The Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) Education Officer role is often the most under-appreciated. It’s also, traditionally, been uncontested – this year is no exception. However, the next Education Officer takes on a more daunting task than many of their predecessors: guiding Trinity’s students through the single greatest transformation of undergraduate curriculum in decades.
From Christmas exams to an entire restructuring of an academic year, the Trinity Education Project promises to be something of a headache for students and staff, regardless of its success.
Staff have already publicly expressed concern about the project, while students at times seem mystified that such large-scale changes could be upon us by September. Aimee Connolly, the sole candidate for TCDSU Education Officer, is stepping into this uncertain territory.
Connolly first became involved in the union after running for class representative last year because “it seemed like a bit of fun”. Having served as Chairperson of DU Amnesty, she quickly became more involved in TCDSU and is now the BESS Convenor and an Associate Trainer with the National Student Engagement Programme, an initiative run by Union of Students in Ireland. It was while training for this role that she first considered running for the position, she said in an interview with The University Times.
There is so much to be said from what you can learn in your four years in Trinity from everything else you do
Connolly cites her passion for politics and her desire to pursue a career in policy-making as reasons for running. With the Student Partnership Agreement, which seeks to redefine the college-student relationship, having been established, she will look to engage with staff during her term to ensure improved student engagement in the College’s decision-making process. But this issue will no doubt be a secondary concern facing next year’s officer, with the implementation of the Trinity Education Project looming.
Incumbent Alice MacPherson has been working this year to negotiate the final few hurdles of the Trinity Education Project, offering input on College committees but also trying to inform students of its significance. Arguably, the latter has been less successful.
Connolly is “fully behind” the project and “favours everything that has been proposed”. One of the most exciting parts of the project for her is the creation of new cross-disciplinary electives, as well as the increased work on access to internships and the development of graduate attributes.
From her own experiencing interning, “there is so much to be said from what you can learn in your four years in Trinity from everything else you do”.
If the Trinity Education Project has its detractors, one concern is how next year’s implementation will be managed. Connolly is optimistic, and while she admits there might be “early hiccups”, these are “inevitable” for a project of its scale. But if she trusts the College administration to deliver the Trinity Education Project, Connolly wants to ensure students have as much information as possible about the reforms. A dedicated TCDSU Education Facebook page is one of Connolly’s solutions to keep students informed, as well as using “student-friendly” posters.
It would scare me if a Presidential Officer wasn’t aware of TEP. It is going to be something all the sabbatical officers are going to need to know next year
Even fans of the Trinity Education Project will be forced to choose a side when it comes to the union’s preferendum in the coming weeks. Connolly “would favour the option that presents the least burden for students. My job would be to work with them during exam time, and that’s not going to change no matter what actually comes in”.
Connolly is more trenchant when it comes to higher education funding and she attacked the recent increase in postgraduate and non-EU fees as “absolutely disgraceful”.
Connolly emphasises that the Trinity Education Project will mean work for all sabbatical officers. “It would scare me if a Presidential Officer wasn’t aware of TEP. It is going to be something all the sabbatical officers are going to need to know next year, especially the President and Education Officer. I would really hope that every presidential candidate is meeting with Alice and trying to get the lowdown on TEP and trying to get as good a handle on it as they can.”
TCDSU Education Officers play a key role in engagement. As the organisers of class representative training, they’re responsible for a training process that could inspire the sabbatical officers of the future. The newly introduced Academic Senate, a pet project of MacPherson and her predecessor Dale Whelehan, after several meetings so far, is beginning to grow into itself.
MacPherson made engagement central to her work this year and Connolly promises the same: “Having the same few hundred students bounce their ideas off each other isn’t productive”, Connolly says. She wants to break away from the insular nature of TCDSU through the introduction of monthly comment boxes and improved advertising for class representative elections.
Having the same few hundred students bounce their ideas off each other isn’t productive
This improved engagement will prove vital if Connolly is to succeed in increasing the number of candidates in what has often been an uncontested race. Connolly admits that the role may seem inaccessible as it is “so focused on policy and structures within Trinity”. To combat this, she will need to divert from the standard of the Education Officer being a “private role” and work towards ensuring that the work she is doing is relayed back to students.
Connolly is careful when speaking of the key issue of engagement from women in TCDSU, stating that although “it’s very hard to find a tangible solution”, it is a concern that she promises to address if elected. Describing the lack of women running for election as “an awful issue”, she vows to work on MacPherson’s Diversity in Leadership campaign in order to combat this.
Along with student engagement, there are a number of other issues that Connolly says she would address during her term. By introducing career guidance training for tutors, she hopes to establish a point of contact for students seeking careers advice and, on a wider scale, a “Who to Contact” campaign would ensure that students are aware of structures and hierarchy within Trinity. Continuing with her theme of accessibility, Connolly also intends to add a new section to the TCDSU website consisting of student blogs about their experiences on Erasmus and in postgraduate programmes to allow students to get impartial advice.
The race to be TCDSU Education Officer is often the easy part. Once in the role, candidates are swamped by committees, regulations and academic obstinance. If the Trinity Education Project threatens to exacerbate this, any successful candidate will need to prepare for a campaign that could see them face tough questions about how they’ll guide students through the next year.
Aoife Kearins is a Senior Staff Writer for The University Times, and will edit the education race during the upcoming TCDSU elections. Tommy Halpin-Kelly is a Senior Staff Writer for The University Times and will act as education campaign correspondent.
