Academic Reps do one of the most important jobs in the Union - they campaign for your academic interests and make sure that students have a voice in their education. Each month, we’re featuring your reps and the work they’re doing to make UCL better. If you have an idea about how to improve your course, your department or UCL you can contact your own Academic Rep using our Find Your Rep page.
January's Rep of the Month is Heather Gunn, a postgraduate Course Rep in the Institute of Cardiovascular Science. Among other things, Heather has been working to ensure that students were provided with additional learning materials and support after the UCU strike, to ensure that they felt adequately prepared for their assessments.
You can see what else Heather's been working on below:
"As a result of listening to student feedback and reporting it to the department at the last DTC/SSCC meeting, several major changes have been implemented. I have highlighted the major issues students had, which I reported, and the solutions myself and the department came up with.
1. Due to strike action, several key lectures in the statistics module were missed, therefore students felt unprepared in that field and were concerned it would impact their projects. After reporting back to the department, we have looked into providing online resources for students and made students aware of drop-in sessions being held. Additionally, myself and the department are working on providing a lecture session/private tutor for students so they feel they have adequate statistical knowledge.
2. I mentioned that students would like to know more information on further education/careers. We are currently working with the head of careers to plan a career event that has professionals from multiple disciplines come and talk about their work. Additionally, it came about that PGRs have a networking lunch every month and I made it clear that PGTs would be interested in attending too. From now on, all PGTs in the department will be able to attend said lunches and learn of ongoing research/further education opportunities."