President of Student Opportunities

Our space. Our rules. Our Union. Cheap food. Cheap drink. Better atmosphere. Save the Union!

The Problem

For decades, student unions across the UK have relied on a simple model: we receive a block grant from the University, invest it into events and spaces, and generate multiple times that income back through bar sales.

That model no longer works.

Student behaviour has fundamentally changed. Across the country, alcohol sales are declining. Students are drinking less, starting later, and increasingly socialising at home. In unions today, alcohol is no longer the primary source of income: soft drinks, food, and hot drinks now consistently outperform it.

But our financial structure hasn’t caught up.

This year, we felt the consequences. Faced with a significant deficit, the Union had just 18 months to stabilise its finances. We have performed better than expected, but only through extreme austerity.

The impact has been felt everywhere:

• Society funding dramatically reduced, with the Societies Committee able to allocate only a fraction of last year’s grants (£40k → £10k)
• Budgets cut or removed entirely across multiple areas
• Food provision in Main Bar stretched to its limits, sustained only by extraordinary effort rather than sustainable investment

This is not a one-off difficult year. It is a structural problem.

Main Bar was once an engine that funded the Union. Right now, it is not fulfilling that role, and without a sustainable, profitable social space at the heart of our Union, we face an unavoidable reality: We cannot cut our way to survival.

If we continue on this path, we risk losing not just services or funding, but the Union itself.

The Solution

There is a model for this, and it was designed with students’ unions in mind.

The Wetherspoons franchise model has already been successfully adopted by unions across the UK. In places like Hull and Newcastle, student-run Wetherspoons venues have transformed struggling bars into thriving, high-footfall social spaces. More recently, a new site has opened in Birmingham, continuing that momentum.

I’ve visited these unions myself. What stands out is not just how busy they are—but how well they work as student spaces. They are full throughout the day, not just at night. They are social, accessible, and—crucially—financially sustainable.

But let me be absolutely clear:

This would be Union-run.

We are not selling the Union.

We are not selling the space.

And we are not selling our staff.

All staff will remain employed by the Union. In fact, this model gives us the opportunity to hire more student staff for more hours, across a much longer day, with opening times likely beginning as early as 8am and food service running into the evening, and potentially even during club nights.

The space would remain fully ours. That means:

• We continue to host student events
• Student access and ID requirements remain in place where needed
• Societies and groups still use the space as their home

This is not about giving something up, it is about making what we already have work better.

Greater access to term-time and summer jobs! Creation of Union Employability Team!

The Problem

Employability is something students’ unions across the UK increasingly prioritise, because for many students, university is not just about study, but about what comes next.

At St Andrews, this is an area where we have fallen behind.

Not because it doesn’t matter, but because, until now, we simply haven’t had the capacity or structure to focus on it. That is beginning to change, but the gap is still significant, and increasingly urgent. Students like you are already thinking about employability. They are coming up with ideas, building projects, and looking for ways to gain experience alongside their degrees. From school-based career guides to societies running employability-focused initiatives, the appetite is clearly there.

What’s missing is a system to support, connect, and deliver those ideas.

At the same time, access to work both during term and over the summer remains fragmented and difficult to navigate.

There are opportunities in the Union, University, and the local area in St Andrews and Dundee.

But unless you already know where to look, they can be incredibly hard to find.

Even when opportunities exist, there are structural barriers. Local employers often struggle to accommodate student schedules shaped by lectures, deadlines, and exams. For international students, visa restrictions add an additional layer of complexity that can make accessing work even more difficult.

And while term-time employment has long been a reality for many students, it has only recently begun to be recognised as such. For years, students were actively discouraged from taking on paid work during term, even as, for many, it became a financial necessity.

That disconnect has left us without the infrastructure we now urgently need.

Right now, employability at St Andrews is not lacking in ambition; it is lacking in coordination, visibility, and support.

And without action, we risk leaving students to navigate one of the most important parts of their university experience alone.

The Solution

Employability should not sit at the edges of the Union. It should be at its core.

In many ways, this is already true. Everything within the remit of Student Opportunities, societies, volunteering, events, leadership, contributes directly to students gaining skills, experience, and confidence.

That is why I believe we need to recognise this properly, and build the structure to support it.

I will create the Union’s first-ever Vice-President for Employability (VP Employability).

This role would evolve from the current Employability Officer into a part-time, paid position, aligned with the Executive Team in both responsibility and term dates. This ensures continuity, accountability, and the capacity to deliver real change.

The VP Employability would lead a brand-new Employability Team: a group of student volunteers focused on delivering weekly progress, supporting initiatives, and turning student ideas into reality.

This team would not work in isolation. It would be supported by an Employability Round Table, bringing together:

• School Employability Representatives
• Union staff
• University partners, including IELLI and the Careers Centre
• Potentially Directors of Teaching

These structures already exist in part—but they are not being used to their full potential. This brings them together into a single, coordinated system.

Alongside this, I will establish one of the most impactful changes in this manifesto:

A Union-run Job Shop.

This would act as a Union-led, University-supported “temp agency”, bringing together all available opportunities in one place:

• Union jobs
• University roles
• Term-time and summer work

For the first time, students would not need to rely on word-of-mouth or luck to find employment; they would have a single, accessible platform.

But this goes further.

Once established, the Job Shop would expand into the local community, building relationships with businesses across St Andrews. By acting as an intermediary, the Union can help employers navigate the realities of student life: academic schedules, exam periods, and visa restrictions.

Instead of expecting students to fit rigid roles, we make roles work for students.

Over time, this opens up an even more powerful possibility: the Union taking on a role not just as an employer, but as an advocate, supporting fair working conditions and enabling a form of collective bargaining for student workers.

This is about more than jobs.

It is about building a system where every student has access to opportunity, where employability is embedded across the Union, and where no one is left navigating work, experience, and their . future alone.

Give societies a voice in elections and education! New structures to give the Union a personal feel!

The Problem

For too long, societies have felt distant from the Union. Not because anyone wanted it that way, but because the structures we rely on were designed for a different university.

We have just shy of 200 societies. And we ask one committee of eight volunteer students to oversee and assist all of them.

When that model was created, it made sense. The University had under 3,000 students. The Union was on personal terms with every society. You knew who to go to, and they knew you.

That is no longer our reality.

Since we reformed our affiliation process in October, we have been flooded with applications for new societies. That is a good thing, it means students want to build communities. But it has also stretched an already overstretched system to its absolute limit.

I have seen this firsthand. As President of Student Opportunities, I have done everything I can to support the committee and relieve the pressure. But it is not enough. And every effort I make only proves the same point: the committee, as it currently exists, no longer functions the way it was intended to.

Let me give you one number: before January, I managed 6,156 email threads.

That is over fifty full conversations a day. Fifty. And that is just what reaches me.

This is not sustainable. And it is not fair to the committee, to the societies waiting for support, or to the students trying to build something meaningful.

Beyond the admin, there is a deeper problem. Societies have no real place to engage in our democratic processes. They cannot easily comment on what is happening in the Union. They cannot feed into decisions that affect them. And when elections come around, they have no formal mechanism to hold candidates accountable or make their voices heard.

That is insane.

If we want them to be fully engaged in the Union; if we want candidates to actually listen to them, we cannot keep societies at arm's length. We have to build them into the process.

The Solution

We cannot claim to be a student-led Union if students feel voiceless. I will change the structures to put power back in the hands of our communities, starting with societies.

First, I will create a new role: Vice-President of Student Opportunities: Societies (VP Socs).

This position, replacing the Societies Officer, will oversee the existing Activities Team, folding in all the committees this remit already covers, Societies, Volunteering, Charities, and more. The VP Socs will be the dedicated lead for our communities, ensuring that societies are no longer just one part of a busy portfolio, but the core focus of a permanent role. Over time, this position will become part-time and paid, ensuring continuity, accountability, and the capacity to deliver real change.

Second, I will introduce Society Liaisons.

Societies will be grouped into clusters of 10–15, each assigned a dedicated Union Liaison. These Liaisons will become familiar faces to their committees, someone you know by name, who knows your society in return. No more waiting weeks for a reply or explaining your situation to a new person every time. When you have a question, you get an answer. When you need support, you have a direct line. This is how we rebuild the personal feel the Union has lost.

Third, I will establish a monthly Societies Roundtable.

This is not another meeting for the sake of it. This is where Liaisons come together to spot trends, share ideas, and confirm we are moving in the right direction. If one society has cracked the code on engagement, we share it. If multiple societies are facing the same barrier, we fix it together. This turns isolated experience into collective intelligence.

Fourth, I will give societies a real voice in our democracy.

Upon a vote of their members, societies will be able to formally endorse candidates in Union elections. They will also have the option to hold their own hustings or question-time events, ensuring that candidates cannot simply ignore them. This shifts the dynamic: instead of societies chasing candidates for attention, candidates will have to come to societies and earn their support.

Finally, I will integrate academic societies into the education system.

Working closely with the President of Education, I will ensure that academic societies receive personal invitations to education forums and, eventually, direct meetings with the University. If the Economics Society has ideas about the curriculum, or the Classics Society wants to advocate for a new module, they will no longer have to rely on a single overstretched class rep. Their collective expertise will feed directly into the decisions that shape their education.

Short-term upgrades: Bring back the Byre orchestra pit! Long term: a world-leading Drama & Music Union!

The Problem

2025/26 has been a turbulent year for performing arts.

As the change programme took effect, several committees found themselves navigating unfamiliar territory. But out of that uncertainty, something promising has emerged: the creation of a Performing Arts Network.

It has already been a wild success.

The Network has begun to bridge gaps between groups that previously operated in silos. It has extraordinary potential—but right now, it needs direction. It needs someone to champion it, resource it, and turn its momentum into lasting structure.

Because despite the progress, the fundamental challenges remain.

Performing arts require significant staff support. And to be fair, they are getting it—via the Byre and Laidlaw. But apart from space, the Union itself has little to offer. And even space is becoming a problem.

We are constantly oversubscribed. We can hardly accommodate get-ins in the venue we sometimes use for theatre. Groups are competing for the same limited slots, and the result is that productions are squeezed before they even begin.

Then there are the age-old questions.

Storage. The old workshop was inadequate for building sets; too small, poorly equipped, never designed for the scale of what our students create. But it has now been condemned in the fire, so the question is no longer how to improve it. It is how to replace it entirely.

And at the Byre, several capital projects have been left too long by the university.

The theatre needs a new stage. Not just because the current one is worn, but because the orchestra pit has been out of commission for several years. That means musicals, some of the most popular and ambitious work our students produce, are forced to compromise before a single note is rehearsed.

The Barron needs a new permanent lighting rig. Last year, when the old rig was retired due to age, I helped build a temporary replacement. It works, but it is exactly that: temporary. Our students deserve better than makeshift.

And the van is dying.

The side load door has not worked since I arrived. It is too small for some of our sets. And now, due to Low Emission Zone restrictions, it can no longer enter the cities where our groups sometimes need to travel.

These are not minor inconveniences. They are barriers to creativity. And they have been allowed by the university to accumulate for years.

The Solution

The solution is remarkably simple: a new Drama & Music Union.

This would sit alongside the Athletic Union as a student-run body, partnering with the University in the same way that the AU partners to create Saints Sport. It would be built out of the existing Performing Arts Network, bringing together the Byre, Laidlaw, and the various University committees that already support our creative communities.

And here is the crucial part: after several initial conversations, the University seems to be on board!

We already have all the infrastructure. It is already being used by students in exactly this way. The only thing missing is the student representative structures to match the University's existing frameworks. Right now, the University has committees ready to engage with performing arts, but on the student side, there is no single body to sit across from them. The Drama & Music Union fills that gap.

But there is another reason this matters.

Right now, the Union does not truly understand what performing arts need. Not through lack of trying, but because without a dedicated structure, knowledge lives in individuals, not institutions. A President of Student Opportunities who happens to be involved in theatre can advocate effectively for one year. But when they leave, that understanding leaves with them.

A Drama & Music Union changes that. It cements support and understanding into the structure itself. It means performing arts are not at the mercy of whoever happens to be in post, they have a permanent voice, a permanent seat at the table, and a permanent place in the University’s priorities.

This will be a year-long project.

It requires thorough, meaningful consultation with every part of our performing arts community, ensemble members and producers, band members and committee members, every single performing arts society. We do this right, or we do not do it at all. But if we commit to the process, we come out the other side with something permanent: a student-led Union for drama and music, with the same status, resources, and recognition as sport.

Many of the problems we face will be solved naturally once that structure is in place. A student body with a seat at the table can advocate for storage, for workshop space, for the van, and be taken seriously, because they represent a Union, not just a collection of societies.

But some problems cannot wait.

I have been working with the Byre Director to identify a pot of funding that could solve our capital issues over the next year. The stage, the lighting rig, the long-term future of the building, these are within reach.

And I am pushing for the stage to be prioritised immediately.

Because if we get this right, the orchestra pit will be reopened for September of this year.

Think about what that means. By the time freshers arrive, musical theatre at St Andrews could be fundamentally different. Shows that were impossible last year become possible this autumn. Students who have never performed in a proper pit get the chance. And we send a signal that performing arts at this university are no longer an afterthought, they are a priority.

The postgraduate experience at St Andrews has long been treated as an afterthought.

We are told we are a vital part of the community. We are told our research enriches the University. But when it comes to the day-to-day reality of postgraduate life, the experience tells a different story.

Our postgraduate experience is in dire need of enrichment. Even when postgrads don't teach undergrads, even when they don't feel uncomfortable attending events with first and second years, their experience is fundamentally different. Different schedules. Different pressures. Different priorities. And very often, a deep desire to have a place to associate with other postgraduates.

The demand has always been there. It just hasn't been seen.

In November, I organised the first-ever PG Pier Walk. It was put together with two weeks' notice. No months of planning. No big budget. Just a simple idea: postgrads might want to meet each other.

The turnout was incredible.

That was the moment we realised something was truly missing. But here is the problem: it took ages to get here. Not because no one wanted it, but because nobody knew who was supposed to make it happen.

The PG Presidents are Education-focused. That is their remit, and they pour themselves into it. But they are also overworked, still studying, and simply do not have the time to build a events programme from scratch. And under the current structure, none of the other Sabbatical remits include event creation anymore.

So postgrad events fall through the cracks. Not because anyone is neglectful, but because there is nowhere for them to sit.

We need to fix that.

The Solution

I will work with St Leonards College to establish a new, tiered Postgraduate Community strucutre, giving postgraduates real ownership over their activities and events.

At its core will be a Postgraduate Community Team, meeting regularly to coordinate delivery and ensure momentum. Alongside this, several Community Ambassadors will actively create events within their own postgraduate communities, ensuring activity is locally driven, relevant, and consistent.

Oversight will come from a senior strategic group, meeting multiple times a year to set direction, allocate resources, and ensure long-term sustainability. This creates, for the first time, a dedicated “board-level” approach to postgraduate life, with support coming directly from the college originally designed for psotgraduate students.

Crucially, this structure will remain open and accountable. Postgraduate activity will remain a standing item at the Union’s Opportunities Forums, ensuring all postgraduates, whether formally involved or not, can shape priorities, raise ideas, and hold the system to account.

This is not just about more events. It is about building a lasting postgraduate community infrastructure: student-led, strategically supported, and embedded within both the Union and St Leonards College.