SU-2526-7
20-10-2025
Council Notes
That the SU holds a Postgraduate Council three times a year, usually attended by the Education Officer, but many PhDs still say they rarely hear from or engage with SU officers or campaigns.
Council Further Notes
That PhDs are spread out across lots of departments and buildings. Without visible, on-campus engagement, many miss out on knowing what the SU is doing for them.
Council Also Notes
That right now, most of the work to reach PhDs is done by just two part-time Officers. This makes it harder to build real connections between postgraduates and the full-time SU team.
Council Believes
That if the SU wants to connect with PhDs properly, all full-time officers need to be involved, not just the part time Postgrad Officers.
Council Mandates
That all full-time Students’ Union Officers must:
- Work with the Postgraduate Officer and relevant groups (like the Postgrad Society or PG support teams) to run at least one in-person event each semester aimed at PhDs, in a central campus space. These can be a joint event, officers don’t each need to run individual events.
- Make sure these events are promoted in advance and give real space for PhDs to ask questions, raise issues, and chat about campaigns, not just hand out flyers or do quick updates.
- Include anything raised by PhDs at these events in their campaign planning and in their next Officer Report.
- Make sure the SU President gives a short update at the end of each semester to Council, showing what was done to engage PhDs and what came out of it.
