Achievements
Funding: Fairer Funding for Postgraduates is underway, and details on the campaign are here. I created a survey to have a better view of funding issues postgraduate students face. The responses so far have been harrowing. The answers will feed into the report, which once finished, will be presented at various committees and will be published on our website. Hannan (slice the price) and I held a Bush House session for our campaigns to raise awareness and to distribute the demand slips.
Discounts: I have been working with Paul Teulon, Registry services, on a paper that we will be presenting to the senior management team in a few weeks. The paper proposes the introduction of a discount for KCL graduates hoping to pursue postgraduate study at the university. This is part of the fair funding campaign and my manifesto.
Digital Transformation: I am working with our digital team on an accountability tool for the sabbatical officers. We are inspired by similar devices used on Birmingham and Cardiff student union websites. This tool will be based on our manifesto points with a progression bar. It will be embedded on a dedicated page on our website at a later date.
Automatic Upgrades: I submitted a paper to academic standards subcommittee about automatic upgrades. Under the current regulations for bachelor’s degrees and some integrated masters anyone, a mark within 2% of a boundary and with 60 credits in the higher award is automatically upgraded. There is a need for greater parity between programme types; in my paper, I recommend that the automatic upgrade is applied consistently. The paper will be discussed at a working group, and you will be updated accordingly on the outcome. Many thanks to Natasha, an MA student, for bringing forward this work.
Campaigns: #sheshouldrun campaign inspired by Sheffield student union aimed to address the gender imbalance for women students running for leadership positions in the union, particularly sabbatical and trustee roles. The campaign was launched for the spring election, and it included two events and different workshops around the university. Preliminary data show an increase in the number of women candidates nominated for positions.
The other education officers, Hannan and Mohamed, network officers and I have been writing the KCLSU response to the Access Participation Plan. Once completed, the answer will be available on our website.