Hi everyone! I’m so excited to be representing you as your VP Education this year! Over the summer the student leaders have completed 10 weeks of training, covering everything from our legal responsibilities as trustees to how the commercial services operate. We’ve also spent a lot of time bonding as a team (including getting stuck in an escape room) and getting to know the departments we’ll be working with. On top of this, I’ve been working on lots of exciting projects that you can read all about below!

Support Tool:

My main project over the summer has been kicking off the development of a new student support tool, designed to help students find and access the wide range of support available at the University. The idea came out of feedback from both students and staff, gathered through the Student Priorities and Student Experience Strategy and Action Group work led by the previous student officer team. A key theme that came up was that students were often passed between different departments, unsure who to go to when they needed help, or didn’t even know certain support services existed.

I spent several weeks mapping out student issues, to create a mind map that was as comprehensive as possible, and worked with our head of SU Advice to match the issues to the correct support. It was important to me that we didn’t just include the most common support issues, but all areas that have the potential to disrupt a student’s life or university experience, such as feeling a lack of community. Alex and I are now working with the Pro Vice Chancellor for Education to consult with relevant University teams to make sure the information we're sharing is accurate.. We're also exploring different platforms that could host the tool, including some chatbot-style options that are really user-friendly but come with a cost. We're currently looking into pricing and whether the University can support us with this, especially since the Vice Chancellor has shown strong interest in the project. focus on traditional support areas, but also included things that can really affect a student’s experience, like feeling disconnected or lacking a sense of community. 

Student Voice:

One of my key priorities coming into this role was to improve the student voice system. Our student body is changing and our student voice system needs to change to reflect that, to improve engagement, make the experience more rewarding for student reps, and become more efficient at collecting and acting on feedback. Over the summer, I’ve been reviewing the strengths and weaknesses of our current system and looking at how other universities approach student voice for inspiration. Since our student voice structure is tied to a University policy, any significant changes will need to go through Education Committee and Senate. That means this will be a longer-term project, with changes likely coming into effect for the 2026/27 academic year.

Before we make any decisions, we’ll be consulting with student reps to make sure the changes reflect what students actually want and need. I’ve already started having conversations and setting up meetings with University staff to get their take on how well our current systems are working. In the meantime, we’re aiming to introduce some smaller, quicker changes—especially around improving the sense of community and connection among our reps.

International Handbook:

Over summer, myself, Hareem, and Ata put together a handbook for new international students to help them adjust to studying in the UK. We are very excited that this Big Plan project is now completed, and we are expecting print copies to be available during Welcome, as well as being live on the website. You can read the international handbook here: https://www.essexstudent.com/asset/News/9812/International-Handbook.pdf

Connecting Students and Departments:

Over the last two years working in the education team, I’ve heard from many students that they feel disconnected from their departments and academic cohorts. To help rebuild that sense of community, I’m now leading a number of projects focused on improving connection within academic spaces. One of the key areas we’re focusing on is strengthening collaboration between departments and academic societies. Atahan and I have created a handbook for academic societies, offering guidance on how to work more closely with their departments to run events and boost engagement. I also briefed departments about the project at the Directors of Education Away Day. We plan to distribute the handbook to relevant societies shortly after Welcome.

Another core project under this theme is improving common rooms. These spaces should act as social hubs for students, but we’ve found they’re often neglected. Alex and I mapped out all the common rooms across campus and discovered that many are in poor condition or even closed off to undergraduates. We’re now working with the University to ensure these spaces are open and accessible to all students, and that they include useful information about student support. We’re also encouraging students to stick around after lectures and use their common rooms, and promoting the idea that academic societies can run smaller, informal events in these spaces to help build a stronger community feel.

Student Experience Projects:

Following on from two key projects led by the previous student leader team, Alex and I have been exploring how we can work with the University to co-create a new student experience strategy. Joe and Lily-May gathered a huge amount of feedback from both students and staff, which was shared and discussed at the Student Experience Conference in June. We’re now focused on how to take that work forward and ensure it leads to meaningful action, especially at a time when the University is facing challenges around resources. Our aim is to help shape a strategy that keeps the student experience on the agenda, ensures it’s actively monitored, and ultimately helps students get the best experience possible. We’re already in discussions with the University to make sure students have a strong voice in the development of any new strategy, and that this work doesn’t lose momentum.

Postgraduate Support:

I’ve been working hard to make sure our postgraduate students have felt supported over the summer months. In September I held a writing retreat for PGR students to focus on making progress on their theses, as well as have an opportunity to hear talks from the university and network with each other I’ve also fed into the development of a new preparation programme for research students, to make sure they are fully prepared to study before starting their course. Currently, I’m also in conversation with the University to try to get a postgraduate and mature student’s common room, in response to feedback from our officers.

Committees and Trustee Board:

I am vice-chair of Audit and Risk committee which is a sub-committee of trustee board, which met for the first time over summer. The team also attended Student Experience Committee, where we heard updates about accommodation and University facilities, discussed how we can further strengthen support for international students in future years, and advocated for improved student spaces, particularly common rooms. This year I'll sit in a number of committees, including Academic Quality and Standards Committee, Research Committee, Seante and others.

Campaigns:

Over the summer, the team has launched several campaigns to highlight key issues affecting our student body. This includes responding to the rise in hateful anti-immigration rhetoric, as well as raising awareness of the impact of recent legal rulings around the definition of a woman, something that is having a particularly harmful effect on our transgender community. 

I’m also leading an ongoing campaign with the education team to support our health and social care students—especially nursing students—who are being stretched by the demands of their courses. Many are required to complete long, unpaid placement hours alongside their academic work, often travelling far beyond Colchester to do so. We’re working to push for change both locally and nationally. This includes collaborating with other Students’ Unions to lobby the government to reform placement requirements, as well as exploring more immediate, local solutions to better support our students in the meantime.

New Students:

I’ve also been actively involved in welcoming new students to campus and representing the SU at key events. During Welcome, I delivered campus tours, hosted events, and gave speeches at departmental induction talks to introduce students to the Students’ Union, highlight the work we do, and promote the benefits of becoming a student representative.