Every day, right across every UCL department, some of the over 1600 Academic Representatives work to make your education better. They represent your views in your course, your department and faculty. If you're a Postgraduate Research student, we have reps for you too. Reps make big and small changes, whether it's helping to tackle loneliness on a course or fixing a broken toilet door, being a rep at UCL matters. You can become one - keep an eye out for the elections running in Autumn.
Here are some of the things your Postgraduate Academic Representatives have done this year:
Regular course feedback
A key aspect of the student experience we improved was the way students provided feedback on the course. The current process of termly reports benefitted from being highly structured and regularly scheduled, but was less effective at gauging student opinion on ongoing concerns. By creating an online forum on a social media platform for students to share their thoughts and ideas for how the course could be improved in the future, along with carrying out anonymised surveys at the end of each term to highlight general and specific queries meant students could raise their concerns became far more convenient and accessible.
Jessica Callaghan, Academic Rep, MA Publishing
Fair pay for PGTA’s
I raised the issue of appropriate payment for PGTA hours for certain modules and this has been improved to accurately reflect seminar preparation hours for the coming academic year. I also raised the issue of PGTA training and academic support for research students after the first year (there is a weekly doctoral seminar for first year research students) and there are now plans to develop in-department seminars addressing teaching and continuing PhD research for second- and third-year students.
Hannah Smyth, Doctoral Student Rep, Department of Information Studies
A buddy system in the Department of Psychiatry
The main change I made was to introduce a ‘buddy’ system for incoming PhD students at the beginning of the academic year. This was to try to ensure people settled in more easily both practically and socially. I had good feedback on this and believe that it really helped the new students, and that it will continue in future years.
Tayla McCloud, PGR Rep, Division of Psychiatry
Better social spaces
I tried to improve the social environment of the department as a way to strengthen collaboration between PhD students, as well as researchers, lecturers and professors of the department. Specifically, I proposed the design of a new social space inside the department. This was designed and it is now being constructed. This space will provide an area for social gathering, group lunchtime and spontaneous interactions.
Valentina Marin Maureira, PhD Student Rep, Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis
Getting the first choice
We found that the course selection process is such a rush that students don’t usually get their first choice. Some seminars would be full in just two minutes. Therefore, we suggested that we could adopt a more soothing method in course selection. In Term 2, each student in our department filled out a form and submitted it to the convenor who assigned us to modules according to our first and second choices. This time, everyone got their first choice.
Yiming Gu, Academic Rep, CMII
Opening doors…
One change that resulted from our efforts was a very minor yet celebrated one. MSc students did not have access to a particular door on level 3 of the Bernard Katz building – but only from one side (we could still pass through the other side). Anytime someone passed through the door they would have to walk all the way around to get to the other side again. I pointed this out to staff, who were completely unaware of this oversight (and said this had been so for years with no one speaking up), and within a couple of months we were granted full access!
Svetlan Vassilev, Academic Rep, MSc Biochemical Engineering
The difference between a dissertation and a report
Students felt confused about the difference between a dissertation and report and wished they had known about them earlier on in the programme, or even before the programme started. I relayed this information to the programme tutors and they agreed that this information would be beneficial to know before the start of the programme. The goal for next academic year is to provide future students a detailed description of the available modules, what is required of a dissertation and report, and step-by-step instructions on how to enrol in classes. This information will help future students when choosing modules and determining a schedule.
Leslee Edwards, Course Rep, MA Digital Media, Culture and Education
Selecting the right supervisor for dissertation
Students we were not entirely satisfied with the arrangements made in selecting a supervisor and initial preparations for the dissertation topics seemed rushed and congested, we made these complaints clear in the final departmental meeting and changes will be made for the next cohort, particularly with regards to the initial consultations on the topic choice.
Simon Perry, Academic Representation, MA Applied Linguistics
Allocating budget for repairs
While not all issues could be solved within a year, I am proud that we were able to make concrete changes in budget allocation for facilities repairs for the IOE building and staff for the Academic Writing Centre.
Zohreen Badruddin, Student Rep, MA Education Planning, Economics and International Development
Tackling loneliness
One of the changes in which I personally took part was addressing feelings of isolation of students studying a postgraduate degree or PHD. I participated in establishing a psychology society with Dr. Ouzia and other student rep volunteers, which would be open to undergraduate, postgraduate and PHD students studying psychology related subjects. Students would be able to socialize by coming to monthly sessions. This society will be funded by the Student Union. Therefore, thanks to working as a team, a progress was made and students may sign up as of September onwards.
Hana Tomaskova, Student Rep, MSc Child Development
A smoother transition between civil and common law
At the start of the academic year, together with other representatives, I implemented the first ever LLM Academic Buddy Scheme. The aim of the programme was to assist civil law students in smoothly transitioning into the common law system. Mentors were LLM students who have finished their undergraduate degree in the common law system. They were paired with 2-3 mentees, LLM students coming from civil law background. With just under 80 signups, the programme has proven to be a resounding success. This programme has also helped students build connections with peers who weren’t studying the same specialisation as them.
Ljubica Kaurin, Academic Rep, LLM
Guidance to help get PhD funding
MSc students approached asking for an advice on how to choose a PhD, how to get funding for it. As being a previous MSc student and going through PhD ‘hunting’ progress I decided to address this. I met with the education lead of our department Dr. Gavin Jell and arranged meeting for MSc students to hear PhD students receiving funding from different funding bodies and from different disciplines; and created a document including guidance for PhD funding applications for MSc students.
Medina Guliyeva, PhD Academic Rep, Division of Surgery & Interventional Science
Anonymous feedback
For most programmes the usual method of communication is via Facebook groups. On top of that we innovated and implemented an anonymous feedback system to accommodate the many students who might not want to use their full names due to shyness, fear of humiliation or being singled out. Our anonymous, password-protected form instantly sent notifications to all reps. This way we ensured that someone would immediately notice a fellow student having a problem.
Konstantinos Dagklis, Academic Rep, Msc Economics
A PGr Welcome
I initiated how we could improve the transition into the department from different funding streams to help make new students feel welcome and to avoid some of the administrative difficulties experienced in previous years. Together with the postgraduate tutor we created a welcome pack that detailed all the key people that the students would need to speak to in the first few weeks of their projects. This was put in place quickly and the incoming students in March 2019 received this information. The department is now keen to keep this going forward for future intakes and is continuing to work on ensuring there is good communication.
Joanna Tindall, Postgraduate Research Early Career Representative, Department of Geography
Education Officer: Ashley Slanina-Davies
Ashley is your Education Officer this year. She believes in the transformative power of education and will be working with the university to make sure you get the best education possible. Have a look at her bio to see how she'll be helping you out this year.