School Reps play a key role in improving students’ academic experience, working hard to make sure your ideas and concerns are heard at the highest level. If you're from the School of Humanities, make sure you get to know your School Rep, Izzy Masters.
School Reps play a key role in improving students’ academic experience, working hard to make sure your ideas and concerns are heard at the highest level. If you're from the School of Humanities, make sure you get to know your School Rep, Izzy Masters.
Tell us about yourself
Hello, my name is Izzy. I am a third-year Literature and Philosophy student, and your continuing Humanities Rep for the 2023/24 academic year.
I think ‘favourite piece of literature’ would be a great fact for this section, but I struggle to pin one down! I’m particularly fascinated with Flatland by Edwin E Abbot, which is a phenomenally weird Victorian social satire. But I also love Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, and E. E. Cummings' WW1 poetry. It’s sort of all over the place! I love writing poetry and am on the Poetry Society committee here at Royal Holloway. I am also on the committee for Craft Soc where I do a lot of origami (and fail to learn how to crochet for two years!)
What made you want to become a School Rep for 2023/24?
There are so many reasons! Firstly, I’ve loved this role for a full year, and it has given me the opportunity to work with so many incredible members of staff. I knew that this was something I wanted to dedicate a lot of time towards even in the busyness of third year.
Secondly, I know that I have gained a lot of knowledge from things I could have done in my first year in this role, and being able to go back with that new knowledge gives me a lot of optimism for the change I can make in the School.
Thirdly, there have been a lot of issues with assessment pile-up over the past year, and I have got a lot of feedback from students about this. Going back into this role allows me to make fundamental changes to the way that assessments are organised so that future years will be able to do their work in the best possible conditions.
Which part of your manifesto are you most excited about?
I personally am very excited to work with the School on assessment deadlines and “pile-up”, but I understand that it might just be me who has this enthusiasm! I think what is extremely exciting however is my plan to build community by implementing societies into the academic workflow. I am working with the School to incorporate society events directly within core modules in order to build a sense of community within the Humanities departments. I’ve found in my first year that building a community from scratch is very challenging, and doesn’t always work, but working with societies to build a Humanities community together should be really exciting.
What are you most looking forward to this coming academic year?
On a personal note, I am really looking forward to my dissertation, there’s a really interesting Philosophy of Ecology module, and settling into my new roles. But one of the things that I’m most excited about (although it is a cliché) is meeting all of the new wonderful Humanities students in September. I will be attending inductions for all of the first years in the School, so please do say hello, I’d love to get to know you all!
Stand in the School Rep By-Election
If you're feeling inspired after reading about Izzy's experience now is the time to act! Postgraduate (PGT and PGR) students and Engineering, Physical & Mathematical Sciences students, it's time to run in the Autumn Elections! You'll work closely with the VP Education and other elected academic reps, gathering feedback that you can use to influence change at high-level meetings such as School Education Committee and School Boards.
There's also still time to sign up as a Course or Senior Course Rep! These roles are open to all students and require feedback gathering from other students and doing the on-the-ground investigative work to make change at a module/programme level. The Senior Course Rep role sits between Course Reps and School Reps to bridge this gap and ensure there is a constant flow of information across various levels of representation. Don't hang about - the deadline to sign up is Sunday 1 October!