Ariz Akhtar

Hi everyone!

Now that I'm back from my year abroad in Switzerland, I'm keen to work with the department and help keep things clear and smooth sailing in 4th year, whilst also working towards improved communication and course quality for us 4th years. I myself plan to be clear about any deadlines and issues or questions that arise across the cohort in the Year 4 group chat as an academic representative. Hopefully having an extra point of contact and source of useful information could also prove helpful to you too, especially considering all of the different paths we take in Year 4, which can often make it confusing when trying to follow important updates about what is going on in the course.

For example, having completed my Master's Project last year, I have a couple of ideas of how the thesis criteria can be improved to be clearer for students and give us a less stressful end to the degree. I am also keen to take on any suggestions from 4th years about how to improve the academic experience, as well as any improvements to academic events/talks, and to work on improving the department's support for our progression onto future careers/PhDs.

Feel free to vote for me if this all sounds good, and thanks for reading my manifesto!