Back in march, the first meeting of the newly christened ‘Student Leadership Team’ meeting for 2023 was held. This group collects elected UNSW student representatives from Academic Board and Committees, Faculty Boards, University Research Council, SRC, PGC and Arc Board. The goal of the group is to form consensus on important issues related to the learning experiences at UNSW and to empower student representatives to best represent their peers.
Why is the Student Leadership Team?
Students agreed that all elected student leaders should exist under one consistent framework. They agreed to loosely gather under the umbrella of Student Leadership Team (SLT) with a member to develop a Terms of Reference. The group would be the first of its kind at UNSW and indeed Australia and aims to uplift the level of empowerment experienced by student leaders. It particularly aimed to support the advocacy of Faculty, School and Central student leaders in positive changemaking.
Cost of Living
The SLT agreed that whilst cost of living, housing affordability and rental crisis were not strictly academic issues, they are significant stressors for current UNSW students. The ability to secure shelter underpinned the ability for a student to participate in their studies and student life. Students agreed that any steps UNSW can take to relieve cost-of-living pressures would have a significant benefit, especially to those with compounding factors like a long commute, job insecurity or lower-SES background. The SRC will shortly release a survey about textbook costs which will form part of the SLT position on cost-of-living.
Assessment & Learning
SLT spoke about ChatGPT and agreed that there was a wide variety of responses to the software at UNSW. They agreed that the breadth of responses was confusing to students and that it was likely to lead to accidental plagiarism. SLT agreed that UNSW should undertake a student communications campaign to raise understanding of ChatGPT and academic applications.
There was also discussion about assessment optimisation and standardisation regarding: quantity/ volume of assessment and reducing over-assessment; class participation marks; frustration over lack of feedback on major final assessments, and the exciting (and welcome) development that Science would undertake MyExperience Surveys after final assessment. Students were eager to see a movement towards some elective courses being “ungraded” as a mechanism to reduce pressure and burnout.
The SLT meets on a monday evening in week six of each term and the first week of each holidays. They welcome comments, questions and concerns raised by any students.
Members
| Name | Role | |
| Mitchell McBurnie (they/ them) | m.mcburnie@arc.unsw.edu.au | UAQC, Postgraduate rep |
| Oliver Pike | <o.pike@student.unsw.edu.au>; | Arc Chair |
| Paige Sedgwick (she / her) | <p.sedgwick@student.unsw.edu.au>; | SRC President, Eng/ Arts |
| Anthony Sunjaya | <a.sunjaya@unsw.edu.au>; | PGC President |
| Ajay Elangovan | <a.elangovan@student.unsw.edu.au>; | |
| Tahlia McKee | tahlia.mckee@student.unsw.edu.au>; | |
| Joshua Karras | <joshuakarras@gmail.com>; | UNSW Council |
| Joshua Lowinger (he/him) | <j.lowinger@unsw.edu.au>; | Undergraduate Academic Board |
| Alice Sun | <shuting.sun@unsw.edu.au | Postgraduate Academic Board / committee |
| Hossein Salehi (he/ his) | h.salehi@unsw.edu.au>; | PHD / Eng / HDR Academic Board |
| Isabel Cruz Aroca (she/ her) | i.cruz_aroca@student.unsw.edu.au>; | JD / Academic Board Postgrad |
| Zachary Morris | zachary.morris@student.unsw.edu.au>; | Academic Board / Undergraduate Rep |
| BK Lee | bokyung.lee@unsw.edu.au>; | |
| Samuel Millard | sam.millard@student.unsw.edu.au>; | Bus Postgraduate rep |
| Oliver St Leon (he/ him) | o.st_leon@student.unsw.edu.au>; | Business Undergraduate rep |
| Guy Suttner | g.suttner@student.unsw.edu.au>; | Law rep Undergraduate |
| Jovi Pearson | j.pearson@student.unsw.edu.au>; | Law rep Postgraduate |
| Miriam Curtis | miriam.curtis@student.unsw.edu.au | ADA Undergraduate Rep |
| Julia Wan | julia.wan@student.unsw.edu.au | |
| Chibuikem Adilieme (he) | c.adilieme@unsw.edu.au | HDR / ADA HDR rep / URC |
| Tasnia Rahman | tasnia.rahman@student.unsw.edu.au | Academic Board |
| Yuxin Liu | yuxin.l.liu@student.unsw.edu.au | |
| Tina Baradaran (she/her) | t.baradaran@unsw.edu.au | HDR eng |
| Henry Hutchinson | henry.hutchinson@student.unsw.edu.au | Canberra / Cadet |
| Jonathan Greenberg | j.greenberg@student.unsw.edu.au>; | Medicine Undergraduate |
| David Moniz | d.moniz@student.unsw.edu.au | |
| Alisha Sial | a.sial@unsw.edu.au | Health Postgraduate |
| Emily Holford | e.holford@student.unsw.edu.au | Science |
| Lucy Edwards | lucy.edwards@student.unsw.edu.au | |
| S Trevarton | s.trevarton@student.unsw.edu.au | |
| Shaoru Cheng | shaoru.cheng@student.unsw.edu.au | |
| Ryan Nicholas | ryan.nicholas@student.unsw.edu.au | ADA Undergraduate rep |
Any student issues can be raised with the SLT by contacting SRC President Paige Sedgwick src.president@arc.unsw.edu.au anytime.