MPs will soon debate student and staff representation on tertiary education institution councils and they must give at least two seats to both students and staff, the Tertiary Education Union said.Chris Hipkins’ Education Amendment Bill will restore a legal requirement for every institution to have at least one student and one staff member on their council.The Bill recently completed its Select Committee stage, where MPs disappointingly stuck with the government’s proposals to require institutions to give students and staff one seat each on councils, despite hundreds of submissions calling on them to increase representation to at least two seats.It will now be sent to a Committee of the Whole House, most likely in mid-October. During this stage, the Bill will likely be considered part by part, giving all MPs the chance to debate it in detail.Importantly, MPs may propose amendments to the Bill being considered during the Committee stage. TEU is urging MPs to come forward with an amendment that will require institutions to have at least two seats each for students and staff on their council.The two staff representatives should be made up of one academic staff representative and one general staff representative.The TEU recently launched a petition calling for such a change.Added to this, the TEU says all councils must be made up of at least 12 members to ensure that there is space to have iwi and community representation at the council table alongside the two staff and two student representatives.People can sign the petition online here.