Katie Parker, a fourth-year History and Law Student, is running for VP Education. Katie’s campaign strongly focuses on improving the student experience in one of the most unsettling times for universities across Scotland.
Her manifesto highlights the need for useful and timely assessment feedback, strengthening the student voice and communication, clearer AI guidance and its employability skills, and improving community and belonging within the university.
Student belonging is a big part of Katie’s campaign. She is currently a member of the Student Minds Advisory Committee, which is a charity that aims at improving mental health support across UK universities. It advocates for an improvement in student mental health and outreach programmes.
Q. Why are you running for VP Education?
A. “Throughout my four years at university, I’ve really enjoyed getting involved with student representation in very different ways. I’ve worked on an EDI [equity, diversity, and inclusion] committee in arts and humanities. I have advocated for gender equality within the faculty itself and then from that it snowballed.
“I began to represent students on open days, I would conduct induction lectures, and I became a faculty officer this year after studying abroad. It was absolutely amazing.
“I recently got a job in a student mental health charity which completely solidified it for me because I was advocating nationally for campaign changes. It was something where I could use my skill set to call for change and have people feel as if I was on their side.”
Q. What would be your main priority, if elected?
A. “I think across the board students don’t really know what’s going on with academic feedback.
“We need to look at the current policy and listen to what students think to ensure a structured system that works for both undergrads and postgrads.
“We also need an AI committee to make sure the current policy still works. Nowadays AI and its usage is evolving constantly, and we need to make sure we are keeping up to date with it.
“If I had to put one thing above all it would be empowering the student voice and the feeling of belonging.”
Q. What do you think the current VP Education has done well?
“Adelayo [Adebayo] has done really well in identifying that there’s an issue with academic community. When I had my interview for faculty officer, it was something that I really stressed. Within sports, there is such an emphasis on community and being part of a team, but in the academic sense, you really just turn up and go home.
“I think Adelayo has done a really good job with the Academic Reps at creating a sense of community within the university, and it’s something that I would like to continue.
“I think that there should be more creative activities within the classroom where we can get know each other. Not just show up but also [engage] with the content in class.”
A copy of Katie’s manifesto can be found here.
Featured Image Credit: Stirling Students’ Union/ Katie Parker
Politics and Journalism Student at the University of Stirling
