Executives Round Two Update

The latest round of Executives has taken place, so keep reading to find out what your School Reps, Community Officers, and student group members discussed with your Vice Presidents.

Education Executive - Sharanya Sivarajah

Hello everyone! I can't believe it’s time for my Exec round-up blog for Term Two - time is flying! Last month, during Ed Exec we had a very productive meeting in which we discussed everything academic representation.

We kicked off with my officer update where I brought the Exec up to speed with what I have been up to since the last time we met! This included finalising prep for LGBT+ History Month, (which is right now) and the success of my first Academic Skills Workshop! I’ve also been attending partnership meetings with the Voice team and key members of staff in each school to ensure we’re representing and acting on student voice as effectively as we can.

I also announced the work I’m doing on my student employability campaign called ‘Grad Week' which will take place this term! We'll be hosting career development events such as CV Writing, interview prep, psychometric test prep and a careers fair – getting students feeling more confident about their employability.

We discussed the recent assessment period and put together feedback which I have escalated to relevant staff members within the University, ensuring we can tailor the assessment period to support our students.

Executive members have been so integral in enacting change and I’m so glad for their support in ensuring we represent your academic interests as best as possible!

Wellbeing, Community & Diversity Executive - Nisha Bundhun

As part of my role as VP Wellbeing and Diversity, I have the incredible opportunity to serve as chair of the WCD Executive. This is what we discussed in our last meeting.

Disabled Student Experience Survey

This paper was written based on research that Alana the Disabled Students Community Officer carried out during Disability History Month (DHM.) Alana asked students “What would you change to improve your experience as a disabled student at Royal Holloway?” The results were divided into topics and presented to the members of the Executive to discuss. This research will also be presented to relevant University stakeholders soon, so we can work together to help improve the experience of disabled students on our campus.

International Student Focus Group

I presented a PowerPoint of my plans to start up international student focus groups. I presented different focus group topics such as careers & employability, support services, academic support, etc.

Women’s History Month (WHM)

Me and Olivia (Women Students Community Officer) have been planning WHM, so we presented the plans to the Executive for feedback. This year, the national theme is women who advocate for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. However, we have decided to have a different theme for each week. We will also be running a campaign week this month called Women’s Wellbeing Week.

Turn Up Campaign: Student Manifesto

As part of the Turn Up campaign, we are forming a Royal Holloway Student Manifesto to promote the issues that matter the most to our students and to encourage parliamentary candidates to respond to these issues. We presented the Executive members with the manifesto so far, which has been formed using responses from students. We asked members to discuss the topics outlined in the manifesto and whether there is anything that could be added or clarified.  

My favourite thing about WCD is the fact that this Executive allows for student voices and perspectives to be directly incorporated into my manifesto points and other project proposals, meaning the work we do will be reflective of student interests.

Societies, Sports & Opportunities Executive - Alastair Copland

Heading into the second SSO Executive of the year, this meeting was a lot less presentation-heavy and more discussion-focused to get student input into the decisions we’ll be making towards the summer.

In the meeting, we discussed actions on SU wellbeing support for committee members, an update on and suggestions around a new Student Group Events Calendar, suggestions to improve Student Group Training and thoughts on how to run a Refreshers programme for student groups.

Alongside these points, we also ran through recent ratifications of student groups and carried out a year-one review of ratified groups.

Overall, it was a really useful session, and with the Student Opportunities team, we’ve been able to turn the topics discussed into actions to carry out this term! Looking forward to the next meeting in March.