My name is Voke Adams Adamatie. I'm standing to be elected as Vice-President of Student Development.

Over the past 7 months, I have had the privilege to serve as the VP of Student Development. My role is centred on improving the student experience by employing innovative ways to encourage home and international students to actively engage with the opportunities and services available within the UWS community. I have optimised this opportunity to constantly advocate and make transformative needed improvements to increase student engagement as well as improve student experiences across UWS campuses.

The last 6 months have been eventful and here’s a non-exhaustive list of impact achievements I have made so far.

• Extended the grace period (over two months) for tuition fees payment for international students; In addition, lobbied to restore blocked academic portals so students can access their accounts and continue academic engagements.
• Facilitated the Breakfast Club initiative to aid the cost-of-living crisis by providing breakfast for students across UWS campuses.
• Increased student engagements by lobbying as well as partnering with various arms of the university to host a series of community-building events, out-of-town trips, personal development workshops, and mental health events, and led global campaigns such as the Black History Month, International Students Day, Annual general meeting with a total provision of equal and inclusive access across all campuses.
• Increased student voice and visibility via various committees such as EDI and Student Partnership Forum where I serve as Co-Chair constantly advocating students’ needs.
• Increased student engagement across all campuses by over 70% by employing strategies such as creating common group societies using Academic and Country-based (societies)

Ongoing Projects include.

• Ayr:Lobbying for more funds to improve Ayr campus student union space
• Lanarkshire: Ongoing conversation to combat the transportation challenges faced by students travelling to the Lanarkshire campus, actively seeking, and exploring feasible ways to combat this and considering various options such as partnering with some transport companies or purchasing student-union-owned buses; also, to reduce the weight this poses on students regarding the cost-of-living crises.
• Implementing a Value Exchange Programme aimed at matching home and international students to various volunteering opportunities to give them much-needed hands-on experience to enable students succeed.
• Ongoing discussion on extending the breakfast club to Dumfries and London to aid the cost-of-living crisis challenge faced by students
• In talks with the university to explore partnership with local landlords to provide affordable housing for UWS students

 Building on the impact made as well as ongoing projects. I’d like to continue.

• Enhance student representation and voice through societies.
• Increase university support and recognition for community building.
• Improve collaboration, networking, and access to funding for extracurricular activities through workshops and events.

My vision is to create a vibrant and supportive UWS student community that provides opportunities for students to succeed. I am confident that with your support, we can build on the progress we have made so far.

Thank you for your consideration, and I look forward to continuing my work on your behalf - Vote for Me.