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Education President

George Chaplin (he/him) 

Education President

Your Education President is responsible for improving your academic experience at St Mary’s! 

educationpresident@stmarys.ac.uk

Get to know George...

What I studied 

Politics and international relations 

My favourite thing about St Mary’s 

We are a community-minded university, you get to know people around campus quickly and there is always someone you can go to for support. 

What I’m looking to achieve this year  

Working to implement my manifesto points, working with student representatives and staff to ensure all students receive a high quality academic experience and helping students with any issues they might face during their time at St Mary's. 

One tip for making the most out of St Mary’s 

Get involved in student life! There's loads of clubs and societies to get involved in. There are also opportunities for students to work across the university as course representatives, panel members, student ambassadors and senior residents. 

My best Simmie memory 

Working on-site over the summer period as a student ambassador. The campus is really nice in the summer. 

My manifesto aims 👇

Financial Support

  • In September, we published our 2023 "Cost of Living" report. The data from this report has provided the basis of my campaigning for this year.
  • Following publication of the report, I managed to secure the expansion of hardship funding to International, Level 3 and Masters students. 
  • Postgraduate Research students, however, are still unfairly excluded from this support. I have launched a petition calling for this to change -  which I hope to bring to the Vice-Chancellor before Christmas. 
  • We also managed to secure funding for a new "Transport Hardship Fund", administered by the SU. 
  • We also secured a £25 increase to the maximum award from the student engagement fund. I am currently lobbying for this fund to be expanded to cover international, postgraduate and Level 3 students. 
  • To make it easier for students to access support, we've also launched a "cost-of-living" on our website, bringing all cost of living support at St Mary's into one place. We visited lectures at the start of the year to raise awareness of this resource.
  • We've opened out "SU Pantry", in time for September, offering free food and groceries
  • We have launched a "write to your MP" campaign, to lobby the government to provide better maintenance/postgrad loan support for students
In Progress

Online Lecture Capture

  • In July, my proposal for the 'opt-out' policy, where lectures are recorded by default, was approved by the University's academic board.
  • The University has now written an official policy and is collecting feedback from the trade unions and management staff.
  • The policy will go to the Academic Board for final approval in January.
In Progress

Zero Tolerance to sexual harrasment and sexual assault 

  • I'm continuing to lobby the University on the recommendations set out in our 'Simmie Safety Report.'
  • We have secured improvements to the 'report and support' tool and some additional publicity for mandatory consent and bystander awareness training. We have also secured a review of staff training.
  • Between 6 - 10 November, we held 'Simmie Safety Week.' This campaign was designed to raise awareness of what sexual harrassment looks like, send a message that it's not ok and raise awareness of how to report.
In Progress

Resources

  • Last academic year, we managed to secure a 19% increase in the library and online resources budget. However, NSS scores for learning remain too low and too many students report issues accessing them.
  • On 1st December, I'll be launching resources and response survey. The data from this survey will help build a case for changes to the University's resource list policy, which dictates how many copies of a resource are allocated per student and what format resources take. I plan to put forward these proposed changed in January 2024.
  • I have launched a survey for students in Creative Arts, Communications and Marketing courses, to find out about their experiences using Adobe Software. This data will help campaign to give these students remote access to this software.
In Progress

48-hour response rate 

  • On the 1st December, I'll be launching a resources and response survey. The data from this survey will be used to write a case for implementation of the 48 hour target. I plan to take this proposal forward to the University in January.
In Progress

News & Updates