On Friday 6 March, the results of the Edinburgh University Students’ Association (EUSA) elections, with over 40 student representatives, were announced.
The Election Night took place in Pleasance Theatre with candidates and friends present.
The announcements included the new full-time Sabbatical officers, and the voluntary roles: liberation officers, section representatives, and the school representatives.
The Student was given the opportunity to interview the five representatives immediately following their elections.
The turnout to the EUSA elections was 6,183, a fraction of the near-50,000 students at the university.
Asked about how they sought to improve student engagement, Syjil (VP Welfare elect) emphasised the role of talking directly to students: “Something I would like to put forward for us in the next year is to have a regular campaign day a week, where we take it on a five-week cycle, each of us takes one day a week, and then we keep rotating throughout the year.”
“Because I think that the most effective way to reach people is being in societies, being at events, being where students are.”
Joana (VP Education elect) identified a desire to change their methods of approaching students: “It’s really hard to get people to fill out a form … But if you get people talking at events where it’s more formal and relaxed … Going onto campus and talking to people is helping us in getting feedback and integrating the feedback.”
Bradley (VP President elect) echoed the sentiment, emphasising the importance that students get insight into their efforts: “Making sure that … they can see that we’re trying, publishing those wins, no matter how big or small … beyond publishing on the website.”
A theme that united nearly all the candidates during the election was their aim to reduce the effects of funding cuts on students.
Describing a “culture of austerity” at the university, Bradley said that talking to students in his campaign allowed him to gain “somewhat of a sentiment which is that students want to make sure there’s essential services that are provided.”
He continued: “If we are to be one of the world’s best universities, it also means that we’re to be one of the richest, which means we need to look at the decisions being made that are actively harming the student body.
“Not least the loss of courses and widening participation support.”
Asked how he would reconcile his aims with these cuts, Bradley said: “I think it’s, first of all, saying to the staff at the very top, you, your ‘crisis’ is a perception on how much money you make, not the satisfaction that’s coming out of it.
“So we can work with the unions, we can work with the students on the ground and document these experiences and then go to the [university management] and have a full, comprehensive analysis of how it’s affecting the student life here. I think they may just reconsider a few things.
“I think it is rallying the students, and I think it’s rallying the staff as well. I mean, one thing that I think Edinburgh actually does not shout about enough is how good we are at a protest.”
Probed on how he would respond to suppression of protest at the university, Bradley said: “It’s not my first time getting told no, I will say that.”
He emphasised the importance of providing the right resources, and argued: “There’s got to be a conversation about the relationship we have with the university’s security, the university’s teams.”
As VP Community representative, Kate’s role is to oversee students’ lives off-campus. When asked what she wanted to achieve in her role and what challenges she expects to face, Kate responded:
“I think the biggest thing is support with the cost of living, especially housing … The biggest challenge is going to be the fact that a lot of that is outside the university.”
As a post-graduate who moved to Edinburgh from Kerala, Vasil (VP Activities and Services) represents the large international cohort at Edinburgh, which he emphasised in the interview.
He said: “I felt left out when I [first] came here. No one should feel left out like this. Everyone should feel that it’s our campus … One thing I mentioned [in my manifesto] was the Edinburgh Student Festival.”
“There are a lot of people like me being unrepresented or underrepresented … I want to be the voice [for] them.”
He described his previous experience: “I have this background in politics and passion in my undergrad. This is my passion, to be working with students and societies, and I have led a lot of student communities.”
Syjil similarly highlighted the role of student societies, which helped her confront the challenges that she faced in her first year as VP welfare:
“And bringing that collectiveness from the society background and from the activist community into the role is something that I want to continue on into the next year.
“There is always going to be bureaucracy, there’s always going to be red tape, but having
people back you and doing it with people gets you through so much faster.”
Joana emphasised strategies for gathering diverse student opinions: “When I think diversity, I’m thinking race, I’m thinking age, I’m thinking sexual orientation, all of that
“It’s about going to them with solution-oriented outcomes and saying, give me more problems to solve. And that cuts across every diverse student here.”
Kate, too, spoke about how research methods could be made more representative: “Part of my manifesto was, obviously, ensuring that marginalised students are engaged with. A big part of that is how we do research on the issues that students are facing.
“So, working using research techniques, feminist techniques, for example … or, having quotas on the levels which marginalised students have to have engaged in research for it to count or to be meaningful.”
Looking ahead to changes in teaching and academic support, Joana highlighted the role that emerging technologies could play in shaping the university’s future.
She mentioned “transforming education at Edinburgh in a way that works for a student body while we’re here and after we leave” through “future forward curriculum thinking where we’re integrating AI.”
For this to work, however, she highlighted that it would require open discussions between students and staff:
“[The university should] sit with students and say, we need to have this ethical conversation about how we’re using AI in teaching and learning.”
Syjil also emphasised structural changes aimed at supporting students academically.
She pointed to ongoing work on “tackling degree awarding gaps” and explained that she wanted to develop proposals for “peer mentoring schemes and foundational academic skills courses.”
Reflecting on her first year as VP Welfare, Syjil also highlighted how long it can take to implement change as a sabbatical officer.
She explained that even relatively small issues can take significant time to resolve: “Something that you think should be really, really simple […] you’d be surprised how many weeks that will take to do.”
She added that many of the policies sabbatical officers work on extend beyond a single year’s work: “Some things just aren’t achievable at this university in a one-year gap.”
The elected representatives will start their roles in June.
Image provided by Edinburgh University Students’ Association (Georgina Ramsey)