Candidates for the SU’s two postgraduate roles – Postgraduate Officer (Taught) and Postgraduate Officer (Research) – gathered in The Swan tonight, to tell students why they should vote for them in this week’s elections.
PGR candidate Bradley Allsop, alongside PGT candidates Vicky Lister and James Peat, were in attendance to answer three questions from the SU, as well as questions from the audience.
The third and final PGT candidate, Chirantana Mathkari did not attend.
Whilst no one else is standing against Bradley, students can still vote for the re-opening of nominations (commonly known as RON) in both elections.
In opening speeches, Vicky talked about how she would ‘consistently hear complaints about communication and feeling left out’, whilst James said he is ‘increasingly passionate’ and wants to build ‘more of a community’ with Masters students.
Meanwhile, Bradley addressed his three main issues – employment rights, welfare and community – and said: “It’s really important to have more representation.”
In the question of how they think postgraduate students want to be represented, Vicky said ‘they’re not represented currently at all’.
Elsewhere, Bradley said: “I really want to see, eventually, a full-time officer for postgraduates. I think postgraduates will appreciate that level of support.”
“There’s been a nice number of postgraduate events, but I would like to see more of them,” James said.
After being asked to state one big issue which they want to work on if elected, Bradley talked about his employment rights campaign, Vicky discussed community work and communication, and James mentioned the postgraduate common room, calling it an ‘excellent start’ before saying that ‘we need to go further’.
On the topic of how they would improve the postgraduate and undergraduate relationship, Vicky laid ‘all [her] cards on [her] table’ and said she didn’t know, whilst James said ‘it’s a difficult question to answer’.
“I think it will be a challenge to truly integrate the two students but I would love to try,” he added.
Meanwhile, Bradley said: “We need to still have some level of contact with the rest of the university.”
In their closing speeches, James said: “I would like to be the voice for all Masters students. I think there’s a lot of work to be done.”
Vicky said: “I am passionate and I think I have the skillset. I just feel like I can use these skills to pursue what I want.”
Meanwhile, Bradley said ‘we are in a new era for postgraduate research representation’ and said he would focus on employment rights.
The Postgraduate Officer elections are open now and will close on Friday, 27 October. All votes – including for Postgraduate Reps – can be submitted via the Lincoln SU website.