Name: Ben Coulter
Running for: Co-President for Education & Employability
Course: BA (Hons) Criminology, Year 4
Previous involvement with ENSA: Programme Rep - BA (Hons) Criminology) 2023-26, President - Social Sciences Society 2024-26, ENSA Academic Community Rep 2025/26.
Manifesto
I’m Ben Coulter, and I am running for Co-President for Education and Employability. I am a Criminology student with experience as a programme rep, a society president and as the Academic Community Rep for Sighthill. I understand how important a well-rounded university experience is and one of the main aspects is your education.
I feel I would be very suitable for this role due to this experience, and I have done lots of work with staff in my subject area to increase student engagement and representation outside of these roles too.
- ENhance your experience!
- Creation of communication policy for both students and staff
- Increase transparency about information and changes that directly impact students
- Make marking criteria clearer with the use of rubrics so you know how to complete each section of your work to the best of your ability
- Create more links to industry within your degree programme to ensure you get real-world experience
- ENable you to do your best!
- During exam periods, I will campaign to keep libraries open longer and more teaching spaces free, so you have access to proper study areas when you need them most
- Cross-programme connection – more varied modules available for your programme from other schools so that your learning is diverse and expansive.
- Transcript recognition for the skills you’ve developed, not just your marks and credits
- Training and advocacy for different teaching methods – more interactive teaching, as well as teaching practices that support neurodiverse students and students with learning profiles or additional support needs
- ENjoy your time at university!
- Less confusion, less stress and more clarity
- Build your confidence
- Clear pathways to employment and making the most of your studies
Vote for me because you can’t get cooler than Coulter!
Note: all manifestos are posted as provided and cut off if they exceeded the set limit (300 words).
+If elected, what would you do to address the issues faced by students around employability?
Advocate for real world practices and industry connections within programmes and courses to create more opportunities for networking and career progression
I would aim to create more student roles within ENSA and the university that allow the development of employability skills during your studies, such as university marketing and content creation, campus and space design, student management and student support services; on-campus jobs that are directly related to your studies to give you experience in your chosen field before you graduate
Change the way modules and programmes are described to include the types of skills you will learn and develop by taking them and these skills will be added to your transcript for employers to understand that you are the best fit for a job and highlight the career pathways available based on these skills.
Collaborate with lecturers and schools to ensure there is an employability focus within teaching and assessments, such as project-based work and industry-relevant assessment.
Work with clubs and societies to highlight skills that can be developed outside of the classroom.
+If elected, how would you work with programme reps?
Continue my work as Academic Community Rep of rebuilding the programme rep system to be streamlined and more easily managed
Promote the role of programme reps at offer holder open days to increase student representation across all campuses, and ensure students know that there are lots of opportunities to get involved and have their voice heard at Napier
Train reps how to ‘close the feedback loop’ and ensure all information is communicated effectively to students
Provide training to staff about the system to ensure that all reps are comfortable in their role and that all students are as equally represented as possible
Creation of Universities of Edinburgh Student Collective (UESC):
A working collective between Edinburgh Napier University, The University of Edinburgh, Queen Margaret University, Heriot-Watt University & Edinburgh College that would amplify and highlight student voice across Edinburgh’s institutions, not just at Napier
Edinburgh Student Voice Awards for this collective where outstanding work on student voice is rewarded.
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