Last week we spoke to the three freshly announced candidates for the students’ Union International and Community Officer and discussed what they’ve been up to during their time at university, all about their manifestos and why people should vote for them.
How have you spent your time at university, and is there anything you are particularly proud of academically or in extra-curriculars?
Aurangzaib Wattoo: “Till now, to be honest, I’m doing great in my studies because of the environment, because of the teaching facilities. Everything was alright. Obviously its a top-ranking university so it provided me with everything that helped me to this point, to this third year now. I’ve done extracurricular activities as well. Recently I won the recent student union election and I am currently a sports councillor. I’m also playing some part in the Pakistan Society of the University of Sheffield. It’s been a great experience until now.”
Leon Gichana Omangi: “I just secured a role as Employability and Enrichment Officer for the School of Law. My niche is to look and help international students for employability. I was born in Kenya, my entire life has been spent in Africa, so coming here was not only my first time coming to the UK but to uni, and I didn’t know what to expect. When I came to Sheffield, I became lucky enough to find a group called All-African Postgraduate Group, and through this group I was able to make friends. I am now a committee member for this group but I plan on running for something senior later on.”
Derick Liew: Derrick is currently Inclusions Officer of Sheffield SU Welfare Committee and has worked as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in three departments. He has been a postgraduate representative for physics and the Faculty of Science for four years now, during which he has highlighted students’ and employability concerns to the academic staff body. Additionally, he co-led the Hicks Green Impact Team to win the Platinum Green Impact Awards in 2021, and has obtained recognition for Fellow of the Higher Education Committee. He is the secretary of Strength and Sport Society and is a committee member of the Institute of Physics Yorkshire Branch and Chemical Engineers Sheffield, where he raises concerns on course issues, industrial queries and communicates the industry standards and expectations from universities.
Elaborate on your manifesto.
Aurangzaib: “My main manifesto includes diversity and inclusion, then community engagement and then global citizenship. If I talk about diversity and inclusion, we all are here from different nations you can say, there is a big community, international community, and being part of the international community, I feel that everyone should be treated equally, and there should be an equal contribution or you can say equal rights to every student.
“There should be no question on race or no question on the diversity you can say, whatever it is, the culture or wherever from the students or community is, we have to respect them and we should provide a safe platform so that they can manage themselves to deliver the most out of them.
“I would like to quote an example from my religion, Islam. So basically we Muslims, we pray five times a day. We go to a mosque to pray and under that one roof, the people that come to pray, they all are from different nations, they all have different cultures, they all have different races – so we all stand under that one roof in a row and we pray together. We all recite the same during that prayer, so I would like to implement that concept here as well. It’s already here, but I would like to improve it that everyone should be equally treated and there should be equal rights.”
Leon: “My manifesto is centred around three key principles. One: i want to ensure empowering people and student voices. Yes, international students do have a voice. However, nine times out of ten, a lot of the time we realised it is heard too late or it is not heard at all. I want to give people a platform. I want to be a conduit for them and the community.
“Secondly, supporting international students. As an international student, my biggest problem moving here is cost of living. It has been almost impossible for me to manage my first few weeks. It doesn’t help matters where in my country our currency isn’t doing so well against the pound, so not only am I struggling already but when I convert the money I am struggling more. I want to assist and get word out there about help out there.
“My third and final principle is diversification and inclusion. Looking around us you can see everyone comes from different walks of life and so as someone who came into this country last year and had an issue getting integrated, the first few weeks including everyone in activities I feel is important.”
Derick: “As your Interntaional and Community Officer, I would endeavour to:
- Lobby to remove the additional charges students have to pay just to graduate and reliably receive their certificates and gown hire, which disproportionately impacts international students.
- Lobby for more tuition fee payment plan options for all international students who pay up to 4 times the local fees and those unable to access student finance.
- Work closely with the other campus unions to secure benefits that are inclusive of the international community in Sheffield – including enhanced workers rights, favourable contract terms and more affordable housing schemes.
- Create more volunteering and fundraising opportunities for causes around sustainable development, civil and workers rights, and migrant solidarity.
- Support an inclusive academic curriculum for all students, with an emphasis on decolonisation, to build a close-knit University community of global citizens.
- Implement a flexible yet distinguished “Sheffield Global Citizen Award” scheme to recognise all actions and impacts by all university members – a replacement of the obsolete “HEAR Recognition” which was for undergraduates only.
- Push for equalisation in tuition fees by implementing a home-rate tuition fee for international PhD students who don’t actually receive any tuition, but contribute heavily to the University’s Research Excellence and are currently paying up to 9 times more than the home PhD students for the “privilege”.”
Why do you fit the role, and why should people vote for you?
Aurangzaib: “I don’t know but I feel confident because from my school life, when I was in my school during my O-Level, I won the election of Iqbal House, I was the captain of that house, and I have that experience of two years through that captainship. I have that experience of managing these types of issues you can say. And then in my A-Level, I was the Sports President and I have gone through different problems and different issues you can say. That gave me a lot of experience and I think I feel confident that I have a lot of experience to cater with all the problems. Recently here in the University of Sheffield, as I’m working with Pakistan Society, so everyday we organise events or whatever the issues that Pakistani Society has, we deal with that as well. Then being an SU Councillor, I’ve got experience as well of the Student Union. I think, summing up all these things, I feel confident enough for this position.”
“People obviously need someone with a proper way and someone with proper abilities you can say, but if I will get the chance, then I will be able to show my abilities. Obviously everyone can speak, everyone can say, but I think I would say people should judge more on my work than my words. I’m in my third year so I want to serve as being part of the international community and whatever issues I have seen during these three years, I want to raise those issues up and I want to show the community that we can move further around the whole world as well.”
Leon: “I am a foreigner, I am black, I am a postgraduate student from Africa. I’m not trying to create distinctions but an international student from Europe and an international student from Africa have completely different experiences. Both of them have their own struggles, but have completely different experiences. So personally for me, I feel like I have gotten involved with a lot of different cultures and have a unique advantage point.
“I see things differently than most people because I can see both sides of a point. So people voting for me will give me the chance to give back to the community and help them how they help me, and develop systems for students coming in the future.
“I feel I have the passion tugging literally at my own heart strings and I want to put my sweat and tears into it.”
Derick: “No matter who you vote for, please do vote because this is how a democratic society works and we need your votes to ensure that we create a well represented team that you elected.”