Hi, I’m Dipali, a third year maths student running for Education Officer. I’m also heavily involved in the guild. During first year I joined Tennis Courts RA. Since then I’ve been; School of Maths Guild Councillor, an active member of Carnival RAG, MathSoc volunteering officer, a Fresher’s Fest committee member. I’ve worked for the Fresher’s Fest crew, and now work in Joe’s bar. I have noticed many problems with the university, and there shouldn’t be problems when paying £9000 a year. I believe the experience I’ve gained from being an active member of the guild can be used to make noticeable differences.
During lectures, I have observed that lecture room size doesn’t match the number of students in each module. Surely, for £9000 a year, you shouldn’t have to sit on the steps of a lecture theatre. Lecture theatres should be booked according to the number of people in each module. At the beginning of the year there are two weeks in which people can still change modules. Schools should circulate temporary two week timetables for that period. At the end of that second week there should be a room review, where they analyse the number of people signed up to a module, then permanently allocate rooms. Afterwards, a list of empty seminar rooms can be sent to the student body, so they can use the empty available work spaces across the university.
Lecturers should upload a preview of their notes during the summer, for students to make an informed decision of which modules to take. This would mean, the lecture room allocations will be more accurate for the year, as people would have a chance to look at notes, and see if they want to pursue the module. I’ll work to ensure lecturers post their lecture notes at least a week before lectures, so students have time to print and go through them before lectures, to make lectures more accessible for students.
The Student Rep scheme is great; however there isn’t as much engagement as there should be. I believe the best way to encourage engagement is to add a social aspect. Having termly socials and a student reps ball would increase student involvement. The integration of the student rep scheme with course societies would be extremely beneficial to the interaction of student reps with the rest of the year. MathSoc is an amazing example of this, having two senior student reps on committee. It means we can co-ordinate departmental and society events around each other and it makes communication with the school easier. In order to increase engagement with international students there should be an allocated international student rep in each department.
As the government removes caps on student intake, the university is growing. However, annually the university overestimate the amount of available resources. The university should consider the amount of teaching space available. Furthermore, as Birmingham grows, Wi-Fi must improve and I will work with the university to find the best solution to the problem.