It's been a while! 2025 has been absolutely non-stop, so here are some updates on some of the most exciting things that have been going on in my world since January.

 

January – exams, hosting the Director General for Skills, and University Committees

 

January kicks us off with exam period, and my support of our VP Support, Sam, and her Don’t Worry Surrey campaign. Every exam season we try to provide as much wellbeing and academic advice support as possible, meaning lots of advice popups and dog therapy events!! Whilst Sam spearheaded the campaign, I was very happy to take charge of giving our free breakfast bars to students around the library to keep them going!

 

As you likely know, I am passionate about lobbying political stakeholders with the challenges that students face here at Surrey and beyond. In January, I had an opportunity to lead a discussion panel with the Director General for Skills, Julia Kinniburgh. Here, I outlined the need for maintenance loan reform, in the context of Guildford demanding high cost-of-living as well as the stagnated parental income caps meaning an increasing number of students and their families are being cut off from financial support.

 

Returning from the winter break also meant it was high time to meet with some of the larger committees that I sit in – University Council, Senate, and University Students’ Union Committee. Here we discussed long-term University strategy, including development projects of spaces around our campuses as well as broader educational strategy (such as the continuing work on inter-disciplinary modules and pan-University institutes).

 

Oh, and we also finalised plans for Surrey Decides. I’m sure that this time period won’t be too busy for me…

 

February – Surrey Decides, Future Says Surrey, and fighting for students!

 

The headliner for February, of course, is our student officer elections period – Surrey Decides. Reflecting back, I had a lot of anticipation for the challenges this month would bring. Each of my four fellow Sabbatical Officers made their intentions to rerun for election known to me. This was incredible news – never before have we had four rerunning Sabbs, and I was proud to see they wanted to stick around and keep on making a difference for our students. The challenge, though, was steering the Union ship whilst they were on annual leave to campaign; it meant that I had to act as a solo Sabb on behalf of the entire team, picking up their work where I could. It was a humbling experience and a great challenge!

 

The elections themselves were a great success, with an incredible number of candidates for Union President and a voter turnout of 3,375. It was fantastic patrolling the campus and hyping students to engage with elections and vote; and I am incredibly excited to see what next year’s Sabbatical Officer team will achieve under my successor, Matt Aikin’s, leadership! A particular point of pride for me was inviting our local Member of Parliament, Zöe Franklin, to act as a guest chair for the Presidential Question Time. It was a joy to engage such an important local stakeholder, and it definitely elevated our already revamped elections season.

 

I also had the brilliant opportunity of supporting the University’s Advancement team, unveiling the success of the Future Says Surrey. This was a fundraising campaign supported by our community of alumni and donors, and I had the opportunity to meet with many of them and share stories of the current student experience. I also had the delightful opportunity to host a panel with several of our scholarship students, having a candid discussion about the importance of philanthropy and the doors it can open up for otherwise disadvantaged students.

 

February also presented many opportunities to publicly advocate for our students. I had a public disagreement with a member of staff over the supposed “mollycoddling of students” that opportunities such as alternative assessment or recorded lectures can bring. I also engaged with some local policy, outlining my challenges with a local public spaces protection order that could be used to disproportionately target students. These sat outside of my normal day-to-day advocacy, with me representing students across multiple University Council and EDI Executive meetings.

 

March – Footloose, Regulations, Varsity

 

After surviving the intensity of Surrey Decides, it was nice to have a slower-paced month in March! I started the month with some annual leave, time which I spent rehearsing and performing in Musical Theatre Society’s excellent show of Footloose (with yours truly as Uncle Wes).

 

Things soon got busier again though, as we started to tackle some larger policy issues. These covered everything from how far the University should be able to rescind degree awards (in instances of disciplinary offences, for example) and the membership that should comprise OSCAR panels. Though our regulatory work is often less visible to our students, it nonetheless has a huge impact on the student experience. That’s why I am grateful for our partnership with the University, where we are openly invited to consult on proposed changes.

 

Back in March, academic freedom and the rights of students to free speech came under the crosshair of national regulation. The University of Sussex received a fine from the Office for Students for failing to uphold academic freedom on matters concerning trans gender identity. Around this time, regulators and media were having impassioned debates on the topic; yet the student voice was notably absent from discourse. I published a piece in response to this, largely reflecting on the landscape at Surrey, which fed into a sub-committee later convened by University Senate (our highest-level academic governing body) that examined academic freedom and our own policy frameworks. Here, I successfully defended our trans inclusion policy, noting areas that need revision.

 

March also brought our home games of Varsity, against our opponents at Royal Holloway. Though I am proud as always for us to retain the trophy, it was doubly exciting to have my final Varsity as a home game!! Our added work in having a popup bar on the pitches was an excellent addition, that I was glad to see so many of our students take advantage of.

 

April –a Proposal, laying future plans, and a Break

 

The relentless work of 2025 reached another peak with Strictly Come Surrey 2025. The history of this show is deeply personal to me – as a signatory of Ballroom and Latin Dance Club, me and my team brought Strictly back from its pandemic hiatus back in 2022. I’ve been a contestant three times, so it was an absolute privilege to host this year’s show! It was the perfect synergy, seeing BLDC, Big Band, Stage Crew, and StagTV all working in tandem. It meant so much to me, that I even chose the moment to pop the question to my now-fiancée!

 

April also saw some committees for the next academic year kick-start, including our Summer Ball (formerly Grad Ball) and Freshers Week planning groups. This is when the end of my term really began to dawn on me, as we began laying plans for a future I may not necessarily be an active part of!

 

After the sprint of recent months, I finally took some time away from the Union – the first complete week away I’ve had since I started as VP Support back in 2023. So the updates for April are a lot shorter, whilst I got a well-earned rest!

 

May – Graduations, Awards, and Advocacy

 

May started somewhat unusually, as I arrived straight back into graduations ceremonies for our postgraduate students. It was incredible to celebrate the hard work of so many of our students, and came at an interesting time as it also saw the departure of our former Vice-Chancellor Max. The shifting feeling of time moving on was stronger than ever – which is why it was a lovely chance for me to steal away to Newquay as the bus driver of a Union Trip!

 

Sadly I didn’t get to enjoy the sights too much, as we had Union and Colours Ball to plan for! We put on two fantastic nights of celebrating the achievements of our students, whether through sporting excellence or contribution to the student experience. Reading through the nominations was a privilege, as I was blown away by the sheer care and dedication of each and every one of our students. I was also caught off-guard, being awarded Honorary Membership of the Students’ Union and the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Contribution to Student Life. Whilst I was honoured to receive these, they serve as a reflection of the incredible community that continues to inspire and drive me here at Surrey. Oh great, I’m tearing up again!

 

Moving swiftly on, May also brought me back to the national policy landscape. I attended a Westminster Policy Forum, invited as a student voice on the Renters’ Rights Bill. I wrote a separate article on this but, in brief, I explored the potential consequences of the Bill in simultaneously offering students more rights as tenants, but having potentially majorly disruptive impacts on the market (and therefore the availability of student housing).

 

June – Student Attendance and Focus Groups

 

My penultimate month as your Union President… and I certainly didn’t slow down. I went face-to-face with University Leadership over proposed policy regarding student attendance, which I intend to write about at another point. In brief, the University rightly identified that lecture attendance is declining, negatively impacting student experience in terms of both academic and personal development journeys. Whilst we agreed with this in principle, many specifics about how attendance will be measured and flagged for intervention (in a supportive, not punitive, way) still required clarification and debate. I worked very closely in academic committees and with the Chief Student Officer to get the balance right for our students, and the policy’s effects will be monitored next year.

 

I took June as an opportunity to go back to my roots a little, and run some student insight groups! I partnered with the University’s Humanist Chaplain to run a conversation around the pastoral support available for atheist, agnostic, or otherwise non-religious students. I also met with a group of students to discuss the aforementioned issue of tracking attendance. A particularly new experience for me was acting as a judge for the 3 Minute Thesis competition, where I was able to judge the ability of some of our incredible PGR students as they conveyed their research in a stringent time limit!

 

Finally, I had the incredibly opportunity to serve in a stakeholder panel for selecting the next Vice-Chancellor. Given the confidentiality and complexity of this process, it was a fantastic opportunity to offer my input and make sure Surrey’s next figurehead is up to the task of improving our student experience. I’m delighted to say that our next VC, Professor Stephen Jarvis, was especially engaged when discussing student experience with me. I’m confident that he will continue to uphold the University and Union’s critical partnership.

 

Some closing thoughts!

 

This is not my goodbye yet – this is just a look back on some of my biggest achievements over the last six months. Being a Sabbatical Officer has been an incredible experience; all the while I was able to explore the above opportunities, I continued my day-to-day advocacy work as well as serving as a panel member in the OSCAR team.

 

The momentum of the year means that I haven’t been able to provide these updates as regularly as I’d have liked, owed to the fact that I was spending so much time doing things rather than talking about them! But none of the above would have been possible without our students’ passion and engagement. It’s a pleasure to have been representing you through it all!