Last week, I had the opportunity to meet with reps at the Annual Academic Rep Conference (which I had been heavily involved in planning), to learn about how your reps are doing such an incredible job of making changes on your behalf, and meeting your needs across courses. Every day, right across every UCL department, over 2,000 Academic Representatives work to make your education better. They represent your views in your course, your department and faculty.
At this years Academic Rep conference 2025, reps gained insights from a variety of expert-led sessions, networked with former academic reps, and joined workshops on how to continue to be a positive force within their own academic communities. The overall aim was to improve their transferable skills, share good practices within our rep community, allow them to meet like-minded reps, as well as further their understanding of how they can be a positive force within their own academic communities. This aligns with one of my key priorities as a Sabbatical Officer: "Academic Reps are engaged and empowered to represent students."
As part of the programme of events, I led an interactive workshop talking about the Postgraduate Career Supercharger - a programme of events I developed to support students with developing their skills, boosting their confidence and growing their network. We talked about how to get involved, what I did to make it happen and how I can support you, as well as how to create simple yet impactful career or alumni networking events for your cohort. It's been invaluable to gain your feedback on these sessions, and design further workshops to meet your needs.
This was followed by interactive group activities where we brainstormed and mapped out projects, as well as working together to tackle the barriers that reps may come across. I was so happy hearing that many reps liked my workshop, found it useful and would like to get involved!
A spotlight on some of our Academic Reps
Isha Parvaiz
Isha is an Academic Rep within the Department of Space & Climate Physics. One of her biggest achievements has been organising a full-day tour of Harwell Campus, giving students a unique opportunity to visit some of the UK’s most advanced space and research facilities. It was a great opportunity for students to connect with professionals and see first-hand how research and technology are applied in the real world.
Beyond this, Isha has worked to enhance the student experience in several ways, including organising the departmental Christmas party with fellow reps, and creating a shared Google Drive to make course resources more accessible and encourage collaboration within her cohort. A key part of her role has been ensuring student concerns are addressed efficiently. She regularly collects feedback, discusses it with staff, and works with them to implement solutions - closing the loop by updating students on improvements.
Isha believes that being an Academic Rep has been an incredibly rewarding experience, allowing her to shape the student experience, develop leadership skills, and build valuable connections with both faculty and industry.
Yucen Wu
Yucen is an Academic Rep of Global Business School for Health, and has worked to organise a two-week Global Health Challenge study trip to the UAE. Yucen not only managed the logistics of the trip, but he also supported his cohort while they were there and took responsibility to address any challenges that presented themselves, all the while organising group cultural activities that ensured people got the most out of the experience.
Anoushka Ichpanani
Anoushka is an Academic Rep in her second year studying law, making important efforts to make sure Law students have as easy and stress-free experience as possible. She's worked on gathering and relaying feedback to staff and reporting back to her coursemates on a weekly basis, advocating for practice tests in the transition to in-person exams, and ensuring SoRA students have fair access to materials they need.
Interested in helping to make positive change for your classmates? Find out more about becoming an Academic Rep.