Guild Officer Elections 2010

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I haven't blogged for a while. This is because I was the Campaign Manager for the Johnny 'Bravo' Davis re-election campaign in the Guild Officer Elections 2010.

As always, this was an immense amount of hardwork with much painting, flyering, door-knocking and Facebooking.

Nevertheless, the campaign was a success and Johnny was re-elected with 62% of the vote. He is also the first re-electee in Guild history.

I truly believe in re-elected Sabbs and this is incredibly common at Students' Unions around the country. A re-elected Sabb is obviously loaded with experience and has feasible, achievable aims on his manifesto. More importantly, he will not require two months of training and one month of handover, ensuring that he can hit the ground running in his representational duties.

Most excitingly for postgraduate students is Johnny's promise to ensure the Guild provides tailor-made campaigns for postgraduates.

Check out his campaign video below to learn more about his plans for next year.

And thank you for voting!

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Question Time with the VC

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Last Wednesday, the Guild hosted a Question Time debate with Fabian Neuner and the Vice-Chancellor, David Eastwood.

Pre-submitted questions were submitted by students in the preceding weeks and these were then asked by the panel Chair, Steven Johnson, throughout the debate. Follow-up questions were allowed from the floor.

Around seventy students attended and I spotted various postgraduates around the room.

Two questions were asked relating to postgraduate issues:

1. The first was pre-submitted anonymously and related to the University deciding to refer to Postgraduate Research students (PGRs) as Doctoral Researchers (DRs). There was some concern that this removed the student emphasis and instead implied that they were part of the University staff team.

However, David Eastwood assured the room that this name-change was intended to make the PGRs feel part of the University academic community. Personally, I am skeptical about how much is achieved by name-changes and rebrands. However, I appreciate the logic.

2. The second question was asked by myself on the night.

I have long felt that there is a hierarchy of postgraduates at this University. I am referring to PGRs receiving lots of support and PGTs receiving very little. Most PGTs that I speak to feel like second-class citizens.

The Grad School offers training and development to PGRs but not PGTs. Plus, the new postgraduate employment initative Adept is only open to PGRs. PGTs are not even invited to the monthly Grad School networking lunches.

This is particularly unfair considering that PGTs comprise the majority (5000+) of the 8000 postgraduates at this University. As such, PGTs across the board feel undervalued and disenfranchised.

I addressed this concern to David Eastwood. I am pleased to say his response was very positive and I feel like I raised an issue he was not currently aware of. He reassured me that he did not want any PGTs to feel undervalued and he promised me that the University were working on it. I later discovered from Brigid Jones that the University is hoping to increase its numbers of PGTs and so my question has particular potency.

If nothing else, I had several students approach me afterwards to compliment me on my question, therefore at least awareness of this issue has been achieved.

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Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey 2010

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Are you a Postgraduate Taught student (PGT) at the University of Birmingham? If so, then you now have a unique opportunity to tell the University what it is like to be a postgraduate studying here.

The Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) 2010 is now open. This is a national survey run by the Higher Education Academy together with the University of Birmingham. It asks you about your experiences of your Postgraduate Taught programme. Your views are important and by completing the survey you will help improve the student experience for both yourself and future students.

So, if you are a Postgraduate Taught student, please take a few minutes to complete this influential survey. All responses will be treated anonymously and with confidentiality. The survey only takes around five minutes to complete.

Please check your University email, where you will have been sent a link to the survey. Alternatively go to http://www.survey.bris.ac.uk/bham/ptes2010

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Postgraduate Employment Survey - Results

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At the recent NUS Postgraduate Forum in Bath, the delegates were presented with the results of the NUS Postgraduate Employment Survey.

Postgraduate Research students (PGRs) from across the UK, including many from Birmingham, were asked to complete the survey to aid the NUS research.

Many PGRs are employed by the University as teaching assistants and researchers but they rarely receive the support or wage that they deserve. As such, this survey is the starting point of a wide-reaching NUS campaign.

The full results can be found here.

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The University Strategic Vision: Workshop #1

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I previously mentioned on an earlier blog that I was participating in a workshop to help write a new Strategic Vision for the University. My workshop focussed on a National perspective, whilst the others looked at Regional and International.

The first of the two National workshops has now taken place. We used this workshop to mindmap a series of responses to three questions. The questions and some of the responses are as follows:

Q1. What factors and drivers will influence our strategy and capacity to position ourselves at a national level?

• political climate (especially the General Election).
• economic climate.
• review of HE Funding.
• green agenda.
• use of new technology.

Q2. What outcomes might we seek to achieve to position ourselves on a national level? What type of University do we want to be?

• to top the national and international league tables.
• to have diverse funding streams.
• increase our profile and blow our own trumpet!
• engage with stakeholders: students, public, media, alumni, etc.
• take pride in our heritage: industrial chic!
• take pride in our staff team.

Q3. What are the most important challenges we face in meeting our aims? How can we take control of how we define ourselves?

• communicating the strategy and getting the staff buy-in.
• making tough choices and sticking with them.
• clear vision: defining our strengths and weaknesses.
• managing expectations of staff.

No specifics will be decided until the second workshop. In the meantime, you can read the full summary of the first workshop here.

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Adept

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The University Careers & Advice Centre are working on a pilot scheme to develop PGR employability prospects. The scheme is called Adept.

Financed by Roberts Funding, the scheme will recruit an Adept Coordinator for each College (who themselves will be a paid PGR from within that College) and they will work to promote employability opportunities for students towards the end of their PhD.

The Adept Coordinators will work closely with both University Careers and academics from their respective College to ensure a mixture of both academic and non-academic post-PhD careers.

Two important upcoming dates for Adept are:

21st April - the next Grad School networking lunch with an Adept-focussed presentation.
21st-24th June - PhD Careers Week with five events, each specifically tailored to the different Colleges.

More information to follow.

It is hoped that if the pilot scheme is successful, the University will continue funding Adept after the Roberts Funding runs out in 2011.

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Vote For Students

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The NUS have launched a new website called Vote For Students in anticipation of the upcoming General Election.

Students from across the UK have been registering their details, along with non-students who equally want to show their support.

The NUS will then contact all of the registered students in the weeks leading up to the General Election with information about each political party's view towards Higher Education Funding.

Students can then make an informed decision about which party will look out for the interests of students, particularly in relation to whether the current cap will be lifted. As such, it is hoped that students will vote for the party with their best interests at heart.

With two million students in the UK, this could have a huge bearing on the result of the General Election and therefore the future of students across the country. Register with the website here.
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