Jason Arya

Hi everyone, I'm Jason, a 3rd year Geology major running to be the Academic Representative for ESE!

Following on from being Wellbeing Representative in both first and second year, and experiencing university elsewhere on a year abroad, I believe I can utilise these experiences to improve the academic experience for students next year.

Firstly I would push the staff body to add more coursework to offset heavy exam modules. Majority of the courses right now are 100% examination, and for 1-1.5 hour exams theses are needlessly stressful. Integrating coursework via projects/presentations, group work plus more access to research level lab work that are directly applicable for certain modules would not only improve the student experience engaging and learning the material, building a wider skillset in the process, but also takes pressure of exam season counting to all your grade.

Another area that I would address is student issues from the prior years repeating for future cohorts. By reaching out to lecturers before classes start to address these for certain reoccurring modules, feedback from the mid term survey will provide more value to being filled out as they are less focused on reoccurring prior problems, instead on new change creating a positive impact for students.

Creating a stronger network between students to year reps plus myself and staff is overall my goal to enhance the student experience, and ensure that students have a voice in how the courses they are undertaking are being taught and can be improved.