Presidential Report : Beginning of the Session 2023-24

Dear Postgrads,

This document serves to highlight the activities, events and engagements over the time since July 1st when I took over, as far as the KPA is concerned. Myself, Michel, Aayush, and Shargava are looking forward to lots of exciting events over the course of the year for postgraduate students.

I want to wish you good luck for your upcoming submissions, and for everything you do in 2023!

Our team was elected in the month of June, 2023, constituting your KPA committee as follows:

President: Rachana Dhaka

Vice-President: Michel Ghrayeb

Association Secretary: Aayush Batra

Activities Officer: Shargava K. Sandeep

Student Trustee: Harshit Mishra

and made a very swift start to our roles. We had our inductions, and are working hard behind the scenes to keep you all updated on what we’re doing as a team. We’re also working closely with the Clubhouse to ensure that the wonderful activities and events we all so enjoy are supported and attended.

We have gone through a lot of training such as KPA Officers’ Training, Social Media updates, First Aid, Disciplinary Committee, Communication and Leadership, and some other workshops for keeping us active to assist you. We have received a lot of serious student cases meanwhile and have either sign posted to the appropriate department or taken up them to the core executive team of the University and got them sorted. This way our students are stress-free and able to focus on their studies.

We have continued to run our ‘Productive Postgrads’ sessions on a Mondays, 11am – 4pm, which have been a resounding success. These are fantastic opportunities to study, get rid of isolation, have a free coffee and some lunch at 50% cost, and to get to know fellow postgrads and members of the committee. Additionally, Thursday ‘Coffee Mornings’ 11am- 12pm has been fruitful. This is an interesting opportunity for our members to come and meet fellow students, discuss on different issues while enjoying free hot drinks and some biscuits. Then we organised the crucial CV making and Cover Letter writing workshop solely designed for the Postgrads, by the Careers and Employability team of Keele. Upcoming is the Writing Retreat on Thursday, 31st August.

I went to my first Council meeting and reported on what the KPA has been doing (events and future planning ideas) along with raising some PG student concerns there.

Our Vice President was busy with the Education Committee meetings and other faculty meetings and representing our PG community interests there.

We have been part of the regular meetings with the KDA, Welcome fair planning meetings, committee meetings, meeting with the University Executives, Sabbatical officers’ drop-in sessions with the PVC Education, and many more, where we tried to represent the concerns of our PG members, arising from their feedbacks on different events or platforms.

I have just managed to have one-to-one discussions with all of the members of the committee, and Jules from the Clubhouse. These are helping me create the relationships that we need to ensure that your experience at Keele is the best it can possibly be, and that the support you need is always in place.

We are currently in the process of planning for welcoming the new cohort in the best possible way in September along with finalising our Governance documents such as the Constitution, Bye-Laws, different Policies and agreements with other organisations for the smooth running of the KPA so that you as our prestigious member can have the best student life experience while pursuing your PG students at the Keele University.

So, finally, I would just say that watch this space for exciting activities and events that will be coming your way!

We would love to hear from you!!

Best wishes,

Rachana Dhaka

KPA President