During our Students’ Union Elections Media Day on Thursday 28th February, we chatted to the candidates who are running to be elected as your Education Officer for the 2019-20 academic year. Take a look at what they had to say.
Richie Joseph
Richie Joseph is a final year French and German student running to become the next Education Officer.
If he were to be elected as the Education Officer, Richie’s main focus would be to do a full review of student services and using this review to make changes. He focuses specifically on timetabling issues, saying he will try and resolve these, claiming that they are “the core foundation of our education”, but lack any “human element”, continuously creating problems for students.
He goes on to mention that there needs to be more focus on mental health, with the long waiting times at Cripps meaning many go to their personal students as their first point of contact. He claims that, because of this, staff needs more training into how to deal with students in these situations.
Richie would also aim to renovate Hallward Library, its’ lack of plug sockets in comparison to George Green library disadvantages students who have their books in Hallward and prefer to work there. Therefore, he wants everyone to have a “first class” education, ensuring all library facilities are equal.
He is looking forward to meeting new people and coming together to discuss issues as we “are all campaigning to improve this University”.
Richie’s slogan is “Enrich your education”.
Charlotte Hegley
Kabilas Parameswaran
Kabilas Parameswaran is a fourth-year Biology student running for Education Officer.
He is the current faculty rep for Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. His experience includes communicating students’ grievances to members of staff, bridging the gap between students and academic staff.
His slogan is “Destination better Education” and is a spin on his “Kabi” themed campaign material.
Kabilas has three main policies, the first being tuition fees and increased transparency with tuition fees and for students to have a say on how tuition fees are spent. The second is welfare: increased welfare training for tutors and a better welfare support system for students on placements and year abroad.
The thirs is NSS: making the university’s NSS action plans public for each school and for the student body to create more transparency and allow them to have more of an influence.
Kabilas is passionate about putting students voices at the forefront of changes and decisions that are made by the university that will ultimately affect the student. One policy that he would want to see through if elected is to focus on increasing welfare support.
Kabilas is most looking forward to engaging with students during the campaign process and believes it will be a fun experience to meet new people. He is looking forward to Ocean on Friday!
Marvel Kalu
Dimitrios Potsos
Dimitrios Potsos he is a fourth year at the University of Nottingham studying chemical engineering and is interested in becoming Education Officer because it “felt like a natural progression from the roles that I’ve had in the past. For example, being the education rep for chemical engineering”.
Dimitrios’ manifesto is all about “keep moving forward” this idea that we need to bring the University of Nottingham to the 21st century and looking to what a modern university can be. His three main points are modernising our education, enhancing the relationship between students and the student union; finally, to recognise Nottingham as a global university.
He wants to put forward incentives that will help digital learning students, so students who have laptops, tablets by increasing charger outlets and Wi-Fi across campus. Dimitrios also believes that there is a lot to be done in connecting students and staff, especially regarding mental health and teaching staff how to properly acknowledge students with mental health difficulties.
Dimitrios recognises UoN as a global university, acknowledging that a third of UoN’s student body is international and wants to increase BME representation and promoting international students. He is looking forward to the Hustings because there are quite a lot of interesting questions to be asked.
Marvel Kalu
Cassie Ulrich
Cassie is the current SU Postgraduate Officer and she is now running for the Education Officer position. She previously studied a Masters in Management in the Business School.
Cassie has two main policies in her manifesto. Her first is lecture capture, “students across faculties are having very different experiences and are demanding that they have access to their education. There’re issues with lectures not being recorded, or being recorded and not put out for weeks. So, students aren’t able to review and revise enough. There’s an accessibility issue for disabled students or students who need to take a mental health day.”
“There are also issues if you’re an international student, and maybe the lecturer speaks too quickly. The university needs to commit to an opt-out policy and get with the rest of the sector”.
Additionally, Cassie has worked with the Education Network this year and described how “the next big thing that has really been evident through the voice of students this year has been headaches with timetabling and communication with student services.”
“It’s been so difficult and so frustrating for students this year. There needs to be a serious review of how timetabling is done to benefit students. That could look like a set timetable, so you know what every week looks like and if it changes you know at the start of term.”
This is the third SU Officer position that Cassie has ran for at The University of Nottingham. She expressed that “every time has been different for me. Given that I’m a current officer, I’m really looking forward to seeing how other candidates speak about what they’re passionate about, what they’re interested in and what to change. I’m really captivated by people’s abilities to grow and learn and articulate that to other people.”
Cassie’s slogans are #CountonCassie #CountonLectureCapture #CountonStudentServicesReform #CountonImprovedWelfareSupport #CountonHiddenCourseCostReform #TheCountdownhasbegun.
Sophie Hunt
For more information on the candidates read their manifestos on the Student Leader Page.
Featured image: Ella Taylor.
Article images courtesy of Impact Images.
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