Mercy Martins

• The Postgraduate & International Officer serves as the elected representative for all international, taught/master's and research/PhD programmes students at the University.
• The Postgraduate & International Officer role sits at the intersection of student experience, institutional decision-making, and community-building, involving consistent engagement with students, departments, senior University staff and external partners.
• The core responsibilities of the role include representation and advocacy, academic experience and policy work, and casework and support

What does a typical day or week look like in this role?

• Constantly switching between different hats: student representative, project lead, community-builder, advocate, trustee and company director.
• Lots of meetings. These include university committees, 1-to-1s with students, staff and academic reps, SU committees such as Voice or leadership, student rep meetings or PG Network discussions, pre-meetings, briefings, or paper reviews before the main meeting begins.
• Student contact remains at the heart of the week, interacting with Postgraduate & International students daily about concerns, suggestions or personal challenges. Attending, hosting and planning Postgraduate & International events to build community.

On which University committees, working groups or meetings does this role represent students?

• Education Advisory Board
• Course and Partnerships approval committee
• Board of Studies- Doctoral
• International Advisory Board
• Senate

Within the SU, what working groups or committees does this role sit on?

• Board of Trustees
• International Student Groups
• Doctoral Rep Roundtable
• PGT executive committee
• Doctoral executive committee
• SU PGT Buddy team
• PG network committee
• Risk and Business Development
• SUmmit

What do you find most rewarding about being a Student Officer?

• One of the biggest rewards of being a Student Officer is seeing how the work I do genuinely changes someone’s postgraduate experience for the better.
• There’s something incredibly fulfilling about taking a problem that students are struggling with, gathering their feedback, pushing it through multiple layers of the university, and eventually seeing the institution change its approach because of what PG students told me.