As I come to the end of my time at Cambridge SU, I wanted to reflect on my manifesto pledges and what I have learnt about student representation during my time at this University. I have always been an advocate for meaningful change, pushing for practical steps - big or small - to improve students’ lives. I have carried this with me during my time as an Academic Rep, JCR President, Campaign Committee Member and now as a Sabbatical Officer.
Writing a Manifesto
When creating my manifesto in February 2024, I asked what support I, as a JCR President, would have wanted from the SU? What barriers I had run into as a disabled, woman, class act student, which needed to be addressed at the University level, and what more could have been done to make my time in societies an even better distraction from the stress of a Cambridge term. My manifesto cut a slice of Cambridge life, addressing workload, mental health and wellbeing support, societies and the cost of living crisis, the need for a more ethical and sustainable university, and, of course, resits.
Resits
In the middle of Easter term, in the deepest period of revision, the University put a notice out in the reporter (their internal newsletter) proposing that they introduce resits for finalists who miss more than 25% of their final grade due to extenuating circumstances. This was the result of two years of SU campaigning and persistence despite many barriers, including general opposition from the Colleges and Departments. We all, however, shared a feeling of injustice at finalists leaving “deemed to have deserved honours” instead of with a classed degree. Recognising this was where the opportunity was, I spent the year meeting with the Examination Access and Mitigation Committee (EAMC) review project lead, advocating for the measures to be simplified and inclusive of the range of extenuating circumstances which may arise for students across the years of their degrees. The final recommendations - pending the governance processes of the University - will hopefully come into place for the 2025/26 academic year (keep your eyes peeled for a flysheet in support!).
Mental Health Support that Goes Further than Posters and Coasters
Tutor training was a slower project, but progress has been made. A new PowerPoint training resource, co-designed with student input, will hopefully be rolled out for Freshers’ Week 2025. This training should be for both new and continuing tutors to ensure they understand the evolving support landscape. I started the year unable to pin down exactly who was in charge of the training, and unclear on the levels of take-up and the capacity for expansion. I am now confident that the training being provided covers the most essential aspects of being a tutor and will lead to fewer awkward meetings where both tutor and tutee feel unsatisfied with the support provided. The next steps for this will be empowering JCR reps to provide feedback on how well the process is being followed in their college, and working with the Office for Intercollegiate Services to develop a similar programme of training for Directors of Studies. We know from the Big Undergraduate Survey Data that having a good relationship with your DOS correlates with your overall satisfaction with your teaching and learning, so we’re keen to look for ways to improve that!
Riding the BUS
Speaking of the Big Undergraduate Survey, I launched this in Lent Term, six years after the last “Big” SU survey was run in 2019. We got over 600 responses from non-finalist students, including respondents from every college and course. We are still in the process of analysing the data, and will put together a report to be published over the summer (sadly, after I am gone). So far, it seems to contain some really interesting insights into students’ academic and social experiences at Cambridge, which will help us to campaign in the right way for your interests. Data is so important when convincing the university to listen to us, and I’ve already had interest from the Education Services department in a report to University Committees looking at how the key findings correlate or differ from those of the NSS.
Tackling the Workload Problem
The recommendations of the Teaching Review passed this year, too! This was another multi-year project, initiated by the SU’s Reading Week Campaign and culminating in a set of 9 recommendations which include structural reform, tripos-specific solutions and improved communication from departments. We’ve already written a blog post about this (https://www.cambridgesu.co.uk/news/article/cambridgesu/The-Teaching-Review-has-passed-heres-what-you-need-to-know/) and put out an Instagram post, so I won’t dwell on it too much. This has been one of the biggest projects I’ve worked on this year, in collaboration with the University and Colleges, and I’m so proud of the changes it has recommended - I will now watch from afar as they are (hopefully) all implemented!
More Resources for Societies
One of the most fun parts of the role has been allocating society grants. Every two weeks, I sat down with our fab activities team to review over 130 proposals from student groups promoting community, liberation and education. As part of our governance review, we increased liberation event funding by £5k, helping to make Cambridge more vibrant and inclusive. Please keep applying for these grants, letting us know what you’re able to do because of them, and inviting us along to celebrate wherever possible! I can’t wait to see what our new VP (Student Community and Societies) does with them.
Policies (woo!)
At the heart of the SU is our policy. Passed at Student Council, this is the opportunity for any student to tell us what they want the SU to be working on. This year, I had 5 policies assigned to me, and passed two further policies, which I then took a lead on.
Three of my policies addressed college access, campaigning for better access into colleges, more accessible room booking, and partner cards for the partners of college members. I made some progress on these and feel confident that I can give the VP (Student Community and Societies) an idea of how to progress these campaigns. I took a paper to the Bursar’s Business Committee and got them to agree to publicise opening times to all, and indicate how someone can get in contact with the lodge if necessary for safety or first aid.
Three of my policies focused on tackling the cost of living at university. One of the most impactful was a national campaign on maintenance loans, where I worked with Russell Group Students’ Unions to co-author an open letter. This letter, which secured over 40 signatures from student leaders, university Vice-Chancellors, and MPs, called for maintenance loans to reflect regional economic differences across the UK, as is currently done for students in London. As part of this effort, I met with Daniel Zeichner, MP for Cambridge, and Ian Sollom, MP for St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire and the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for universities. In both meetings, we placed higher education funding front and centre, alongside pressing issues such as support for international students, public transport in Cambridge, tackling discrimination and harassment, and, in the aftermath of the Supreme Court ruling, trans rights. The other two policies, continuing my predecessor’s work on free prescriptions and supporting student rent campaigns, involved collaboration with J/MCRs, and I speak more about that further on.
My most recent policy initiative was an emergency motion to Support Veterinary Students, following the alarming news of the RCVS visit and the University’s proposal to pause admissions to the course. I collaborated closely with members of Unison, Unite, and the UCU to advocate for both staff and students affected by this decision and to highlight the broader implications for the future of the Vet School. Together, we submitted an open letter to the University, signed by 1,727 supporters, demonstrating overwhelming backing for the School. We also organised a protest that brought together over 200 students and staff, making a powerful statement about the value of the degree. Speaking at this event was a defining moment in my year - it underscored the importance of student representation as a vital channel for expressing the collective voice of students in the University’s most influential spaces.
I was also initially assigned our Trans Rights policy, which I amended in the Easter term to reflect contemporary issues. It has been truly meaningful to work on current issues affecting students, trying to find the best ways to support them locally, while the national picture can seem quite bleak. In Michaelmas, I ran a Trans Day of Remembrance welfare space, with LGBT stickers and a condolence book. This term, I met with many trans students to hear their needs, have worked with our Women’s Officer to lobby for trans-inclusive policies and statements from the University, and we hope to temporarily relaunch the Gender Expression Fund shortly (watch this space!).
Governance Review
The new Sabbatical Officer Structure was developed in collaboration with J/MCR reps, who told us what they wanted to see from the SU. We have long been an outlier in the SU sector, with far more officers than is typical and far fewer staff. Our new structure should clarify remits, distribute workload better, and has been proven attractive by the number of candidates who ran in our leadership elections in Lent. 23 candidates ended up making the ballot sheet, and we achieved the highest turnout of the organisation at 18% - above the national average of 16.4%. I was so pleased to see the changes result in an increase in turnout, which, in turn, increases the legitimacy of Sabbatical Officers as student representatives to the University. If you have gotten this far in this blog, you should consider running in next year’s elections - it’s the best grad job going!
Bringing the SU to You, and Making Cambridge More Affordable
I’ve spent much of the year building bridges with JCR reps. While we often seem to work in parallel - us at the University level, and them at the College level - we share so many of the same goals. I wanted to create more space for collaboration and reaffirm that we are always available as a listening ear and impartial source of advice. I have been in their shoes and know how difficult it is to deal with some of the issues that come their way, so I wanted to pass on that experience in the same way that so many others did for me.
I ran three college forums this year - informal meetings of J/MCR reps where this is space for skill-sharing, peer advice and collective campaigning. The second meeting was a rent negotiation special, where I had around 20 representatives come and learn negotiation and communication skills, and share progress updates on where conversations had reached in their college. In a collegiate university, with so many amazing student reps, it can be hard for the central SU to find its place, but I hope that we can connect colleges and enable collective campaigning where appropriate, while respecting each other’s autonomy and expert knowledge of their own context. I also supported an additional 3 JCRs to start free prescriptions schemes this year, bringing the total to (at least) 15.
To the 44 JCR Presidents I’ve met this year, thank you so much for meeting with me and sharing your ideas and passion for student representation. I hope some of you consider running for my role in the coming years. You are truly the people the SU needs most.
There’s always more to do…
…But I’m so proud of what’s been achieved. Cambridge moves slowly, and not everything gets done in a year - but many of my goals have been realised, or at least significantly advanced. I couldn’t do everything, but I am proud of how meaningful a difference the ones I have achieved will make.
