My year in office has been such a rollercoaster ride, with more ups than downs. My team and I have overcome several challenges, whilst working on so many valuable projects that have helped us improve as individuals and team members, but has also greatly and positively contributed to the overall experience of our students at University of Birmingham.
This year has seen many milestones and achievements, including: hosting events, ensuring wellbeing support services are improved, engaging students in sports and societal activities, working to improve the international student experience, ensuring Postgraduates feel a part of the wider UOB community, improving our democratic system and declaring a climate emergency, amongst other things.
The list is endless, but here are my ‘Wins’ for this year...
BLACK VOICES AND DECOLONIZING THE CURRICULUM
This year we launched our Black Voices campaign, to elevate the voices of Black Students, and tackle the 15% attainment gap and 10% ‘student satisfaction gap’, that we see in the National Student Survey.
Based on research and your feedback, this campaign has led to the development of a Black Voices Manifesto. Moving forward we will be campaigning for this to be implemented across the University.
Furthermore, with the help of student Orla Taylor-Davies, we have now circulated a document on ‘Decolonizing the Curriculum’ to our Student Reps. This document lists modules which engage with questions of race, representation and inequality.
PG SKILLS ACQUISITION PROJECT
Earlier in the year, I launched a Skills Acquisition Project, aimed at ensuring postgraduate students have the information needed to develop both their transferable and vocational skills, making sure they’re in the best position post-graduation.
To kick-start this project I created an online space to signpost you to relevant careers advice services and useful resources. Be sure to check them out!
PG EVENTS
Throughout the year, I have organised several PG events and have recorded a very good turnout of postgraduate taught students, as well as postgraduate researches from all colleges. One of our popular regular events; “POSTGRAD TEA and CAKE” has helped foster postgraduate community engagement, allowing different students from different backgrounds to connect, play games and share inspiring stories in a relaxing environment.
TOWN-HALL Q&A SESSIONS
COVID-19 brought much uncertainty regarding academics, the student experience and your futures. In order to help Postgrads get clarity on academic issues, a series of Town Hall question and answer sessions were organised.
These Q&A sessions gave students the opportunity to ask PGT and PGR College leads questions, to reassure students of the University’s commitment to making sure students still make the most of university life, despite the unexpected circumstances.
LINKEDIN LEARNING
One thing I have learned throughout this period is that, opportunities for personal development are right before you, whether you see them or not. One of these opportunities for me has been LinkedIn learning as I have just completed my third course in a very short timeframe. I believe that personal development is essential when preparing yourself for future career opportunities and LinkedIn Learning is a great platform for this.
I was part of the task and finish group that helped roll out this amazing platform, and what makes this more valuable is that UOB students can now access LinkedIn Learning for free during their studies, and for two years after they graduate. This is an amazing opportunity if I do say so myself and I have written a blog post on how to get started - thank me later.
VIRTUAL NEIGHBOURHOOD
We created a "Virtual Neighbourhood" aimed at engaging our students and sustaining our community virtually through different online activities and informative updates. On this platform, students are given the opportunity to also share lots of fun content to keep everyone engaged and positive amidst everything going on right now.
UOB POSITIVITY
Towards the beginning of lockdown we launched an online campaign aimed at students focusing on the positives; be it new hobbies we’ve picked up or pretty much anything that has given us some sort of happiness regardless of the COVID happenings.
With this campaign, students are encouraged to share pictures to #UOBPositivity showing us how you’ve been staying productive in isolation and the things that have made you smile.
VIRTUAL PG EVENTS FOR PGS IN ACCOMMODATION
Of the approx. 30% of residents remaining in Student Accommodation, around 800 of them are Postgraduates, so we arranged daily activities for students in halls and ran virtual chat sessions.
PG HUB AND STUDY SPACE
As part of my manifesto, I wanted to create a well equipped PG specific space and hub within the University. I have been able to kick start conversations around this with key contacts at the Uni, to set a strong foundation for any work to be done in future.
BECOMING GUILD PRESIDENT
I thought about placing this at the top of my list to represent how glad and honoured I feel to have been elected as Guild President, but it does not in any way trump my contributions as PG officer and work supporting both the postgraduate and undergraduate communities.
I consider my new position a big win because not only do I have the opportunity to work alongside my amazing colleagues at the Guild for another year, I also have the opportunity to positively impact student experience at UOB.
These are my Top 10 wins and I am really grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the success of my 2019/20 Officer Team, for the greater good of our students.