Union Affairs Candidate Q&A

SPRING

Elections

n o i Un s r i a f f A Full-time Officer Candidate Q&A

Before you vote it’s important to understand what you’re voting for.

Below is the summary that the candidates were given before nominating themselves.

Take a second to read the description so you can understand the context of the questions asked to candidates.

Remember, you’re voting for the person that you think will best represent your views so take the time to ask the candidates questions on the issues that are important to you!

Union Affairs Officer The Union Affairs Officer will be responsible for overseeing all things democracy.

They will be the leading officer for developing and delivering our democratic processes. They’ll be expected to work with staff support to enhance our models to ensure all we do is from effective and genuine engagement with the wider student body.

The Union Affairs Officer will be responsible for effective communication between the full-time and part-time officers whilst ensuring that the Executive Committee is consistently performing at a high standard to provide positive change for the student body.

As well as working internally, the Officer will also be expected to work with local government agencies and other external organisations for the benefit of University of Wolverhampton students. It’s expected that they’ll engage with relevant issues with a high level of understanding and participation to create real change locally for students.

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How would you help students understand the impact of the Teaching Excellence Framework?

How would you make student democracy more engaging?

How would you work with Senior University staff to prioritise student issues and feedback?

How would you help the Students’ Union develop with the needs of the students?

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Issic Romel Based on my experience of being current Welfare Vice President at the Students’ Union (SU), I will promote being neutral and pass on the knowledge about TEF through holding student forums for discussions. In turn this will offer a free choice to students to have their own personal/Individual or collective opinion about TEF whereas conveying the SU/Uni view could lead to influencing students understanding. Below is the link to a TEFinitive Guide for basic info: • https://www.wolvesunion.org/student_voice/tef/

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ke a m u o y uld o w How y c a r c o m e d t n e stud ? g n i g a g n e more

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Issic Romel

• Relate student democracy to student interests

• Give opportunities to students for participating in dialogue on controversial issues

• Work in collaboration with stakeholders i.e. university senior management and academic staff members to help tackle the key themes around student issues

• Give students a voice through forums for student feedback wherein key stakeholders are present

• Equip students with skills to become ‘agents of change’

• Give students decision making power in area of curriculum

• Focus more on problem-solving

• Model democratic practice to solve problems

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How

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Issic Romel I would:

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• Implement a communication strategy as it is the weakest link across board

• Reserve place on relevant university meetings to hold key stakeholders accountable and make an impact to prioritise student issues

• Have regular catch-ups with Academic Staff as well as Senior Management staff and organise consultations with student body to discuss controversial topics

• Improve strategic partnership between SU & Uni to offer student centred support and prioritise student issues

• Organise conferences on trending issues such as BAME attainment gap to get Uni on board in tackling it

uld o w How n o i n U ’ s t n e ud t S e p th l e h f o s you d ee n e h ht t i w p o l e v de ts? n e d tu s e h t

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Issic Romel SU can develop by keeping up with culture/generation change in our student body and by reviewing the provisions of support services with the ever changing HE laws/regs & student needs. For eg: a recent SU survey analysis highlighted that most of our students have some sort of mental health issues and as a result SU facilitated a whole new Health and Welbeing strategy. It’s also important to know the student demographic to provide relevant support services. Using the officers to gather data on trending student issues through which key themes arise and measures are put in place would help too.

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For more information on the elections go to:

www.wolvesunion.org/elections