Forge Press sat down with Haris Jamil to discuss his plans for the Education Officer role and why he is running as a candidate.
Haris started by telling us about why he is applying for the role.
Haris said “I’m an international student, from Pakistan, and I’ve been studying in the UK since 2017. Since I moved to Sheffield, I have started a community of postgraduate students called the Postgraduate Society, because postgraduate students didn’t have one space to share, or be listened to, or raise awareness, when I joined the Uni.”
[I have] also been student and faculty rep, and I have actively within my course, raised issues around attainment gap, educational disparities, especially recently about the module cuts, and module cancellations, and spoke for myself, and spoke for my fellow students from different backgrounds.”
We asked Haris how the Education Officer is an important role for the Students’ Union.
He said “Students from different backgrounds, from different countries, from different lived experiences come to Sheffield University to get a degree and to enhance their educational experiences. And I think that the Education Officer can make sure the students with different needs, with different lived experiences can make the best out of their degree.”
Haris wants to make sure that students feel represented, that they are being heard, and that they feel like they are connected to their background. He stated that his manifesto consisted of working “on awareness of educational disparities, especially on something called the attainment gap, the gap of students of colour, and international students and between white home students. Because at the moment, Sheffield University has the highest gap among all the universities, of students of colour and international students.”
In fact, Haris has started a ‘Stop The Gap’ campaign with other students, raising awareness on educational disparities, between Black Asian and minority ethnic students who don’t get the grades they deserve because they are being racially discriminated against, compared to their white counterparts.
Because: “it’s not that the students are not studying, it’s because within the university there are systematic inequalities.” He wants to come up with an action plan for each department with students and staff, so that the gap can be ended.
Haris also said he wants students to learn other skills outside the classroom, “I want to start a language cafe in Students’ Union, I think students shouldn’t be paying hundreds of pounds to university just to learn the language. We have a wide number of international students who would love to teach their language to other students, and home students would love to learn a language, or teach English to some students as well.”
He also wants “to start with the careers team skill based program, where during the degree of every student, they’re not just learning a theory, but they’re also learning some skill. It could be through offering internship, volunteering, or through other incentives. Like for instance, at school of education, we don’t get a chance to step into school. I want to give students practical experiences, so that they can learn some new skills and experiences that can land them into a job.”
Haris also stated that “the university has started this very worrying trend of cutting modules: optional modules. Students come to university to study something they’re passionate about, and study something very specific. And the university has recently chosen to cancel some of those modules which students are passionate about or signed up to, very last minute. And I want to make sure that every student has a safety in what they signed up for, and that the University has a system in place so that they don’t cancel the module last minute without the consultation of students.”
We finally asked him why he thinks he would be the best person for Education Officer.
Haris said: “As a person who runs a society, who runs a campaign, who has been student rep, and who is an international student, I do understand students’ issues. I have talked to students, I have listened to students, and I have led campaigns.
“And my Slogan… ‘Let’s shake up Sheffield’, is a testament to that.”
