Hello everyone, I hope you have enjoyed the summer and your year in Bath. I have chosen to write the blog today because I think it's an emotional day for a lot of us PGs since most of us will be leaving our accommodations today. Today marks the beginning of my second year in Bath and in the UK. I can not believe that one year has already passed since I came to the UK. I began my journey by quarantining at the university and then I moved into my university accommodation in the city. During my year in Bath, I have made some wonderful friends here and have absolutely fallen in love with the city. Two months ago I started my journey as the Postgraduate Officer at the SU and here are some of the things which I have been doing.

Meeting Everyone

I got the chance to meet the officer team(a lovely group of people) which comprises 6 people including me.

The first two weeks of my journey was the handover period during which I got to meet key people from the university and the SU staff (and the lovely officer team from the previous year). The handover period was important because I got to know about the issues of PG students and developed some key skills during training exercises.

Attending University Meetings

As an officer, I get to sit at the top-level meetings in the University to represent the student voice of all the Pgs. Having never worked in a role like this ever before, it was very daunting for me but I got all the support from the staff members and the officer team. I won’t mention what all goes into these meetings, but I get to sit with key people from the university and raise the issues of all the postgraduate students.

Things which I have been doing

PG steering group: Within the SU, we have successfully set up a group to oversee the PG experience in the university and what more we can do to create an enriching experience for all the PGs

Supervisor Training: We have worked with the university to continue the work on supervisor training to address all the supervision issues for doctoral students and.

Top 10: Every year the Officer Team picks ten priority issues based on what we have heard from students, and then calls on the University for action. We are on the last stage of deciding the wordings of the top 10 issues for this academic year.

NUS Lead and Change: I have attended the Lead and Change training from the NUS which was very fruitful as I got to meet other postgraduate officers from all the other universities. During the training, we did various exercises and tried to come with solutions for the PG issues for each other. We also managed to set up the first-ever group for all the PG officers for staying connected.

FW2021: The FWEM’s and other members of staff from the SU have been working really hard on the fresher’s week to organize a set of events and activities for all the students who will be joining us very soon. To all the students who will be joining us very soon, please check out the FW website to see what we have planned for everyone.

Stay Connected Program: This is something that the Career’s team has been working upon but I am including it in this list so that it can go out to as many students as possible. The career team is offering a dedicated program of support for the Class of 2021 to help with your next steps after completing your studies. To find out more about this program, please click here.

There are many- many more things which we have been working upon as the SU but I don’t want to make this post-information-heavy. In the end, I would just like to wish good luck to everyone from the class of 2021 and would like to extend a very warm welcome to all the PGs who will be joining us very soon.

If anyone would like to talk to me about an issue or would like to get in touch then feel free to email me at supostgrad@bath.ac.uk.