SU23 - Grace Duffy for Undergraduate Education officer

Grace Duffy

Hi, my name is Grace and I’m a fourth year student in the School of Psychology. I am the current SU Voice Intern and I work closely with the student representatives and current Education officer. Last year I completed a placement year as an Education Student Support officer in the School of Psychology which involved sitting on staff committees such as the SWAN Gender Equality team. These opportunities have provided me with extensive experience advocating for student voices throughout the university.

I have always been a passionate advocator for people’s rights. As a fluent Irish speaker, I am passionate about increasing visibility for the language throughout our campus and country. I volunteered for three years to sit on a youth action panel for SpunOut.ie (NGO). Through this organisation I was selected at 17 to appear on The Late Late Show on RTE to talk about the Educational System in Ireland. I discussed how much pressure the system puts on young people and my own mental health struggles consequently.

I am adamant that Queen’s need to do more to ensure every student’s academic needs are catered for throughout their degree. I recognise that Queen’s students all have different backgrounds and experiences and as a result every learning experience is different. My sister who has a diagnosis of autism struggled with the transition to university education immensely and ended up dropping out after a month as a result. I witnessed her struggle with adapting to the new teaching methods, using systems such as Canvas and feeling isolated in her school community, having little opportunity to make friends. Her mental health was severely damaged consequently as she describes her experience at Queen’s as the “worst month of my life”. It is evident that she is not alone, as the shocking results of the OMNI report show that 85 per cent of students reported struggling with their mental health, with academic pressure being one of the top stressors negatively influencing this. The University should feel ashamed that this foundational lack of academic support is causing students to feel this way.

The main areas I want to work on are:

Creating a Better Academic Community

In a post-COVID environment, students are now more than ever wanting to engage and get involved in activities in both their school and throughout campus. The course, school and faculty recruitment and engagement this year has been huge, and I want to build on this momentum to increase students’ voices even more next year. The OMNI report has shown that most students do not feel part of a community within their school which impacts negatively on students’ mental health. I wish to create a better community by working with the LDS on skills workshops, push to get a Student Support officer employed in each school to protect students’ wellbeing and increase school social events to help students bond with their academic peers.

Enhancing Flexible Learning

Although there have been strides forward in digital learning in recent years, there is still a long way to go. Students are paying huge amounts of money to attend university, so they should be able to decide what way they prefer to learn. Blended learning makes university education accessible to more people than ever before and helps make our campus more diverse and inclusive. I aim to improve blended learning by ensuring 48 hour lecture recordings, reducing bunched deadlines, ensuring earlier timetable availability, reducing exam weightings and by providing an average class grade for each assignment.

Amplifying Student Voices

Too many students are not aware of who their representatives are within their course and school and so students often suffer in silence. Student representatives can bring about big changes in the course/school and students need to start utilising this tool to provide feedback, may it be positive or negative, for changes to come about. As your Undergraduate Education officer I will be passionate about strengthening the student voice and ensuring all students have a student representing them and their needs. To do this I will create video training resources to make the role more accessible, continue the development of the academic hub and engage a strong community of representatives by arranging social activities to strengthen the representative community.

Careers Support

Too many students come out of Queen’s University unsure of what the next step entails and with little experience tailored to their degree gained in their time at university. I want to increase awareness about the opportunities that the university and schools offer to students. Schools often provide little support when it comes to attaining placements, checking up on students during placements and providing opportunities for students to discover what they can do with their degree. Schools need to stand up and take responsibility for their students’ future and not just shut the door behind students on graduation. I aim to reduce placement fees, organise workshops on navigating career sites and ensure schools develop relationships with future employers by having regular workplace visits and talks.

Thank you so much for reading, and please feel free to check out my social media page and my manifesto on the SU website. Lastly, please vote for Grace on March 6-9 at qubsu.org!

To see all the candidates running, visit the Queen’s SU website