Beth Massey: SU Education Officer Candidate
Her Campus Nottingham spoke to 3rd year History and Politics student Beth Massey, who is running for the position of Education Officer. Beth is a Course Rep for History, she’s from South East London (her photos show how much she loves her city!) and she likes Chinese food and Rom Coms.
Can you tell us a bit about what the role of Education Officer entails?
So the Education Officer position is the only university focused Student Union role, as well as the only position that’s actually mandated by law. The Education Officer sits on many meetings and boards with senior staff from the university acting as the sole student voice in decision making at this level. Understandably, this is a crucial and highly important role when it comes to making changes throughout the university. It’s a very intense workload balancing the views of the 34,000 students across 300+ courses within five different faculties who all work differently but it’s a vital task to ensure that nothing is more important than the student voice.
Why do you think you’d be good at it?
I’m extremely passionate about affecting change at the university whether it be small things like getting more books into Short Loan or much bigger things like sorting out what students need in a brand new teaching building. My continued involvement in the Education Network at Nottingham has taught me a lot about what is possible and achievable at university so I really understand what I could do with my year in office. I also love talking to people which is absolutely essential in the position where I would constantly be the student voice of the university in decision making.
What are some of the main aspects of your manifesto?
I have 5 main points on my manifesto in no particular order. One of my main ones is ensuring transparency in module choices. We are incredibly lucky to have such a wide variety of choices within many of our courses, meaning that none of us leave with some kind of package deal degree. In order to ensure students are fully informed when making these choices I’m proposing to have online module fairs in which lecturers produce a 2 minute video on their module talking about the content, teaching and assessment so students get a good idea of what they can expect. I would also like to push departments to release the results of the surveys we do at the end of modules so students can see what previous years have thought about them as well as their previous grades.
Another really important point is university-wide lecture-capture. Students have been demanding recorded lectures for years and the university has invested so much money in the technology that it seems ridiculous that it is completely underutilised. I want to continue the work of the previous Education Officers in pushing departments to use lecture capture facilities.
My three other manifesto points are to increase study space and facilities in key academic buildings, ensuring better student representation in school decision making boards and improving the support available for students who want to study abroad.
Are you expecting and parts of the job to be particularly difficult? Why?
I expect it will be difficult to balance student expectations and demands with what is actually achievable in the eyes of the university despite my experiences. This is due to a shortfall in funds and whether it is actually seen as a priority. I hope to be able to bridge this gap in the way that I have done so in my role as a Course Rep and School Education Rep in which I have gathered student opinions on a regular basis. In this way I have been able to strike a balance which has been incredibly beneficial to students over the last three years with new essay feedback forms, increased support for students who study abroad in History and having an international voice on the LCF board in addition to many other things.
Overall though I expect the job to as challenging as it is rewarding. It will be hard work and many long hours but it will be worth it for our current and future students.
One of your manifesto points is to drive for ‘open Moodle’ throughout the university. Can you tell us exactly what this means?
Open Moodle simply means being able to see all of the content across all of the modules in the university no matter what degree you are studying for. It will enable students to browse the notes, presentations and reading lists for all of the modules that they may wish to take or just for interest.
Why do you think this is so important?
This particular initiative falls under my manifesto point on transparency in module choices as students will be able to use this information to make more informed choices within their subject choices but also when it comes to choosing subsidiary modules outside of their schools or departments. Furthermore it will be good to support students work more holistically by being able to bring in other disciplines and perspectives to essays and exams. I also think it would be great in terms of general interest; for example, I personally am not taking any modules in, let’s say, psychology but I am really interested in certain aspects; an ‘open Moodle’ would allow me to read the notes within modules in psychology just because I can!
You seem to have a lot of previous experience with representing students at the university. How do you think this has affected your campaign?
It’s definitely helped in terms of already knowing a lot of the issues that exist within different departments as well knowing people across the entire university. I believe that has meant that my manifesto is very representative of student opinions. It has also led me to being aware of how issues have been solved in recent years and the problems they have had along the way.
Importantly it has also given me great pride in the university as students really do have a say in what they study and do at university. It constantly frustrates me when students complain about aspects of their courses that I know they could change by just speaking to their Course Reps or School Education Reps. This has been one of my driving factors when it comes to running because I know that things can change, you just have to want to change it. Things being okay when it comes to teaching or a module is not good enough for me, we should be getting the best so let me help to drive the university to become the best it can possibly be.
Anything you’d like to add for our readers?
Watch out for my campaign around campus in the bright yellow! I hope to see you all on the trail.
QUICKFIRE ROUND
What was your childhood dream? I really wanted to be an astronaut; sadly the only issue is that I now get dizzy just on the swings!
Favourite night out in Notts? Got to be Crisis (sorry Ocean!). Although to be honest I’m a huge fan of going to pubs and bars.
Favourite memory of Uni? This is such a difficult one, there’s just so many of them! It would probably have to be going to the China campus just after first year on a summer school. It was an amazing two weeks of culture, learning and new experiences coupled with TONNES of great Chinese food!
Personal Claim to Fame? When the Sustainable Chemistry building on Jubilee went up in flames, I was interviewed by the BBC and it was broadcasted all over the country, not just in the East Midlands. Although they did spell my surname wrong despite me spelling it out on camera for them and writing it down!
Do you have any strange hobbies? I like to practice naming all 50 states in America in under 5 minutes, very sad I know.
Favourite Rom-Com? It’s a pretty difficult one but I love both Notting Hill and Pitch Perfect (if that counts!)
Thank you for your time Beth- we wish you the best of luck with your campaign!
Edited by Katie Randall