We welcomed the University of Manchester Students’ Union Executive Officers into the podcast studio to discuss their priorities, challenges, and the work they have been doing to represent students across campus. The conversations highlighted the Students’ Union’s position as both an advocate and a support hub for students, shaping university policy with discussions ranging from mental health provision and community building, to decolonising the curriculum and improving material conditions.
Lexie Baynes (Union Affairs)
As Union Affairs Officer, Lexie Baynes is responsible for representing student voices and advocating for their best interests to the University and other stakeholders, continuing in her role after winning a second term back in February 2025.
Almost a semester into her second term, Lexie is focused on the same priorities from her campaigns: living, expenses, and student experience which she’d “identified as priorities based off [her] own experience and also using some of the SU’s research.”
“I’ve never really swayed from that”, she states, “They’re still my three broad thematic areas, but I think the current priorities right now… is all around the Fallowfield residences and what we’re actually doing there, how we’re building accommodation, and the affordability levels in particular.”
Beyond this, Lexie is keen to highlight the newly opened Essentials outlet, located on Oxford Road. “It’s essentially looking at the holistic student support model we can provide for students. So anything from housing to basic needs, wellbeing, mental health support, food pantries, anything that you interact with on a day-to-day basis.”
At its core, benefitting the student community drives the work that the SU Exec Officers do, which Lexie believes to be evident in “the actual existence of the Students’ Union itself”. Alongside the Chief Executive of the SU, Lexie negotiated £3.1 million from the University to fund the SU, which will go “directly into student services”. According to their 2024 accounts, the SU received a block grant of just over £3 million in that year, alongside restricted grants of ~£375,000, most of which were provided by the university.
Lexie also points to her work in the Fallowfield redevelopment plans, where rent could cost as much as £235 per week: “while we’re building new residences, I’ve always argued and will continue to argue that they need to be affordable to students… I’ve always made it very clear to the University that I just don’t believe they are affordable. So, to mitigate against that, we’ve increased the amount of accommodation bursaries. So now the University has put in, I believe, £1.7 million into these accommodation bursaries for 200 students to be able to access”. According to UoM’s website, each recipient of the bursary will receive three instalments of £683 per year.
Lexie is also keen to “close the gap between students and senior leadership” which she has developed through her working relationship with Duncan Ivison — the Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Manchester. “I think our relationship has always been very open and transparent,” she says, noting a recent video she filmed with him regarding the University’s financial statements: “the university has a surplus of £84 million this year. How is that going back into students’ lives and students’ pockets? You know, how are you going to invest in students? So yeah, I’m always pushing them. They’re always pushing me. And it’s productive.”
Alec Severs (Humanities)
Alec’s primary function is to advocate for students within the Faculty of Humanities in the University executive, and work with the faculty in order to push reforms to benefit students. To this end, his first manifesto when he ran for election advocated for greater ‘course personalisation’, decolonising the curriculum, improving accessibility, and greater employability opportunities for students in the humanities.
However, Alec starts his interview by saying that he isn’t going to be able to do everything he wants to. In his first 6 months, his priorities have coalesced into two themes: firstly, his focus on the “material conditions” of students, improving educational accessibility and affordability. His second theme is more on the theoretical side; he wants to continue to accelerate the University’s decolonisation strategy, and he is hopeful that Manchester 2035, the University’s new flagship 10-year strategy, will ensure that decolonisation is integrated into educational reform.
Focusing in on some key tenets of his ideas statement, Alec acknowledges there has been difficulties. On course personalisation, he notes that advocating for change is tricky given the system of ‘benchmarking statements’ which requires all students to reach certain checkpoints in order to continue their studies, as well as wider financial struggles within the University sector. “When you come in and ask [that] you need to go bigger, you can often get quite a reactionary throwback to that”, Alec says, which is a consequence of these financial struggles. Alec however, wants to empower student representatives to take the lead on reform, as through their lived experiences he argues, they are the best placed to lead change.
Asked about another tenet of his ideas statement – study abroad and industrial placements, Alec hedges. He says that the University should take more action in order to help students perform better in the job market by allowing them to demonstrate a ‘narrative’ of their time at University, as part of his focus on ensuring students are better able to ‘extract’ employability.
Year abroad schemes have not been a focus for Alec with his primary focus going on improving the ‘material conditions’ of students. His aim, since he took the role, is to elevate everyone, not just certain groups of students, he concludes.
Amrit Dhillon (Science and Engineering)
Amrit Dhillon is a Third-year Mechanical Engineering student and won the role of Faculty of Science & Engineering Executive Officer in February this year. She is responsible for concerns relating to these subjects and originally set out aims including improving the student-lecturer feedback systems and enhancing the quality of teaching.
Once she got into office, she found that her original aims were no longer what she wanted to focus on. She explained how “while these priorities are issues for students now, I don’t think they actually address the root causes, which I’ve seen as there being a massive lack of communication, lack of community, and a lack of a sense of belonging within the University.” She gives the example of exam timetable delays (one of her original goals), when she came into office, she did some research into why it can take a while and found “the timetabling teams are working as fast as they can”. Through this she realised the University was “trying to work with us”.
So instead, Amrit has changed her goals while in office to being related to communication. She explains this led her to the conclusion that communication should be her focus, as for her, “the second someone explained the University are doing what they can to help improve timetabling, I was like, oh, awesome, that’s great!”.
For Amrit the “Students’ Union is a place where students can just come together in a shared space, and actually get to know one another, form those new connections, and like really make the most out of like what it is to be a person and what it actually means to be a student as a whole, and not just the educational side of things.” She speaks about her personal experience with the Student Union positively saying: “I was in a bunch of different societies when I was a student, and I really found the value in just having the opportunities there to find my community and my people.” Amrit felt “the biggest thing that the Students’ Union brings is that sense of community, that sense of belonging.”
When asked “So you campaigned on creating that new platform for student-lecturer feedback. How have you gone about doing that?” Amrit said, “I think rather than having the ambitious, ‘let’s create a whole new system’, it’s more about trying to refine the current systems we have.” Her main focus so far has been enhancing the SVC (Student Voice Committee) meetings. These actions include getting the IAG (Information Advice and Guidance) to “upload the minutes from the meetings earlier than they currently do”. She is also working on the timeliness lecturers get back to students wanting “any point raised by a student has to come back with some sort of feedback”.
Sharon May Dominic Raj (Wellbeing and Liberation)
As Wellbeing and Liberation Officer, Sharon is responsible for advocating for student health, mental and physical, and the support of underrepresented groups. She described the Executive Officer role as an opportunity to “actually create an impact or do something that is purposeful.”
Her top priority is mental health wellbeing: “Currently I’m doing 2 things. One, I’m working with the University of Manchester’s mental health support team to reform their self-referral form. For contacts, the first point of appointment that a student could make to those services is not very convenient. […] We are now looking into a new form called a self-referral form, which the University of Birmingham already practiced, but we are making it more student-inclusive and accessible.”
“And the second thing is I’m looking into a new model called collective care. This is very much experimental, and we are going to have our first session on 16th of December. Just a pilot study seeing how this could actually work. It is going to be a student-led peer-to-peer mental support group or a circle.”
Asked about the benefits of the SU for the student community, she told us she was particularly excited to work with the SU’s new ‘How’s You’ project, where staff and student staff can directly call to support students with problems including “academia, finance, housing, socialising, and more.”
Sharon told us she believes this to be a “really really good, mind-blowing initiative.” She also highlighted the importance of the societies offered by the SU, where “you could actually feel a sense of belonging.” She told us that, especially as a master’s student, it was a way to gain “a lot of good friends who I can actually rely on a lot.”
On her aim to create a paid peer wellbeing mentor role, Sharon admitted that the task would present a challenge, saying “it’s very much a pilot.” However, she added, “I’m really, really interested to, you know, give it a try and do it. Even this particular time might not work, […] that’s not going to stop me. […] I’m going to give it a try because that’s what I promised to the students.”
Elliot Briffa (City and Community)
Now in his second term as City and Community officer, responsible for links between students and the wider Manchester community, Elliot Briffa describes himself as a socialist, trade unionist, tenants’ rights organiser, and Steely Dan listener. For him, the number one priority is “material conditions” for students.
He condemned new student housing developments in Fallowfield, calling it “absolutely unaffordable” at £235 a week.
“We’ve been pushing hard against any rent increases that the university puts forward, supporting the democratic SU policy of backing the rent strike campaign for 2023, calling for affordable accommodation across campus. We’ve been writing papers to them, making those arguments, and have been supporting the student-led fight the rent hike campaign.”
He added that he and his team had also had success in getting the university to sign up to Manchester’s Good Landlord Charter, a scheme aiming to encourage better renting standards across the city.
Asked about the benefits of the SU for the student community, he was clear: “It gives us both space and resources. We have an entire building on campus that’s owned and run by us, by the students. And that is where we hold the vast majority of society events, everything from Islamic Society to Steely Dance Society, all of them take place in this building.”
“We also give hardship support. We’ve just opened up the Essentials outlet just down by Whitworth accommodation.”
On wider community issues, Elliot has recently spoken out against the National Union of Students (NUS), criticising the organisation’s lack of “meaningful action” to support Palestine alongside multiple student union representatives from across the country.
He told the Mancunion, “I will absolutely be campaigning for us to disaffiliate from the National Union of Students. It is not a body that can represent students, it has no strategy, it has no analysis of the political climate that we’re living in currently.”
“This actual organisation that we have now, it’s not run by the students, it’s not accountable to the students, and it doesn’t do anything material to support the students. […] They haven’t been able to do anything in a very long time to improve students’ conditions.”
Since our interview, Elliot has changed course on the NUS. In a quote given to The Mancunion, Elliot says: “Since this interview I have been asked by student organisers and campaigners from across the country to stand in the upcoming NUS elections. I will be running to make the NUS an organisation with students directly holding member instead of Student Unions”.
Aaina Mohapatra (Activities and Culture)
Despite being in only her first year of study when she was elected to the role of Activities and Culture Officer, International student Aaina Mohapatra achieved this position due to her values of inclusion, tackling the cost of living and making university an enjoyable experience for all.
Speaking to Aaina, The Mancunion uncovered some of her greatest priorities and influences on her decision to act. Stating the importance of the “geopolitical climate” and, in particular, the “immigration white paper” which came out in July, she noted the impact of this legislative change on “international students and the migrant community in general.” This inspired her into action, prioritising “lobbying different people in power, whether it’s the Vice Chancellor or whether it’s the people in Parliament.”
Acknowledging that, so far, these actions haven’t garnered much success, Aaina recognised the importance of “small wins.” She discussed with us the lobbying that took place to prohibit the “6% levy on international students’ tuition” fees by the UK government, outlining how, as a result , “instead of 6% they’ve made it a flat rate of £925.”
Beyond advocating for students, Aaina stated the importance of the SU within the student community, citing it as the reason “I felt so at home in Manchester.” Coming from India, she acknowledged that Manchester was “a completely different environment, but being part of societies and sports clubs gave you community”, and indeed, these societies can help to mobilise the development of “transferable skills” such as “leadership… or being a social media manager.”
Having launched the Global Buddy Scheme this year, which aims to pair first-year students with a buddy from second or third year, Aaina emphasised her focus on the experience of students at every stage of university, not just those at the beginning. She has also started an “international student guide to Manchester” and reasserted her preoccupation with political lobbying as “the immigration paper resulted in the graduate [visa] being shortened.”
Equally, Aaina is eager to tackle the cost of living crisis, recognising it as not just her priority but “an officer team priority as well” and underlining that “we really care about the material conditions.” Referencing the work of Union Affairs Officer, Lexie Baynes, she highlighted the ongoing effort on “international students’ hardships” while also discussing her own work on “microloans.”
Rhi Patel (Biology, Medicine and Health)
Stepping into her new role as Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health Officer Rhi Patel’s priorities for the year are transparency, ethics and student-centred policies.
One goal Rhi mentioned that she was working to achieve was “trying to change the culture on how the university views students, because a lot of fundamental issues come from this severe lack of understanding of what it actually means to be a student nowadays.” She identified an issue of students being viewed as “homogeneous” and instead she wants a community where the student body is acknowledged as “made up of very unique and diverse experiences, whether you’re an international student, you’re commuting, or you’re in part-time work”. Rhi felt “a lot of staff don’t realize that” and identifies the root of this issue being that “staff don’t always like engage with students one-on-one.”
She described the Students Unions role as “not only do we sort of provide services and like support to students, we are pretty much students’ like biggest advocates in university spaces.” Rhi then pointed to other projects and services provided by the Students’ Union including the “Gender Expression Fund, which students can access to buy gender-affirming products”, as well as the broader support the SU provides, in particular provision of “advice that you can go to for any situation.”
When asked: “do you believe that changes in academia and changes in the curriculum are more important or less important than personal impacts on students? And how will you work to ensure that students still feel seen under your representation?”. Rhi responded “I’m not going to say one is more important than the other”. Rhi claims she wants to get to the “root causes of things” including greater “education around ethics and decolonizing the curriculum, because you will produce students who understand these things to another level, and then that can be brought forward into their future.”
Rachel Miller (Post Graduate Research)
Currently studying for a PhD in Religion and Theology, Rachel Miller holds the position of Postgraduate Research Officer at the Students’ Union. Elected based on her dedication to equality, diversity, and inclusion, The Mancunion spoke with her about her aims to utilise these values to amplify the voices of Postgraduate Researchers (PGRs) in university spaces.
Upon being elected, Rachel discovered that her three main priorities merged: “bridging gaps, improving wellbeing, and platforming PGR voices.” Since then, her work has “seen these priorities come together” as “one big priority…all to do with PGR support, specifically for anything and everything that PGRs do outside of their thesis.” Emphasising this, she stated that “rather than focusing on the academic thing, [she has been] concentrating on everything that goes around that, trying to see PGRs as people and not just researchers.”
When asked how students can benefit from the Student Union, Rachel addressed common misconceptions, highlighting that “sometimes there is a bit of a stereotype that the Student Union is just for first-year undergraduates to get a cheap drink, but obviously, it does so much more than that.” Reaffirming the services available, she acknowledged that the Steve Biko Building is home to “Student Media, 500-odd societies” and stated that “I want PGRs to know they can benefit from it” and that a lot of her work has been to “increase this awareness of what is available at the Students’ Union.”
In the 2024–5 academic year, only 43% of PGRs felt good about their well-being, and 21% rated it as poor. Rachel noted that a PhD presents a “big opportunity for isolation to occur,” but explained that she has been working with “the University of Manchester Postgraduate Association… to get this association going so that PGRs have a sense of community, where they can connect with other people over things that aren’t their thesis.” She has also been developing “a resource on the Student Union website” to “bring together all of the support that is available to PGRs” but is not always “the easiest to find.”
Discussing the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion, Rachel drew on her experience of considering “combinations of privileges and people’s different backgrounds” and situating herself as someone with “a lot of privilege” as a “white middle-class woman” during her research. However, mentioning her own sexuality and experiences with mental health problems, she applies this awareness broadly, stressing the need to examine the “biggest obstacles that more marginalised or minoritised groups of PGRs face.” Addressing the financial inaccessibility of postgraduate research, she equally emphasised concerns about “the material conditions of students,” aiming to educate staff, “all the way from lecturers to Duncan [Ivison]” to “push for better support for students.”
