A Look Back On Term One: Part One

As 2016 draws to a close the sabbatical officer team have been reflecting on their first term in office. President, Education & Campaigns, Tasha Barrett is up first.

National Demo and NUS Relations

This term I’ve been aiming to maximise our contact with NUS in order to make sure we have as many resources for education as possible. This also relates to my aim of encouraging student engagement with national politics and broader campaigns. The National Demo for Education on November 19 was a prime example of this. 

I spent a lot of this term advertising the demonstration and corresponding campaign. Students attended the demo with us, which was great and we also hosted a talk with Sorana (NUS VP Education), along with a banner making session which was well attended.

Each of our media outlets interviewed myself and Sorana about the upcoming Higher Education Bill and Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), as well as their potentially devastating implications. This helped to hugely increase knowledge of the higher education policy on campus. Over the coming year we will continue to speak out against TEF and engage positively with the College on this topic.

Course Reps and Education Committee

We now have over 300 course representatives across most departments at the College, with 175 of these new this year. 40 of the reps have engaged further in education related work, attending our Education Council and volunteering for college led groups like the library advisors working group or RH100.

Our music postgraduate taught course reps produced their own survey as a National Student Survey (NSS) alternative which was very positively received by a board of deans during a department review. Next term we will hold our first Student Voice Conference for these reps with a range of speakers centring on the theme of feedback. This is particularly crucial because the new Students' Union based NSS question relates entirely to education.

We have also elected new members of our Education Committee, all of whom are very enthusiastic and have already shown us a range of brilliant ideas in one-to-one sessions. A number of the members are postgraduate (PG) students, which is a very positive change and allows focus on a separate set of issues bespoke to postgraduate taught and postgraduate research (PGR) students.

In relation to postgraduate students, I also met with the UCU Chair at Royal Holloway and we are planning a campaign around fair treatment of PGR students who are teaching. I have put him in touch with the PG students who are keen to be involved and plans for this are underway.

Liberating Our Curriculum

This term I held the first Liberating Our Curriculum working group with a collection of students who are keen to help me work on expanding curriculum content to represent an accurate range of views and perspectives. Earlier this year I created a framework that will act as a reference point for what a liberated and representative education would look like and each of these students have given me feedback to help shape that.

We have made plans to recruit academics to this working group, and one of the first things we will be working on next term is holding another brainstorming session and a panel event to launch the campaign and start the relevant conversations.

College Meetings With Focus On TEF and Brexit

Finally, I have spent a lot of my time in a range of committee meetings at the college. The main focus of most of these has been the TEF and Brexit. On both fronts a lot of positive work is being done and I have been able to give input as to how we can help students effected by Brexit which was particularly interesting.

Following this, two students are working on setting up an EU Students' Society to offer community support to those feeling nervous about their futures. I have been able to offer advice and communication between the College’s plans and the plans of these students, putting them in touch with relevant members of staff.

It's been a great first term with a lot going on and I hope everyone has a relaxing break and I look forward to seeing you all in the New Year!

Tasha Barrett
President, Education and Campaigns