Hello, my favourite students! I hope you are having a wonderful day today, even if it is full of revision. I wanted to provide an update on some of the stuff I have been working on but also some reflections of my attendance at the highest governing body of King's: Council.  

The President of KCLSU (me!) is the only student member of Council, which is less than ideal - but worry not, I am working on having more student representation in the future. I thought I would try to write a blog out considering I am on the board at Council and attempt to summarise some of what is discussed.  

Council is made up of 19 members – me, 7 staff members (including 3 staff who are elected by other staff members) and the rest are independent members who provide outside expertise and scrutinize the decision making to hold KCL Senior Management to account. Council discusses many different topics, which you can see the past papers here.

There are redacted bits, however, I can assure you that I have full access to the papers. I submit a regular report to Council to give an accurate picture of the issues students are facing, as the largest stakeholder group of King’s, I take this responsibility really seriously, so I produce very in-depth reports (often over 50 pages, much to the annoyance of other members who has to read them, but I don’t really care as long as they understand the student experience). This allows me to influence the mindset of other council members so they can make decisions with students at the heart of them. 

So, what is generally talked about in Council? 

• Whether KCL is meeting its Key Performance Indicators 
• Student Mental Health Strategy 
• Assessment and Feedback 
• KCL Financial Accounts 
• and so much more! 

I also have my standing report where I put in what I think they need to know, which may include things like the BME attainment gap (particularly for black students), issues with student wellbeing, or tuition fee refunds.

I hope this has given you a bit more of an idea of what Council is and what kind of topics are discussed in the meetings - if you'd like to read more of these updates as and when these meetings happen let me know!