SU21 - Elena Byrne for Postgraduate Officer

My name is Elena Byrne, and I am running to be your next Postgraduate Officer. I am a master’s student in MRes Arts and Humanities and my research is based on the Spanish Civil War. I am the current part-time Postgraduate Taught Officer within QUBSU and current acting school rep for AEL. I sit on Student Council, the SU Executive Management Committee and the SU Management Board.

I have previously been both an academic representative and President of the Spanish and Portuguese Society. I absolutely love what I do and as a master’s student, I believe that I am an excellent candidate because I have experienced first-hand some of the issues at the core of my manifesto that I am committed to working on for the benefit of the postgraduate student body. I chose to run for election because I want to help implement this change. During my time at Queen’s, the SU has been at the heart of my experience and has always been an important symbol of activism and change which I have loved being a part of and would love to be a bigger part of as a full-time officer.

I have chosen to focus this opinion piece on the issue around postgraduate funding because it is ludicrous that there is a significant lack of funding available to students who wish to undertake a postgraduate degree. I find it hard to understand that the Executive cannot at least provide a sufficient tuition fee loan that covers tuition fees without leaving students in the difficult position of being out of pocket.

Practically all postgraduate courses in Northern Ireland are beyond £6,000. The current tuition fee loan is £5,500 meaning that most students will be left out of pocket by at least £500 as a result of funding the extra fees that the loan does not cover. This, coupled with no maintenance loan, makes the postgraduate experience incredibly financially difficult before students have even started their course.

Expecting students to meet the huge academic demands of a postgraduate course whilst they struggle to find a means to fund their living is insane and I will lobby for adequate funding support until the postgraduate tuition fee loan that is available to students will ensure that students are able to begin and complete a postgraduate degree without having to seek external financing outside of the tuition fee loan.

Tuition fee loans should cover the costs of the courses that they have been used to fund and it is completely unfair that this is not the case in Northern Ireland. Students in Northern Ireland are also disproportionately affected in comparison to students in England, Scotland and Wales who receive higher tuition fee loans and maintenance loans to assist with living costs whilst they complete their postgraduate degrees.

Many students are working ridiculous hours to be able to afford to live alongside studying for a master’s or research degree. The pandemic has only heightened this.

Many have lost jobs or are struggling to make up enough hours to afford to live and, on top of this, struggling with public health concerns and isolation make for trying to maintain any sort of normal routine incredibly difficult. This is especially difficult for those students who have extra responsibilities outside of their degree and work such as (including but not limited to) those students who have dependents, are parents, carers or perhaps have disabilities.

The postgraduate experience is really not a ‘one case fits all’ scenario and this is what needs to be reiterated in the fight for change.

I also propose to work towards a campaign to lobby for postgraduate maintenance loan which is greatly needed and will be a crucial factor in the overall experience of postgraduate students. Underfunding of postgraduate students absolutely cannot continue.

I have learned that nothing is more powerful than the student voice. Now, more than ever, the student voice is crucial in creating the change we need to see. I believe that you should vote for me as #1 for Postgraduate Officer because working with students for the benefit of students will be key in my practise and I will work my hardest to ensure that the Postgraduate voice is represented, heard and is instrumental in creating change so that our current education circumstances are not the future education circumstances.

To see all the candidates running for this position, visit the QUB SU Website.