An update from your School Presidents

School Presidents Update

DJCAD

It’s been a busy month of getting back into the swing of things and starting to plan the semester ahead. After the success of our Christmas market in December I, along with my committee, have now started to plan DJCAD’s 2024 Christmas market and hope to make it bigger and better than last years! I am also in the planning process for a careers week which would include talks from businesses, staff and alumni that are all DJCAD specific. This will build on skills students need for life after university.

Another exciting development this month has been the filing of a motion to get microwaves within DJCAD, this would be a small but significant change that would benefit many students. One of my main aims for this semester is to draw attention to the student representative system that the university has and encourage people to get involved more within DJCAD. I hope to pop into year lectures to chat about the presidency and information sheets have gone up around DJCAD to inform people of our committee. I have continued to meet with members of societies to encourage collaboration and hope to see more of it in the future!

Joanna Walke
President of Art & Design
president.artdesign@dundee.ac.uk

School of Life Sciences

I collaborated with my Learning and Teaching VPs to emphasize the significance of becoming a module rep and encouraged students to undertake the role. Additionally, I appointed a module rep for nearly all semester 2 modules across Levels 1-4. I assembled a team to coordinate the School of Sciences Careers Fair, dividing them into three groups responsible for communications, logistics, and advertising respectively. We convened a catch-up meeting with the Careers Fair team to discuss progress and plan our next steps. Furthermore, I attended the SLS Staff Student Liaison meeting to gather feedback on Semester 2 Block C modules for Levels 3 and 4.

Ridvan Kucuk
President of Life Sciences
president.lifesci@dundee.ac.uk

School of Business

I engaged with various module leads to discuss adjustments to specific modules in both undergraduate and postgraduate pathways. These modifications encompass incorporating feedback received in the SSLC, particularly concerning coursework, and integrating sustainability aspects into the modules. Additionally, I focused on developing coursework that would be more captivating for students as they prepare to enter their professional careers. I convened meetings with class reps to provide updates for the upcoming semester and to solicit their feedback, including their thoughts on both academic and non-academic events. Furthermore, I organized the next two SSLCs where class reps can offer feedback regarding their modules, aiming to enhance the student experience at the University of Dundee. As a result of this feedback, changes were made, such as increasing the weighting of coursework assessment for the 2024/25 semester to better align with students’ requirements. These changes directly impact students at the class level. Looking ahead, more developments are expected in February as we all settle back into the rhythm of the semester.

Connor Heward
President of the Business School
president.business@dundee.ac.uk

School of Medicine

Things have gotten off to a flying start since we started back in 2024. Our peer teaching has started strong with 5 events already this year from various medic societies, the sex talk Q&A run by DUMS and the ever helpful Dr.Allstaff. We’ve a successful charity ceilidh by our very own Teddy bear hospital and rounding the months off with Farkin (enjoy your quiet family time). Like many school presidents there is ongoing work with the school representative structure (out beloved MSC) in how we deal with student feedback to try and bring transparency to decisions. As a final note there is the ongoing collaboration with Kamuzu University of Health science in Malawi; the first event a comparative open day on how our schools, medical systems and medical practice differ.

Finally good luck for our Y5s sitting their PSAs.

Dominic Lee
President of Medicine
president.medicine@dundee.ac.uk

School of Social Sciences Humanities and Law

In January, we held our first-ever Humanities Expo, which was an event geared towards considering what opportunities and career paths can come from a Humanities degree. This event was co-created with our School’s Lead for Employability and Graduate Skills, Nicola Tully, in response to feedback and to concerns as perpetrated in the media that Humanities degrees are ‘less employable’ or ‘less practical’ than vocational degrees such as Law or Medicine. The event was a huge success and has received incredibly positive feedback, so much so that we have already begun thinking ahead to next year.
We also presented our Academic Misconduct Report, completed in November, to our School Board, and this has now been distributed to the Digital Skills Team and to CTIL following positive feedback from staff. We hope to integrate some of our next steps from this report into the AcadeMix project.
To keep up to date with what we’re up to in SHSL, follow us on Instagram @schoolpresidents.shsl – or read our reports on our Linktree – linktr.ee/presidentshsl

Dani McFawns and Erin MacInnes
Presidents of Social Sciences & Law School
president.hsl@dundee.ac.uk

School Of Health Sciences

I have been setting up the nursing society to work as both an academic support and as a community, this is an ongoing effort and I will be releasing more on this very soon! As well as this I have been working with students and clinical skills team to develop a simulation activity. I have been working on setting up clinical skills nights where myself and the VPs will provide support and added sessions for students who may require an extra session to consolidate learning. I will also be running safe medication support sessions for first years.

Lucas Fonseca
President of Health Sciences
president.healthsciences@dundee.ac.uk

School of Science and Engineering

Mental Health Awareness has been enhanced through the installation of posters in every bathroom. Additionally, a motion was successfully passed to create a university-wide scholarship aimed at providing equal opportunities for financially disadvantaged students aspiring to become school presidents in the future. Moreover, a President has been appointed for our degree program in China, establishing a representation system similar to the one implemented here. Each degree program now features a Feedback Hub accessible under the organization tab of MyDundee, where feedback gathered during SSLCs is aggregated and archived. We are currently seeking approval for a recreational room to offer students a space to unwind between lectures and to host events for societies within the SSEN.

Marlon D’Ambrosio
President of Science & Engineering
president.scieng@dundee.ac.uk

School of Dentistry

Students vs Staff Charity football match is a go! Pitch booked for the 16th of March 12-2pm, so I’m now working on getting teams together and advertising the event. Hoping to raise money for Dental Connect, a student led initiative aiming to provide oral care supplies to the marginalised in our community. They rely on fundraising and charitable donations to carry out their work, so I feel it is fitting we support them in helping those who need it most.

Dundee Diversity Initiative, an Instagram page ran by students to promote equality, diversity and inclusion, is now back active after the previous admins graduated from dental school. I helped organise a group of students who would be keen to take over the page, and continue the good work that was started a few years ago.

The SSLC this month was fairly unremarkable. 1st-4th year students are all currently working towards exams next month, so they were making requests for specific revision lectures and further guidance on exam format. This meeting occurred a few weeks before the 1st year semester started, so no rep was present from their year to voice concerns. I met with the two first year class reps to hear their concerns after receiving that email from Parissa a few weeks ago. I have fed back their concerns to the ADL&T, so I hope now progress can made to bring their year group up to the level expected of them from senior staff members.

Current priority is having as high a completion rate on the National Student Survey as possible. The dental school always scores highly on this survey, and we intent on remaining one of the top ranking in the UK.

Matthew Fancourt
President of Dentistry
president.dentistry@dundee.ac.uk