The Voice Zone

Hi, I’m Michelle and I am currently studying my MSc. in Human Resources Management with a placement year in Learning and Development at Volkswagen Group UK. I am Malaysian Chinese, but I was born in Hong Kong and have lived in 6 countries since. I decided to run for the Voice Zone because I had such a fantastic experience as a course rep during the first year of my master’s degree. The pandemic created unprecedented circumstances for staff and students and being able to represent the voices of both sides enabled constructive and honest conversations which led to real change in my department. This inspired me to run as a Voice Zone officer, as I loved every moment of being a course rep, and I wanted to go beyond my cohort and help to represent the voice of all students at Surrey. My 3 manifesto points have all been inspired by my experiences at Surrey and in my life. Firstly, as we begin to recover from the pandemic, I want to use existing student union channels to not only hear about the key improvements and changes that students would like to see, but to understand how they believe that this should be done so that we can allocate resources and support to the areas that students think are the most important. Secondly, with a varied cultural background, I want to build engagement, interest, and society involvement in the Liberation Network to amplify the voices of underrepresented and minority groups at the university. Finally, I hope to build the course rep toolkit and community so that all reps  can share their experiences and progress, inspiring and helping each other to collectively improve. I am so excited to be working alongside an incredible voice zone and union team this year. If you have any matters that you would like to discuss with me, please feel free to send me an email or Teams message, I will always be happy to chat!

Hi! My name is Sophie, and I am a PTO for the Voice Zone. I ran for this position as I wanted to ensure student’s voices and opinions were carried right through to the people who needed to hear them and make sure an adequate reply is given. My main manifesto point is to create a space for people to talk about renting in Surrey. It’s a fun process we all know and love, but it would be incredibly beneficial for everyone to be able to share their experiences to help those who are renting for the first time. I also plan on working with the Union to improve the process of asking for help (academic and non-academic) as well as improving the feedback procedure, so complaints and recommendations are actioned faster, and the result is communicated with all students.