The Trinity College Dublin Graduate Students’ Union (GSU) has been in the headlines a number of times this year. As previously reported in The University Times, the Capitation Committee (CC) suspended its funding to the GSU due to “the fact that it has still not filed accounts”. Further, it had “failed to run election after election” and supposedly held meetings in dubious circumstances.
However, the GSU was not always known for this. One of only three graduate students’ unions in Ireland (now down to two with the announcement of its derecognition), it was once seen as “a promoter of equality and academic excellence”. The question then arises – how did the GSU end up falling down a path that led to its dissolution?
The GSU at Trinity was founded in 1973, before what we now know as the Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU). In 1969, the Dean of Graduate Studies encouraged graduate students to come together and form the Research Student Common Room “as a way to foster community and intellectual discussion”. The GSU was then formed after members of the Research Student Common Room decided to unionise “to collectively bargain for better salaries and conditions for research students”.
In 1980, the GSU established its first publication Alumnus, containing notices, creative writing and drafts of scholarly work. It now boasts two well-respected publications, the Trinity Postgraduate Review Journal (TPR) and College Green.
The TPR “encourages interdisciplinary collaboration in a peer review tradition for the advancement of knowledge and scholarly engagement”. Over the years it has developed, and in its latest edition, published in 2019, the Editor-in-Chief Patrick McDonagh celebrated its international pull. The 2019 edition saw submissions from “institutions as diverse as the universities of St. Andrews, Geneva and Warwick”.
Without the GSU, the student may not have known who to contact about their concern, and without committee level representation their specific needs may not have been heard or met
In 2010 the GSU elected its first all-female sabbatical team, comprising a president and vice-president. The GSU had successfully applied for funding in 2006 to extend its sabbatical team from one to two due to the often specialised needs of postgraduate students, with the newly established role of vice-president in charge of student welfare among other things.
At this point the graduate students here at Trinity found themselves with two full-time elected representatives. They could dedicate all their time to lending a postgraduate voice to College-wide decision making and ensuring the specific day-to-day needs of postgraduates were cared for.
Jamie Rohu, a PhD candidate in geography at Trinity and the Environment Officer for the GSU in the 2021/22 academic year, spoke to The University Times about the issues of postgraduate representation and support. Rohu said that problems surrounding “finance, childcare and mental health” can be particularly unique to graduate students, as well as the representation to defend their working rights. Someone on a PhD stipend of €16-18k per year, with children may, for example, find it very difficult “to pay rent and put food on the table”.
Rohu also highlighted how different the needs of each PhD student can be. He mentioned that it can be a “very isolating experience” to be conducting your own research compared to working as part of a research group with multiple PhD candidates. In relation to this, the effects of collaboration and shared workload may contribute meaningfully to an individual’s mental well-being.
At this point the graduate students here at Trinity found themselves with two full-time elected representatives
He also brought attention to the everyday needs of postgraduates, whether that be claiming expenses incurred as part of their work with or for the university, gaining the correct access if you have a disability or using the College Health Service.
As a result of the derecognition of the GSU, the graduate voice has now been lost on important college committees and at Board level. This means that any decisions made by these committees and by the Board will no longer have the input of an elected postgraduate to convey the priorities of the postgraduate community.
Rohu gave an example of someone he had helped during his time as environmental officer. A student came to him concerned at the lack of vegetarian food available at College outlets, with only one option available. As an elected representative with a place on the Green Forum, Rohu was able to “advocate for more vegan and plant-based food” not only “to be more inclusive” but also “to reduce our environmental emissions”.
Without the GSU, the student may not have known who to contact about their concern, and without committee level representation their specific needs may not have been heard or met.
Rohu describes the lack of representation and support as “catastrophic for graduate students right now. It’s a disaster.” He went on to express personal concerns that, although the TCDSU may “do their best for postgraduates”, he is worried that they may not “fully understand the postgraduate experience”, resulting in representation that can be “undergraduate focused”.
Someone on a PhD stipend of €16-18k per year, with children may, for example, find it very difficult “to pay rent and put food on the table”
As previously reported in The University Times, President of TCDSU Gabi Fullam confirmed that “the primary representation of graduate students now falls entirely to the students’ union [TCDSU]”. Of Trinity’s just over 18,000-strong student body, one-third are graduates. Rohu is concerned that the TCDSU is now going to be “overstretched” in taking on the needs of these extra students, and that “it’s not going to be good for undergraduates either”.
An email circulated among postgraduate students confirmed that elections will take place in the style of class rep elections, but while Fullam has acknowledged the “urgency” of establishing elected representation for postgraduates, no date has been given as of yet.
Rohu expressed his disappointment at the outcome of his communications with the CC immediately after the announcement that the GSU was to be derecognised. He attempted to salvage the GSU as an interim president, saying he provided the CC with the missing financial accounts he had managed to get access to and a four-week plan to provide graduates with elected representation. This was ultimately unsuccessful, with Rohu saying that “Trinity was not going to roll back on that decision [of derecognition]”.
Rohu says that “the brand [of the GSU] has been damaged”, indicating a change of name may be needed. He would like to see more potential funding for pay in regards to the unpaid officers of the GSU, partly because of “the amount of time we had put into the GSU” and also “to retain talent”. He explained that in light of the financial pressures already facing postgraduates, it was unfair to expect officers to volunteer their time in order to better the life of postgraduates at Trinity when they could be spending that time earning money elsewhere.
Conor Reddy, a PhD candidate in chemistry and Chair of the TCD Postgraduate Workers’ Alliance (TCD PGWA) for the 2021/22 academic year, also spoke to The University Times expressing his concerns about the future of postgraduate workers’ rights. An integral part of postgraduate life at Trinity involves paid and unpaid work. In Reddy’s case this can include demonstrating in labs, while for those in the arts, this is more likely to include part-time teaching.
The CC, and perhaps the decision makers further up in College governance, have to act quickly and properly to restore the correct postgraduate representation alongside TCDSU
The TCD PGWA works “to recognise, establish and protect working rights of TCD postgraduates”. In Reddy’s experience the actions of the GSU in the past two years has “probably let down our specific cohort a bit”, feeling that there “hasn’t been anyone that really understands the issues that we face from pay and stipends to hours and conditions”. In this context he says that the loss of the GSU means “to be blunt, not a whole lot at the minute” to working postgraduates doing research.
Reddy believes that the interests of said postgraduates “would maybe be better served if there was a distinct representation for postgraduate researchers” so that an elected representative could raise issues of pay and teaching conditions at relevant committees.
He felt that although it was no doubt having a negative impact on postgraduates to no longer have representation at committee level, it may have been a taught masters student in that representative position, which would have led to “a limited amount of representation” for those in the PhD cohort or who are working concurrently with their studies.
In the future, Reddy would potentially like to see representation for taught postgraduates separated from representation for postgraduates as workers, saying that “for us [the TCD PGWA], that would be where we would like to institutionalise ourselves and become more official”. He added that all the work of postgraduate researchers “drives the research output from the university”, highlighting the importance of this community to Trinity’s respected reputation as a higher education institute.
Concerning student welfare, Reddy says that one of the demands of TCD PGWA is for “adequate resources and mental health services for postgraduates”. He added that TCD PGWA is a campaign group and, therefore, does not have the kind of funding or resources necessary for providing welfare services. Within TCDSU or student counselling he would like to see a “specialised” service that has someone that “understands the stresses and strains of postgraduates”.
For us, that would be where we would like to institutionalise ourselves and become more official
As of the time of writing, postgraduate students are still without representation. Although they may have access to support from TCDSU, there are worries that it may not be specialised enough for their particularly unique needs. The CC, and perhaps the decision makers further up in College governance, have to act quickly and properly to restore the correct postgraduate representation alongside TCDSU.
Whatever the timeframe and result of this process is, many parties are seeing the derecognition of the GSU as an opportunity to reassess the future of postgraduate representation at Trinity. Whether this takes the form of specially elected postgraduates to join TCDSU or an entirely new and separate graduate students’ union, or something else, is yet to be decided.
