Posted on Thu 07 Jul 2016 at 09:33 by
Adam Kearns It has been nearly two weeks since I began my role as Postgraduate Officer here at Bath SU, and I’m starting to get-to-grips with the task in hand. My time thus far, aside from the events I will touch on later, has been spent meeting staff at the University and Students’ Union to understand the issues that we face; what do we do well, and where can we improve? From the Vice-Chancellor and senior management team through to departmental administrators, I’m meeting everyone who can help me represent students.
I’ve also attended discussions on issues as varied as postgraduate freshers’ week, peer mentoring for research students, and graduate teaching assistants. There is so much positive activity from the University and SU with regard to postgrads in light of the new strategy which seeks to, among other things;
“Enrich the postgraduate and undergraduate experience by engaging purposefully with our staff, student, employer, partner and alumni communities”
In September the Peer Support team will, alongside Faculty administrators, roll-out an enlarged peer mentoring programme for research students in the Faculties of Engineering & Design and Humanities & Social Sciences – the result of which is hopefully that students’ will feel cared for when they arrive in Bath. Should it prove successful I aim to push for programme expansion to all Faculties next year. The freshers’ week organisers, our postgrad fresher captain and I are also working on what hopes to be an awesome week of events for postgraduate students in late September. Alongside this the Doctoral College, Graduate Commons in 10W, induction improvements and new PGA roles – a small selection of on-going projects - should make the next year a memorable one for our graduate students.
Unfortunately, however, life is not a bowl of cherries – there’s good and bad stuff. And the bad reared its ugly head on the 23rd June when Vote Leave secured a victory at the ballot box and successfully dragged our country out of Europe. Without getting into the wider politics of Brexit, the Leave vote will have significant ramifications for higher education in the UK over the coming years. In particular our involvement in the Erasmus Programme is likely to end at some point in the future, depriving millions of students of cultural and character building opportunities. Furthermore Britain’s regulatory obligations to the EU with respect to higher education, which are designed to help us meet the millennium development goals, may become obsolete and thus exempt the UK from best-practice frameworks.
Perhaps more worryingly our universities could lose access to vast amounts of research funding which the government will be unlikely – or unable – to replace. For example our academics and students will quite possibly be unable to apply for the €80 billion of funding available through the Horizon 2020 initiative, and private investors may be deterred from investing in the UK research sector when exporting subsequent products to Europe will then incur import taxes. The Vice-Chancellor has stated that Horizon 2020 funding will remain available for the time being, however the experience of numerous academics is that EU funding and collaboration has already become less accessible.
Research may also be damaged by the loss of free movement if British and European students and academics cannot easily collaborate. At a time when the Conservative Party is creating a new public body in place of the 7 research councils and HEFCE, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), to administer research funding, I am particularly concerned. Not only will government diktats regarding the type of research they wish to promote (e.g. software or pharmaceutical products) impact upon the financing available for subject disciplines, but I believe such policy represents the creeping of state governance into knowledge economies where institutional and academic freedoms are paramount.
Yet all is not lost – the NUS, this Students’ Union and I will be campaigning fiercely to protect our research and student-academic communities who are responsible for so much of this Universities’ success.
Over the last few days I have been fortunate enough to attend graduation ceremonies at Bath Abbey for undergraduate, masters and doctoral students whose blood, sweat and tears have finally paid off. Seeing the smiles and hearing the “whoop’s” in the face of such achievement reminds me of why I chose to stand for this position, and it is for this reason that we must face-off those who dismiss experts as “Nazi’s”, seek to brand migrants to this country as less worthy, and who aim to reduce academia to a branch of the state.
It will be fourteen days this Monday since I started as Postgraduate Officer and I have 50 more weeks - or 350 days – remaining. That the time will go quickly I am certain, and there is so much I hope to get done, but the future will be exciting whatever it holds and I'm steadfastly committed to representing you all.