Three new student presidents have taken up the reins of Robert Gordon University’s (RGU) Students’ Union.
Edward Pollock, 22, has been elected as Student President for Communication and Democracy for the second year in a row, while Kerry Harrison, 22, has taken up the role of Student President for Education and Welfare, and Katherine Corbett, 21, has been appointed as Student President for Sport and Physical Activity.
Edward, who is studying events management at RGU, says that his passion to continue to work on the projects he started last year at RGU:Union led him to run for the student president position for the second time.
He said: “Over the past year I’ve had an incredible time as student president and I’ve been really proud of the work I’ve been doing. I wanted to be able to continue to progress the projects I started last year and further develop the work of RGU:Union.
“This year I’m focusing on developing stronger representation for students, ensuring that our partnership with the university is as powerful as possible. I’m also looking to do a range of work around student housing, introduce new spaces on campus and make sure that RGU:Union is a strong, diverse and valuable part of student life.”
Kerry, who is originally from Manchester but moved to Aberdeen 10 years ago and has just graduated from RGU with a degree in human resource management, wants to continue to support students following her work with societies during her studies.
She says: “I’m keen to ensure that students feel they really have a say at university so will work to improve the class representation system to increase its engagement with the student body.
“Student wellbeing is very important and I plan to establish a peer support network at RGU to give students an informal place to meet and talk confidentially in a group. I also want to increase the visibility of the Union’s equality officers so that more students are aware of their roles.”
Katherine, who relocated from Edinburgh to study at RGU and has just graduated with an applied sports and exercise science degree, intends to apply her knowledge from her course to help develop the university’s sports clubs during her year as a student president.
“I’m really looking forward to the challenge of the role where I want to experiment with new ways to improve the performance of our sports clubs by utilising expertise across the university.
“I’m also going to work hard to increase the number of student volunteers for coaching, umpiring and providing support for the sports clubs, as well as lead a variety of campaigns across the university to increase physical activity opportunities for students.”
The three presidents took up their posts at the beginning of August and were elected by their peers who voted online and across the university campus during RGU:Union\'s election week in March 2016.