Postgraduate Officer

Elections

Fri, 28 Jan 2022 12:47:24 Z

Dear PG friends,

I hope you are well and getting back to your routine for your study after the long break – we have less days for the winter break in Japan. My mom only had a break between 30th December and 5th January...

Nomination for this year’s election opened on Monday 17th January and will be closing at 10am on 10th February. I recommend you try to nominate yourself for whichever position you are considering at a moment. Whether you get elected or not, I assure you that it will be a great experience you can talk about later in your life.

Today, I would like to explain why I ran for this role and what my actual role is which might have been hidden behind the official description of the full-time officers.

I was an MA student and heard about the election (March was election term in 2020) on 13th January 2020 right after the break. Why do I know exact date? Because I write a journal every day haha I was a course rep at the time and always struggled with communication from UEA, and the learning system UEA had. Many of my friends had been complaining about their courses.

I didn’t know what my role was supposed to do; however, I only had one strong belief in this. ‘I really want to help PGs who don’t know where to go for help.’ That’s the only thing I expected. Helping one PG at a time.

However, helping PGs is not the only job this role is required to do. Which I will explain below.

My weekdays are filled with a lot of meetings (both online and in-person) with

internal (with SU staff)
external A (with UEA staff and students)
external B (outside UEA e.g., other SU’s or organisations)

You have a right to say ‘No I don’t need to attend the meetings’; however, most of them tend to be high priority for this role. I could list them all here, but it is too long so maybe not today. Or you can check them under officer report on Union Council’s agenda.

Whether you attend those meetings, there are some responsibilities coming as an officer package with you. And you cannot say no for this package..

Director

Full-time officers automatically become the Director of three companies – SU, LCR (club in the Union House) and the Waterfront (in the city centre)

This means that five of you are top of the organisations. You get paid every month. You have to pay the council tax. You will have power, but you need to respect the power at the same time (mad king is not acceptable ref. Game of Thrones). Any decision for the SU, five of you are the people who decide. Sometimes it is an easy decision but sometimes it is very important decision which may or may not affect other people’s study and research.

Union Council

Full-time officers are automatically elected as Union Councilors – Union Council is where the officers are held to account, so you are required to attend these meetings throughout a year. You can also propose new policy as a councillor. If the policy would be passed, that could change our system drastically depending on the content of your policy.

Trustee

Full-time officers automatically become trustee. You are required to sit on the Trustee Board every other month – which is one of the most important meetings as well as the union council.

Chair of the committee

We have five important committees within the SU which each full-time officer chairs each meeting. Before you start working as an officer, you will be given the opportunities to pick up the committee which are:

Appointment and HR Committee: about 4-5 times a year to discuss SU’s HR matters
Finance Committee: about 4-5 times a year to discuss SU’s finance matters
Management Committee: every other week to discuss daily SU matters
Risk Oversight Committee: about 4-5 times a year to discuss any risk within SU

Trustee Board: every other month to discuss highly important and confidential SU matters

Chairing means you are an MC to operate how the meetings are done. You follow the agenda and ask members to approve minutes etc. Sometimes you would say ‘oh you are on mute mate’. Or mute someone because their dog is barking behind them... You ask members to vote for a decision and ask if they are happy with the decision. But don’t worry about the detail. You will have SU staff support and training on this.

University Council or Senate

You five need to decide who will attend the University Council and Senate.

Two officers will attend the University Council where they make decisions about general university matters for about six times a year. This is equivalent to our Union Council but UEA version.

Three officers will attend the Senate where they discuss decisions recommended by the sub-committees such as Learning and Teaching Committee and Student Experience Committee. They will be about four times a year.

These are the main things that I was not aware of before I started working as an officer. Sorry if I disappoint you but I think you should have this information before you run for the role so that you will be ready and plan the detail what you would like to achieve.

You are asked to make a decision, a decision, and a decision. Read the papers to prepare for the meetings and sometimes they are more than 100 pages... Then you also support PG students. I expected to work with students 95% of this role but it is actually about 50% in fact. However, another 50% time are all for supporting students and improving UEA better for students after all.

What I like about my job

Working with students – their opinions matters more than anything

Working with the other officers – they are the one who you can trust and support each other

Finding myself that I never thought existed in me

It is one of the best experiences you would ever have in your lifetime. If I went back two years ago and told myself about all above, I’d still run for this role because again it is great experiences to work with different people in Higher Education where everyone has different view for everything. I have learned so many things so far and became stronger than before.

If you are considering nominating yourself to my role, please feel free to get in touch with me at: a.hida@uea.ac.uk I will answer any question you have.

Best,

Ayane

Welcome back from Ayane

Fri, 14 Jan 2022 13:56:09 Z

Dear PG friends,

Happy New Year!

I hope you had a relaxing time over the winter break with your friends and family wherever you are.

I just wanted to write to you all at the start of 2022 and to reflect on 2021.

You have all done a fabulous job since the academic year started or even before and I don’t think it only appears in your grade. You managed to achieve where you are. You should definitely give yourself credit. And I hope you will continue your work to achieve your goals.

Those who have been away from your family – it’s okay to feel homesick. My family and friends are in Japan, and they are 9 hours ahead of the UK. I barely have time to talk to them during the weekday. Some of you might be self-isolating to see your family before/after the break. With the cold winter weather and the assessment period, January can be tough for some people. If you are feeling a bit down or lonely, we have loads of events happening across the SU. You can always find something here if you would like to do something different.

When I struggled with writing my essays, I always tried to remember why I came to UEA. I took my UG degree in Japan. After graduating from my uni for UG, I did some work experience, then came to UEA without any financial support from my family. Every hour I spent on my module, I was literally paying for every second of learning. I could’ve skipped my lecture if I didn’t want to attend but I didn’t want to do that because I’m wasting my money I saved from the hard work I did in the states and Japan.

Therefore, when I don’t want to go to class or let myself off studying, I ask myself “why did you come to UEA? What are you studying an MA for?” Of course everyone has different issues and a few of my friends didn’t attend classes. It is okay because it is not my business but it is important for you to remind yourself why you are studying at UEA whenever you face difficulties, regardless of what your friends and family think what you should do.

It is okay to make mistakes because that’s how we learn things in life. Do not be afraid to make mistakes and failures. It is okay not to know everything. You always can start learning something new even when you become way older than my parents. If there is someone who tells you like ‘why you don’t know these things?’ just ignore the negative vibes. That means they haven’t reached your level yet.

What I wanted to say in this blog is that I would like you to remind yourself why you are here, to encourage you to try as many things as you can this year and and to let you know that there will still be many more opportunities for you to meet friends and to do something new.

Hope you will have a wonderful year!

Best,

Ayane

update: vc’s response to letter regarding international students’ concerns

Fri, 14 May 2021 09:39:01 +0100

Dear all,

I hope you are enjoying warmer weather in Norwich.

I would like to share with you the letter I sent to the VC regarding international students’ concerns, and the response I recently received.

I’d appreciate if you read both letters and let me know what you feel about the VC's responses.

Please keep each other safe and feel free to ask me regarding this.

Best,
Ayane
a.hida@uea.ac.uk

letter to the vice-chancellor: international students

Mon, 01 Feb 2021 13:56:22 Z

Dear all,

I hope you are well and staying safe.

Myself and the part-time international student officers have written a letter to the VC outlining the concerns that international students have and how they are feeling.

We, international students, do not feel supported by the University or that they receive value for money on tuition fees, that the impact of some solutions such as defering would cause even greater anxiety and cost to them and that the University has not communicated adequately with them.

We have outlined our specific concerns in our open letter and would encourage you to have a read.

If you have any questions and concerns, please email me at: a.hida@uea.ac.uk

Download the letter

Full text of our letter:

Dear Vice-Chancellor,

I hope you are keeping well and staying safe in these difficult times. We are writing to you as representatives of International Students at UEA and over the last few weeks we have been made aware of several issues we would like to raise with you and work on how we better can support International Students and respond to their needs. International Students do not feel supported by the University, they feel that there is little sympathy and support for their unique position. Accessibility to home and family is significantly important and the restrictions to travel creates a lot of stress and anxiety, and many international students have family that are vulnerable to COVID-19. It took one student two weeks to get home following the death of the student’s family member, other students are restricted by placements. For students to have to lobby to get free PCR testing, demonstrates that lack of thought by UEA who should have pre-empted this and offered this in plenty of time for students to make arrangements.

International students pay fees determined by the University and direct to them, and they feel that the value of their experience has not met the fees, particularly for PGT students. There is a common experience of being offered face to face teaching and in reality, the delivery is only on-line. One student approached their school in the summer to discuss teaching and living arrangements. They were assured that teaching would be taking place face to face and therefore incurred the costs of travel and accommodation, but the teaching has been 100% on-line. No one doubts that international students have less money than living and studying in their countries. Especially given the fact that how international students pay the university their tuition fee is completely different from home students, the university should not consider the frustration from international students is the same as home students. When UEA makes students announcements, it needs to consider the needs of international students. They appreciate that UEA may not have the answers but information that simply delays outcomes or dates (assessments, lab work or placements) causing real anxiety for international students as this may impact on their accommodation or travel arrangements.

We will have more internationals students coming in February. They have been suggested that they could defer their start date for the course to next academic year, however, this suggestion is totally ignoring their situation. For instance, some of them already quit their job to prepare their course from February. Some of them pay their tuition fee with their student loan which have been confirmed for the course from February not September. If they defer their course, their visa will be expired which means they have to apply for the visa again which would require their time and money. Besides, when they were offered their intake, it was supposed to be face-to-face on campus which was cancelled at least 1st March. The above would never happen to home students who do not need visa to study at UEA because the system how home students pay UEA is comprehensively different from those for international students.

International students find the Tier 4 Visa system cumbersome and restrictive and they would like to see Universities lobby the UK Government to make improvements to the scheme. Students feel beholden to the university as their sponsor and are unable to travel as frequently as they might like, especially during the pandemic. Furthermore, the UK left the EU at the end of 2020 communication has not been clear on how this impacts our international students in terms of visa. International students have to pay NHS fees to access care, but UK (and in particular local providers) can have long waiting lists for mental health support and once a student goes home, they no longer have access to the NHS but are still paying for it.

Here are some specific concerns:

Can international students go back to their countries and work on their dissertations in their countries – what will happen to their accommodation fees?

UEA to commission an independent review on the value of International student tuition fees for the academic year 20/21.

Students who have not have face to face teaching to get a refund on travel and accommodation

Refund the test fee that international students had to pay to go back to their countries (they refund for students who will come back to UK in January but not in December. Obviously home students didn’t have to take this test. So, this may be national issue not only in UEA)

If the UK government force returning International Students to quarantine in hotels at arrival points. How will UEA support these our international students in terms of wellbeing, facilities for learning and cost?

Again, unlike the other university such as Cambridge, UEA international students were promised that they would have at least some face-to-face teaching. That’s how they decided to come to UEA in the academic year 2020-21, however, the promise was revoked, and we do not feel support from UEA despite the change. We, international students, need the additional support from UEA, and we are frustrated because we have not seen any towards us.

Regards,

Ayane Hida – Postgraduate Education Officer

Gahzal Qadir – International Student Officer

Syed Saad – International Student Officer

disability history month

Fri, 04 Dec 2020 14:39:03 Z

Dear all,

I hope you are excited for the Winter Break!

In Japan, we celebrate many things happening in the other countries.

On Christmas, many of us go to get KFC for the Christmas meal.

Sometimes people are in the queue for 2 hours to get the Kentucky Fried Chicken.

I don’t know why, but I thought this may be something interesting to share with you!

As I’m writing this we are in the middle of Disability History Month (18^th November through 20^th December).

One of the highlighted events is a virtual talk with Emeka Nnaka, former American football player and inspirational speaker, at 5pm on Tuesday 8^th December.

He will discuss resilience and what disability brings to his life. It’s really good that we have this virtual opportunity as Emeka will be talking to us live from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

If you have any questions you want to ask him, please message me via my Facebook page or email me at: a.hida@uea.ac.uk

Disability is something we all could have at some point, it could be invisible or visible. It is not negative but it is something you live with.

20^th December 2013.

I never imagined that the worst day of my life would ultimately lead to some of my greatest opportunities. I was hit by a truck while driving my scooter in Japan. When I awoke in the hospital, I realized the extent of my injuries: my left knee was shattered and I had lost my right eye. After six surgeries in nine months, I continued to struggle through the long healing process.

It was one of the most difficult periods of my life. My friends and family considered it to be a tragedy. But for me it was just something that made me realise what I had not been doing and what I can do for the rest of my life with disability. During my nine months of recovery, I had chances to appreciate many things that I didn’t notice had been there. You think it will be there because it has always been but it will change so quickly. Every morning when I see my face in the mirror, I still feel weird to see my face which had changed because of the accident. I got used to see it but I had been thinking this is not me. I didn’t cry a lot because I was busy convincing my friends and family that I’m OK, even I was not really, but quite surprisingly that helped me to maintain my mental health. I was very sad that I won’t be able to get the old me back. But I stopped worrying soon after and this might sound a bit weird but I start smiling every time I see my face in the mirror. I realised that being sad about what I cannot change wouldn’t move me forward. I would keep crying if that helps me to get my non-disability body but we are not living in the Harry Potter world. Some people have different opinions but this is how I’ve dealt with my disability life, and I’m proud of myself that I’ve done well to manage both my body and mental health

My brother told me that he didn’t pay attention to people with disability in his daily life until I had one. In my view, it’s so normal that you cannot notice something you don’t know. We all are like this. But once you know something, then you can actively engage.

If you have a bit of time, please pop in the live talk. Again, if you don’t have time but want to ask him something, please leave a comment here or feel free to message me! I’ll anonymously ask him on behalf of you.

Best,

Ayane