Wednesday 23-10-2024 - 09:00

👋Welcome to an exciting year ahead! Whether you're just beginning your university journey or nearing the finish line, remember—keep pushing forward. You've got this!

 

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So, before I dive into the article, I want to give a bit of context about what Student Officers are:

We’re a group of students who are elected each year to represent you in different aspects of your university experience.

There’s a Student Officer for sports, education, wellbeing, and societies & development. Then you have me, your President.

 

 

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🧠So, what do we do?

As Student Officers, we are...

• Your voice in high places

• Your campaigners

• Your point of support.

 

Now, don’t worry if that sounds a bit unclear. Let me break it down further and show how we can support each other.

 

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⛰️Your Voice in High Places

In my role, I attend loads of meetings with the University, The Union and external staff to ensure that your concerns, experiences, and needs are heard and considered during important decisions.

As President, I’m a full member of the Board of Governors and Trustees which means I can make sure your needs and ideas are fed into how the University and The Union function.

I’m also a member of the Greater Manchester Student Partnership (GMSP). This means I meet with the mayor and the local authority to address concerns with housing, mental health, safety, and transport for students in Greater Manchester.

So, as you can see your voice has so much power to influence your life at Manchester Met.

 

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📣Your Campaigners

Our job isn’t all just going to meetings, we also run campaigns and projects that work to address issues that have a major impact on your uni experience.

This year, I and the other Student Officers are prioritising four key areas:

 

• Community and Belonging: Student life has changed—many of us are juggling work, commuting, and other responsibilities. We want to make it easier for students to connect and build a stronger sense of community at Manchester Met.

• Visibility: As a student, I only discovered many university services and programmes in my third year. I actually didn’t even know what student officers were until I started this job! Students deserve to be fully aware of all the resources, opportunities, and events available to them.

• Student Money: From housing and transport to extracurricular activities, everything costs so much these days. We believe that financial barriers shouldn’t get in the way of students thriving at uni.

• Personal Development: Uni isn’t just about earning a degree. It’s a chance to grow, explore, and achieve your personal goals. We want to offer more opportunities for students to develop themselves academically, professionally, and personally. To address some of these areas, I am working at reducing waste from the university community and fostering spaces that strengthen a sense of community at Manchester Met.

 

Some of my projects include the Big Union Social, The Union Cupboard and The Union Living Room.

I’ll be sharing more about these soon, so keep an eye out!

 

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🫶Your Point of Support

At Manchester Met, there is so much support available to you! You’ve probably have heard about at least some of them by now.

There are your personal tutors, your peer guides, the Student Hub, the Advice Centre, Counselling Services, and the list goes on and on!

But, you also have us, your Student Officers. If you ever need support with anything, don’t hesitate to come to us.

Maybe you have an incredible idea to support students on campus. Or you just want to chat. Maybe there's some feedback that you think is important for us to hear or you just want some advice.

Whatever it may be, our door (and dms) are open.

 

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🤔How can you help?

Whilst all your Student Officers have been students at Manchester Met, with 40k of us, it’s impossible to know about everything impacting your experience.

So, please reach out and tell us how everything is going for you. Anything going great, terribly or simply meh? We’d love to hear from you.

Our office is located on the second floor of The Union Building. Don’t fancy coming in person? Your always welcome email or dm us on Instagram. Make your voice heard!