight, as the new solution was required within just a few weeks.
The Solution:
Having already used evasys for module evaluation, graduate outcomes and programme evaluations, NCI’s Quality and Institutional Effectiveness (QIE) team responded positively to the suggestion that the platform might also be used to run student elections. The Students’ Union worked with evasys and the College’s QIE team, SU officers and the SU Electoral Commission to design and deliver a full digital election process—including nominations, elections, and a constitutional referendum.
In an overall team effort, evasys designed the surveys, NCI helped to mobilise College resources and SU officers triangulated from the perspective of the Students’ Union.
Key features of the evasys implementation included:
NCISU Team 2025
The National College of Ireland Students' Union
Patricia Maguire, Director of Quality and Institution Effectiveness, National College of Ireland
Tre Robert, President, NCI Students’ UnionThe Results:
The elections were completed smoothly, with over 700 student participants – a strong figure in the context of NCI’s diverse student body, which includes a high number of remote learners. Every key milestone, from nominations to final vote counts, was delivered successfully and on schedule.
Notably, evasys supported:
The transition from third-party election management to a more internal, technology-supported approach also resulted in significant cost savings. NCI SU reported saving over €3,500 on this year’s elections alone – with future years expected to be even more efficient now that the new process is in place with templates that can be reused in the coming years.
Tre Robert, President, NCISUNext Steps:
With the successful delivery of nominations, elections and a referendum, the NCI Students’ Union plans to expand its use of evasys to support class representative elections, which require onboarding over 200 students each academic year. The adaptability and support from evasys offers a scalable way to handle this growing engagement workload, without stretching internal resources.
NCI demonstrated how a successful partnership between Management and the SU can positively impact the entire student body. By working closely and constructively together alongside evasys, the College and the SU created a more cohesive approach to the SU’s nominations and elections, ultimately delivering a significantly smoother and more positive experience for their students.
