Wednesday 21-02-2018 - 09:00

Chairs of Networks are the lead representative for their Network or area, working with a committee or volunteers to run its activities. We caught up with Jack McAlinden, Chair of the Education Network to find out more about his role.

Being the first Chair of the Education Network has been an incredible honour, and I'm so grateful to have had the chance to help develop and set up the Network. I cannot wait to see where it goes from here - the potential is massive! Every student in the University is here to gain an education so it is inherently relevant to everyone, leaving us in a great place to campaign on a wide range of really issues across the University.

We've come a long way for a new Network, having set up and established a membership, with a really strong link to Course Reps across all faculties. We ran a completely revamped training day, which was more exciting and engaging than ever before (and most importantly had a lot of free pizza). Many members of the Network have fed directly into what we're working on, and were frequent attendees at SU Democratic events, shaping the SU and student life. I'd also like to think we brought course reps closer together, hopefully across faculties. This will be an ongoing aim of the Network and will help Course Reps share best practice and feel confident to push for change, as well as meeting some great new people!

Being the Chair of a Network sounds scary and overwhelming, but once you're working away at it, things just keep rolling!

There is brilliant support from the SU, and my 1:1 contact Robiu made things so easy for me - sorting meetings, minutes and catching up with me frequently to check I was working on things I had to for Education Network, but also just checking that I was okay and keeping on top of things in my life. He's been a friend for me this year and made things brilliant!

There were committee meetings roughly once or twice a term, with roughly the same number of wider Network events per term, so the commitment was never too much. It involves being organised, managing your time and a fair bit of emailing, but all of these are brilliant things to practice for the future, in the well supported environment of leading a Network!

Thinking back, I would say my favourite memory was the pizza party following our first ever Education Network event - the Course Rep Conference.

The amount of pizza was probably a large part of the reason why, but on top of it I was really happy to see Course Reps chatting, getting to know each other and being really passionate about improving the student experience of education in Bristol. I knew they were a great group way back then and I know they've achieved some wonderful things in their respective courses, schools and faculties. 

I choose to run for chair as I wanted to be involved in the founding of the Education Network. I saw such a great potential in it to improve the role of Course and Faculty Rep, and the chance to share best practice amongst these roles, as well as simply make friends doing them.

Furthermore, it's a chance to organise great events to get the wider student body engaged in shaping their education as well as rewarding those students who make major contributions to this. This was achievable with such a great committee and network behind me and I know that going into the future, the Education Network will go from strength to strength. You could be the person that leads it on and ensures it achieves everything it has the potential to.

Jack McAlinden, Chair of the Education Network and Undergraduate Faculty Rep for Health Sciences

#SUYesYou