Ananya Krishna.

Candidate for NUS Delegate

Hi! My name is Ananya, and I’d love to represent Royal Holloway at the next NUS Conference. NUS’s current focus is on a #NewVisionForEducation highlighting how universities can reform, decolonise, generally update their curricula to make it appropriate for current and future students. As their focus for its 100-year anniversary, it’s no ordinary year and, therefore, no ordinary mission. As a current School Rep, student voice is a passion of mine and I want to help UK universities accomplish this mission of a new vision for education.

Decolonise the curriculum: The biggest part of current NUS campaigns and one that deserves our upmost attention. Tackling an issue like this requires a top-down method and therefore leads to changes in management to include those who are more attuned to discussions on how to decolonise the curriculum. I want to encourage changes such as including more non-White, female, queer, and minority voices in reading lists and encouraging more student groups in departments to explore these perspectives on their work outside of the classroom. I’ll lobby for further resources for student mental health services across the sector so they can effectively tackle matters involving discrimination on campus. Finally, I believe student collectives should be further utilised to transform feedback into viable initiatives for universities to action.

UCU: This campaign also requires more support for lecturers as otherwise, they will have more responsibilities piling on top of them without the pay or benefits they deserve to reflect their hard work. Already, Holloway staff are trying to provide more supports for BAME, LGBT, and other minority students on campus, yet their initiatives require the green light from college, thus stagnating them. I want to challenge the current treatment of lecturers and encourage enduring changes, so they receive better working conditions and more respect from their institutions.

Educating & unifying students: The NUS exists for students – to act in their best interests – however a lot view this campaign as an attack on their ethnicity. The solution is more opportunities for students to learn about how this isn’t creating an “us and them” culture but rather how it will benefit all students. I will lobby the NUS to encourages further discourse with students to show how this campaign goes beyond race but encourage changes with ideas on gender, financial status, emotions & mentality, and what it means to be human that differ from the archaic imperialist standards.