I'd like to first a quote a friend of mine, newly inaugurated into the absurd reality that is student politics:the weird thing about student politics is every day you realise that you hate students more and more yet you still keep trying to do stuff to help them- ебать Ленин, я люблю Кронштадт (@MurrayShookchin) June 11, 2018You've elected me twice to serve as the students' union's Postgraduate Students' Officer. It's been an interesting experience, to say the least; while I'm very excited to move on with my life - and for as self-critical as I've always been - I'm also very proud of what we've achieved and think much of it shows what an SU can do if it tries to function like an actual union rather than a bureaucratic charitable shell, working with students to hold our universities to account and advance our interests nationally as a political collective.No doubt I could have done better at some things and invested less in others; but for all the drama, I think I did my best and that things are a little bit better now than they could otherwise have been.None of this would have been possible without the hard work of the students' union's staff, the many dedicated unpaid student activists and academic representatives across campus and those staff at the university committed to working with us to improve how our education is run.If anyone needs me, I'll be found in the SSEES library working on my dissertation until September when I'll hopefully graduate and run for the hills.So here's where my £50k in salary costs over the last two years went (most of which, incidentally, has returned to the union in the forms of pints bought at the IOE). This isn't everything but it'll do.Apologies for the length: here's a little something to get you through it - and another here - and one more here.Areas, themes, possibilities and dreamsMental healthPostgrads who teachFree movement and international studentsFinancial support for postgrads and marginalised groupsParents and carersProtecting education at UCLNational campaign for free educationDemocratising the students' unionSecure contracts for union student staffHidden course costsA postgraduate communityProtecting the Institute BarWorking conditions for postgraduate researchersSupporting staff on strikeJustice for outsourced workersConference fundsAffordable rentUCL EastExtenuating Circumstances policySubstantial investment in mental healthDuring my first year in office it was becoming painfully clear that UCL had no intention of initiating a serious response to the mental health crisis on our campus. Our Welfare and International Officer successfully pushed for a series of key reforms to the service; but on the issue of underfunding, which at its worst point meant a waiting list for counselling of up to 20 weeks, the university refused to move.So I set about launching a grassroots campaign to pressure the university into changing its mind. We disrupted open days, held rallies and protests, got 2000 signatures on our petition and collected dozens of senior staff members for our open letter to management. Numerous academics cited mental health underfunding as their reason for voting in favour of a governance review at the university at a special meeting of Academic Board. Eventually, I brought this pressure to Academic Committee where the Registry finally backed down and put forward a bid for three additional members of staff for SPS - enough to bring the waiting list down to an estimated maximum of six weeks.We're still waiting on the outcome of this bid, and six weeks is still too high to wait for support; but the campaign will continue, and this represents a marked advance in mental health support at UCL of which everyone involved with the campaign should be proud. Certainly, the university has at last acknowledged the mental health crisis and its failure thus far to act.Improved pay and conditions for Postgraduate Teaching Assistants (PGTAs)PhD students who teach are at the forefront of casualisation in higher education, employed often on insecure hourly contracts - if at all - and expected to perform duties that consume many more hours than for which they are paid.In my first year, we ran a grassroots campaign that spanned several departments and faculties across the university, a number of which won incremental pay increases and reviews of working conditions. I additionally carried out research that shone light on conditions that Human Resources had failed to acknowledge for years - widespread pay inequalities, with women being paid an hourly rate 22 percent less than men and an average of 30 percent of all hours carried out by PGTAs reportedly going unpaid. Few were on contracts, and fewer still on those which guaranteed hours and many basic employment rights.In response, the university initiated a review of its PGTA policy, itself notoriously poorly enforced. After a year and a half of back-and-forth discussion and negotiation, the principle that all duties carried out by a PGTA should be paid has been agreed, which will hopefully include mandatory training; a Grade 6 post is set to be formally introduced, with clear promotional criteria and job descriptions; casualised contracts will be discouraged; PGTAs will have a line manager to support their professional development; all will be paid at least 0.5 hours of preparation time for every contact hour taught; a template employment contract will be issued by HR, to mitigate against departmental variations; and a number of enforcement mechanisms have been asserted, such as the implementation of the code being a subject of review of the Internal Quality Review processes that departments undergo.These changes are due to be approved for the upcoming academic year, following a few further revisions I am negotiating with UCL HR.Is this enough? Absolutely not; we've long been pushing for Grade 6 to be introduced for all PGTAs - no London university other than UCL pays lower - and for improved accountability such that all hours taught by PGTAs are adequately remunerated, together with a centralised HR recruitment process. These will need to be continued in conjunction with UCU, whom HR have thus far refused to engage. Nevertheless, this is a substantial improvement on the existing situation and will hopefully benefit a great many PhD students - and I've already seen internal communications within faculties that show deans and tutors may indeed be adjusting their mechanisms to enact the new code of conduct.Defending freedom of movement and resisting discriminatory visa compliance procedures for international studentsDuring the midst of the strike, we managed to force UCL to delay its plans to introduce a highly expensive and surveillance-heavy attendance monitoring system; but then the Registry snuck in an overhaul of its internal policies for monitoring the engagement of international students on Tier 4 visas - in response, it seems, to a mock audit carried out by an external law firm that showed the university needed to revamp its procedures to retain its visa sponsorship rights. But rather than doing so - and following Home Office advice to the effect that all monitoring should be behind closed doors, and not require check-ins additional to ordinary studying - management instead chose to force through a series of policies which now mean that international students need to physically sign in at least once every three weeksSo we've united with staff to fight back against these discriminatory visa regulations. This is in addition to staff on Tier 2 visas whose need to sign in have impeded their ability to take industrial action during the recent UCU strike. So far, we've held two open meetings - the first of which saw senior managers dramatically attempt to take control of the campaign, which had drawn in a huge attendance and several members of the local UCU branches. We've already pushed the Institute of Education to review its own 'uber-compliant' implementation of the regulations - but we'll be organising open letters, petitions, protests and open day disruptions until the university as a whole agrees to our demand of minimal compliance of Home Office guidance, and I'll continue to stay involved until I graduate in September if it is not achieved by then.I'm also directing the beginning of a campaign with activists up down the country in the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts against the policing of students - including resisting attendance monitoring and PREVENT and pushing for pledges to keep police off campus. In addition, I've supported the Labour Campaign for Free Movement and supported national policy to fight Brexit and border controls through the National Union of Students.Financial support for marginalised students on campusI worked with UCL Funding on their new five-year strategy to 2023; incorporated have been pledges to introduce bursary and/or scholarships for postgraduate taught students, funding for students with caring responsibilities and for scholarships for BME researchers. My successor will need to continue to lobby to ensure that these pledges become reality - but UCL has already introduced bursary provision for estranged students, as I pushed for following the university's signing of the Stand Alone Pledge.Support for students with caring responsibilitiesWe are currently in the process of finalising internal recommendations for the university to enact the financial support it has committed to through UCL Funding. A small space for an expansion to the existing Day Nursery has already been identified by UCL Estates - but we are also aiming to secure a further expansion into a sessional childcare service, together with bursary provision for students with caring responsibilities. This is in addition to pushing for appropriate childcare facilities to be incorporated into all new infrastructure projects, the introduction of a Childcare Office and the opening of the staff network for parents to students. T
