On Tuesday 6th of March, all the candidates running for the position of Postgraduate Officer participated in a hustings run by Dimitrios Potsos.
This year there are five candidates running for the position of Postgraduate Office: Tiara Cosme, Daniel Grossegger, Newy (Xinyuan Yu), Kunj Sachdeva, and Agata Miezaniec.
One of the first questions asked was how they plan to engage Postgraduate students who are only at the University for a year or less.
Daniel suggested that good communication was key in engaging postgrad students. He proposed improving the e-mailing systems because a lot of students are not on the right e-mailing lists and miss out on a lot of information.
Kunj said this was one of his “favourite questions.” He suggested organising formal meeting dinners where everyone would be invited.
“Daniel suggested that good communication was key in engaging postgrad students”
The next question had to do with time management and balancing everything.
Daniel said that sometimes he stays up working until 3am just to ensure he gets everything done. Setting priorities is important to him.
Kunj said that “everything is already managed over here.” However, he did mention international students and having a better way into balancing that.
The two candidates were then asked about how they plan to expand the Postgraduate Metwork to work with more Sutton Bonington students.
“They have an amazing guild down there,” said Daniel. He plans to hold more events on Sutton Bonington Campus instead of simply encouraging the students to come over to University Park Campus.
Kunj believes that there should be more face-to-face interactions which means either them getting a bus over to University Park or heading over to Sutton Bonington. He said: “Instead of managing educational trips to Leeds” they should have trips to Uni Park.
“Kunj said that he supports the strikes and that students should be encouraged to get involved”
Next, they were asked what their number number one priority would be once elected Officer.
Daniel said his first priority is to be known by the students and the faculty. “It might sound dull but it’s important,” he added.
Kunj talks about planning educational trips and creating those formal dinners that he previously mentioned. He further on talked about the importance of research and how he would want to expand on that.
When asked what the major hurdle is for Postgrads to get involved with the SU, Kunj needed some time to think about this. In the end he came with the suggestion of just trying his best to get them involved in other activities.
Speaking from personal experience, Daniel said that lack of time and forgetfulness were his most used excuses for not attending events. He credits this to the amount of work postgraduates do, and proposes sending out e-mail reminders to students. “I know it’s annoying, but it’s the only possible way to get attention,” shared Daniel.
“Daniel said his first priority is to be known by the students and the faculty”
Talking about the current UCU strikes that are occurring, Kunj said that he supports the strikes and that students should be encouraged to get involved as this is a “long terms or life time issue.”
Daniel said he supported the strikes and the lecturers. For taught students, he would try to negotiate with professors to take some time to support the students by e-mails and give at least a bit of feedback.
Note: Tiara Cosme, Agata Miezaniec and Newy (Xinyuan Yu) did not attend the hustings.
Sarah Lindgarde and Goda Naujokaityte
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