Leacsaidh Marlow
A group of Impact Magazine writers have looked over the candidate manifestos for this year’s Student Union Elections. Our team of elections reporters interviewed every candidate who attended Media Day, discussing their motivations for running and their manifestos. Editor-in-Chief Leacsaidh Marlow has summarised and discussed each candidate’s main manifesto points, and given her views on the manifesto. Voting closes on 13th March 2025 at 5pm.
Alma YingYing
Of her campaign, Alma told Impact: “I believe that every student deserves a great academic experience so I will help every student and I will support the students from different backgrounds to get what they want.”
Key manifesto points:
- Strengthening student representation
- Enhanced teaching & learning quality
- Expanding academic support
- Championing inclusive & accessible education
Alma is a Masters student in Education, having studied her undergraduate degree abroad – she believes this gives her a deep and well-rounded understanding of the academic issues that students face. She has experience in mentoring students and in teaching English.
Alma wishes to push for student voices to be present at every level within the university, to ensure that all decisions are informed by the opinions of current students. In the same vein, she wants to focus on collecting and acting upon student feedback, improving the systems used to collect this feedback so that students’ voices are empowered and changes can be made utilising students’ opinions. Furthermore, Alma wants to tackle wellbeing and diversity issues within education, aiming to introduce more flexible learning options and mental health support so that students from all backgrounds can thrive in their academics.
Alma’s manifesto is well-rounded, approaching academic issues from multiple different directions. It is, however, ambitious in how many topics she wishes to focus on, and many ideas raised are already in place – such as study skills workshops and mentoring programs, so Alma will have to focus on re-imagining and improving these provisions in order to effect changes.
Freya Hazelwood
Freya described the central point of their campaign as being: “Communication, accessibility, and taking charge of your own education.”
Freya is the Senior Course Representative for English, a position which they have held since their second year, and they cite this as a key example of their knowledge and understanding of UoN’s academic feedback processes, as well as how feedback is actioned within faculties. Freya has been responsible for a large portion of the feedback which has been communicated to and actioned within her faculty in the last year, so has a deep understanding of the importance of student feedback, and the challenges faced by students academically. Overall, her manifesto makes clear her relevant experience and how this makes her suited to the role of VP Education.
Key manifesto points:
- Collecting and actioning direct student feedback
- Focus on accessibility for students from all backgrounds
- Empowering student voices and including these in decision-making
The point of their manifesto that Freya is most passionate about is accessibility. Their manifesto clearly identifies struggles that students may face when their education is not tailored to their learning needs, and appreciates the need for easy access to wellbeing support and help with studies. The manifesto demonstrates a strong understanding of the necessity of engaging curriculums, and how important student feedback is in shaping these curriculums. What Freya’s manifesto lacks is clear strategies for targeting the issues that they identify. Increasing engagement with feedback processes proves challenging within the university, as many students are hesitant to use, or unaware of, the course rep system. Thus, Freya’s manifesto would benefit from describing some key points of focus that they aim to tackle and how they aim to enact these.
Moses Nii Otinkorang
Moses told Impact: “I aim to prioritise engaging inclusive learning experience where all students are empowered with the right tools and resources to help them thrive academically and personally.”
Moses has engaged with many different student organisations at UoN, fostering his passion for assisting others to succeed, and believes his desire to support the changes students want makes him a strong candidate for VP Education.
Key manifesto points:
- Working with students, staff and university bodies
- Fostering curiosity, resilience and critical thinking
- Improving student engagement at all levels
The key focus of Moses’s manifesto is on student feedback, and he communicated to us his wish to guarantee that students’ voices are heard and are a key part of decision-making at UoN. He is passionate about making higher education a suitable environment for all, fostering growth and wellbeing at its core. He intends to work with groups of both staff and students to achieve the changes he wants. Moses has a holistic approach to improving education at UoN, with a focus not just on strictly academic issues but all of the other aspects of university life that might affect a student’s ability to learn.
His manifesto is nuanced and supportive in its understanding of the struggles that students face, and champions accessibility to education for all students. He speaks of the importance of encouraging students to be the best version of themselves, with an emphasis on growth and curiosity. It does, however, lack specificity, citing few strategies for tackling these issues. Moses could therefore benefit from making clear exactly how he aims to target and fix the problems that he sees in UoN’s current academic environment.
Head to the UoNSU website to check out all of the candidates and their original manifestos. Cast your votes from Monday 10th March at 9am.
Leacsaidh Marlow
Featured image courtesy of UoNSU, no changes have been made to this image.
SIn-text logo image courtesy of Joseph Banks, no changes have been made to this image.
