A Year as VP Education

Your VP Education, Shrijeet Shrey, reflects on his year as a Sabbatical Officer at the Students' Union, including all of his major lobbying wins and work alongside the University.

Shrey this side, thanks for tuning into the end-of-term blog! I've had an incredibly busy few months with several major wins for our students that I am incredibly proud of and wanted to share with you.

Manifesto & Lobbying the University

Recently, I've been working with Interim Pro-Vice-Chancellor Education and Student Experience Matthew Humphreys to revive RHCareers' in-person services. This campaign was the direct result of Joseph Morris's engagement with our Bright Ideas platform.

I also lobbied against the policing of new technologies like OpenAI. Instead, I've asked the University to consider embracing these new technologies and building them into future assessments.

Similarly, the University's initial stance of using Turnitin’s AI detector has been overturned due to constant feedback and lobbying by myself and Martin King to consider the repercussions of putting our students through third-party AI detection tools that can affect assessment outcomes.

Working with Runnymede Borough Council, I have helped to create plans for students struggling during the cost of living crisis. As a result, RHSU is now able to provide foodbank vouchers to students. There is also electricity bill payment support of up to £200 a month available for student households.

I also helped to set up the Library @ Scheme which identified SU spaces such as Tommy’s Kitchen, The Packhorse meeting rooms, and other areas around campus that we're free to use as alternative study spaces.

As part of my manifesto work, I launched a radio show with Insanity called Creativersity that aims to celebrate the creativity of our students on campus every week.

Lastly, the joint honours calendar issues are now being discussed by the University's senior management teams; a solution will hopefully be implemented in the next academic year.

University Projects

This term, I chaired the final Education Executive attended by many of our wonderful academic reps which produced a really stimulating discussion.

I also sat on a panel to select Big Read books for the upcoming year; the selection we have chosen will be communicated to students very soon.

I have been working with a group of engaged students from diverse backgrounds to take part in the co-creation of an Access and Participation plan.

A lot of my attention this year has been focused on evaluating the different kinds of exams and coursework assessments. Consulting with our academic reps involved in the Education Executive, I have tried to ensure that in the future, assessments help to prepare students for a world beyond university.

This year, I have also worked hard to build relationships with alumni across different groups such as RHVolunteering, CeDAS, and previous SU staff, with the aim of reinforcing a strong alumni network.

I am currently working on suggestions for improving the Student Life app to ensure that our students have a helpful, accessible, and singular source of information for everything that's happening on campus.

Thanks to all the students and staff who have made this such a memorable year for me as your VP Education!