My Manifesto:
Current Year 1 Medical Student Rep:
Daniel Simmonds - Standing for Pre-Clinical Rep
What experience do I have?
I have been student rep at Barts for the last 5 months, and I have been a student rep in general for over half a decade now (yup I am old).
I have also been the chair rep for my previous degree for 3 years, so I have a firm understanding and already existing record on how to do this job effectively and successfully as well as being the student chair representative in my previous council.
I have been on the senate for my previous uni, as well as the president of numerous societies with many years of experience.
I am also working as an HCA and volunteer in thehospital, as well as a tutor and mentor.
I am also involved in numerous academic research projects where I am part of a broad committee for excellence.
This is what I have done:
• Collated and reported on every piece of student feedback.
• Introduced an anonymous feedback form for students and reported back to all queries.
• Been a major role of the team to implement more flexible rules for the in-person teaching this year as well as being a major component of a project (coming in the next few weeks) for any students who miss those sessions to catch up.
• Individually worked on a) making sure lectures are up on-time and b) spearheading a project to improve the experience for students, especially those with SpLDs (such as making sure transcripts are implemented and available).
• Working on a current project to improve MedSoc experiences for all students.
• Circulated the End of Week quizzes and important information through lecturers and staff.
Why I am running:
As student rep over many years, including chair, I have developed a love and understanding for the role – I have been instrumental in helping improve and inform the lot for students, and through the skills I have developed first hand that I know other candidates do not have, I would be uniquely positioned for this role.
I want to help as much as possible and improve and oversee the mechanisms at Barts, and make the coming next complex year and a half better for us all.
I am also uniquely equipped with knowledge from being a student rep in a pandemic, and to paraphrase my fellow student reps, I have behind the scenes been instrumental in so much, and worked extremely hard and would be the most suited to this role, as well as being the most vocal!
I am sending dozens of emails on your behalf every week to staff and arranging one-one-one meetings with the heads of modules and year, been handling all the feedback and written myriad letters to the uni to support the student body. Finally, this role will help amplify m voice as a rep, and by extension, your voices, letting me get things done that just are not possible under my current remit.
This is (some of) what I want to do next:
o Improve MedSoc experiences and universalise them further.
o Improve deadline disparity.
o Ensure better dissemination and communication from the school to students.
o Anonymise the student forums.
o Improve lecturer quality.
o Improve information about COVID arrangements.
o Improve uni communication/understanding for international students.
o Much more all from the feedback from yourselves given to me privately and through the forms.
Further info:
Contact me on WhatsApp (+447751311570) or email me at ha20470@qmul.ac.uk about any questions – or feel free to ask me any student rep questions!
Also a reminder, the feedback form URL is: https://bit.ly/3rVPk78 - it’s anonymous! :)