I’m Abigail Sharp and I am currently in my second year of study in Human, Social and Political Sciences at Emmanuel College. This year I have chosen to specialise in Social Anthropology, after taking various other papers included within the School of Humanities and Social Sciences last year. I would love to be your undergraduate representative on the Council and represent the student voice at a level where our input is extremely valuable.

As part of this role I would like to help give us all a voice and would be constantly open to any suggestions which you may have! In particular there are a number of areas which I would like to address, particularly relating to the teaching of our courses. Here are a few of my ideas; 1) I would like to push for the possibility of the School making greater use of seminars. I have had seminars for the first time this year and found them extremely valuable. I feel an introduction of more seminars would allow us to have greater contact time with our lecturers in an environment where more in-depth questions can be asked and topics considered. Additionally, this would be a great way to meet people on our course with similar interests outside of the stricter supervision environment. 2) Furthering on my idea of seminars, I would like to work with the School to produce a more structured revision timetable. This would include running smaller groups sessions on particular subjects and look into creating more drop-in slots with lecturers around exam term in order to make sure as much help as possible is available – we all know how stressful exam term can be so any extra help is definitely needed! 3) I would also like to work with the libraries and the School to get increased funding to provide additional copies of core texts for the different subjects. I have always found the core books seem to be hard to get hold of, or are dispersed around libraries which make them hard to access. 4) Something personal to me are ‘Access’ schemes into Cambridge, and I would like to work with the School to incorporate Access events into our funding, particularly aimed at schools which need help in motivating their students to apply to Cambridge. These events could be held within our departments with volunteers from each subject to help give a greater understanding of our courses to those who may need that extra bit of help in making the decision to come to Cambridge.

I feel I would be best suited to the role of undergraduate representative as I am a highly organised and approachable person. I would like to make my role a representative one in which I have a lot of contact and communication with the student body, in order to make sure decisions made are in everyone’s interest. I love a challenge, and feel this role will allow me to challenge myself in a new position of responsibility. I have previous experience in leadership roles and working on representative boards. Within my Sixth Form I was involved on the board which helped select a new head teacher, and worked alongside my head of Sixth Form in deciding how various departments I was involved in could be improved. I have also represented my Sixth Form and the University at various open days and Access events.