Interview with new psych rep Nial

What do you hope to achieve in your time as school rep?

My main goal over the next year is to improve relationships between student of different year groups by promoting the various psychology societies. As a first-year rep I benefitted a lot from the guidance and support of students further in their studies, and am aware of the struggle of third years finding participants or their dissertation studies – so really strengthening the community works well for everyone! I’m hoping to work closely with the societies to make it a more un and social experience or everyone.

Do you have any events planned for the upcoming academic year?

I’m hoping to set up meet and greats between students and their relevant members of staff and course reps. Everyone works best when they know who they are working with so it’s important for students to know who they can contact if they need to. I’m intending to be very invested in the psychology societies so will likely be involved in their events over the year.

What do you think the main responsibilities of the school rep are?

I see my main responsibility as ensuring that students aren’t only heard, but listened to. There is a huge difference between being heard and being listened to – a voice can be heard but dismissed as background noise, but if it is listened to, whatever is said is processed and considered. As students, we all have needs regarding our education and my job is to ensure that those needs are met and that any issue is addressed the best that I can!

How would you sum up your approach to representing psychology students in 3 words?

Proactive, methodical and open. There’s no point in sitting on my hands waiting for something to happen that I can react to – if I were to do that then I wouldn’t really be doing my job at all. At the same time there’s no point in trying to go forward without first setting out a plan as to how I’m going to achieve a goal that I will set. As far as being open goes, I’ve always operated believing that everyone works at their best when they know the goal, what they need to do, and any factors that may interfere with the goal, so with any plans I have going forward I will be aiming to provide course reps, the students, and the students union with all the information I can possibly give them regarding those plans.

Lastly, how can students contact you?

There’s lots of ways students can get in touch with me whichever way you want to depends on their own personal preference. My student email is 16606008@students.lincoln.ac.uk and my rep email is psychologyrep@lincolnsu.com. If you’d prefer to contact me over social media then you can always add me on Facebook, I don’t post much on it but I am very responsive to messages. If you see me in person, don’t be afraid to come and talk to me either, I’m always up for a chat!

On a final note, I’d just like to say I’m really looking forward to filling the position over the next year, it’s a great opportunity and hopefully I can do the role justice!