Student engagement is increasingly part of higher education rhetoric. It is seen as a means for universities to understand and enhance the student experience. This has been prompted by a number of potentially conflicting factors. These include growing consumerism in higher education, the rise of user involvement and the notion of students as partners in education. Despite this, student engagement in universities is under-researched and under-theorised. This paper is based on an exploratory research project to consider the role of student representation in engagement. It borrows from theory developed in the compulsory education sector to explore how course representatives occupy the ground between providing information for the university and offering a mechanism for students to work as partners in their education. The paper concludes that representation can enhance engagement, but that its impact will be mediated by the willingness of the institution to adapt its procedures and processes.