Academic representatives
Academic representatives are elected to act as the voice of students in Faculties, Departments or Schools. They are the person you should approach if you have any comments or concerns about your course or the wider Department that you want heard. You can learn more about the role of academic reps on the Cambridge Students' Union website.
BME Campaign
The Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Campaign represents, supports, and advocates for all BME students at the University of Cambridge. The Campaign also have an Education Rep on thier committee, if you're looking to voice your concerns about Cambridge teaching, the curriculum, assessment practices and so on.
Decolonisation groups
A huge amount of work is going into making lasting change to the curriculum at Cambridge. The Curriculum Reform will allow better integration of authors from the Global South across different curricula, not as token authors but as required reading. The reforms are also looking at creating stand-alone courses that detail issues from the Global South as well as the Global North. For more on the various efforts across the University towards creating a change in the curriculum visit the Decolonising the Curriculum page.
Peer learning
As well as gaining academic support from your Department and/or College, you can also gain valuable support from your peers. A recent student-led APP PAR Project (Cycle 2) focused on the advantages of informal study groups on mental health and wellbeing. The study also investigated the kinds of peer interaction that occur in more formal academic spaces, such as supervisions or practicals. It concluded that while these structured peer interactions were valuable for students' academic performance, they could be more thoughtfully managed to be more inclusive. The project made recommendations for guidance, resources and training to be provided to course coordinators, supervisors and students: these will be developed in collaboration with students and the Cambridge Centre for Teaching and Learning.
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"When preparing to begin my first year at Cambridge, I got some useful advice from an older student who suggested that I get in a positive headspace and do prep work that I enjoy or find relaxing such as selecting readings from my set reading list that interest me most. If I could go back, I would have gotten more involved with social media initiatives and activities such as the ACS group chat or subject groups. The best advice I have for freshers getting ready to start at Cambridge would be to take it as it is when you get here, rather than relying on preconceived ideas about what Cambridge is like!" - first-year undergraduate student |