It’s that time of year again – a new cohort of full-time officers has been elected to represent students at the University of Sussex. Six officers are now preparing to shape student life over the coming academic year. While three familiar faces, Ella Goodchild (Sports, Societies and Events), Annie McEntee (Wellbeing) and Lyds Knowles (Diversity, Access and Participation), retained their positions, three newly elected officers are now outlining how they plan to tackle issues ranging from employability and funding pressures to international student support.
Education and Employability
The first of these newly elected officers I had the chance to speak with was Jay Lynch, the new officer for Education and Employability. After narrowly missing out in last year’s election, Lynch won this year and outlined several priorities for the role.
Lynch said he plans to continue much of the work started by current officer Lewis Wilson, specifically mentioning his aim to continue work “on distance learning, fighting against continuation fees that disproportionately affect students from disadvantaged backgrounds”. As well as this, he also plans to continue work aimed at “decolonising the curriculum, as well as building sustainability into it at all levels, delivering on academic credit for student activity and fighting nationally against tuition fees, cuts and student debt”.
He also pointed to Careers Fairs as one way to improve graduate opportunities, while making clear that he sees the student finance system as a major cause of failure. The system “means most students’ maintenance loans carry the double burden of riddling them with debt for life”, so one of his objectives around employability is to ‘increase the number of dignified, well-paid and low-commitment jobs on campus for students’. He believes this will allow students to be supported through the cost-of-living crisis, whilst not interrupting their studies and personal lives or forcing them to live life on the bare necessities.
Finally, I asked Lynch about one of his campaign promises: making extracurricular work for societies and volunteer groups eligible for accreditation from the University. This clearly matters a lot to him, as he sees the work students do for their societies as ‘incredibly valuable’.
For Lynch, ‘so much of what makes Sussex great is our societies, media, sports clubs and volunteering, and it’s naive to think that just because you don’t hand in an essay in May or do a presentation that it has no academic value.’ Over the next year, Lynch aims to ‘push hard to bring in academic credit for student activity’ and says that he cannot wait to see what the amazing students at the University of Sussex can achieve.
Sports, Societies, and Events
Re-elected for another academic year, Ella Goodchild outlined several projects she hopes to continue or introduce next year.
A major issue facing these plans is the amount of funding the Students’ Union will receive through its block grant. When asked about risks of funding cuts, Goodchild made it clear that the Student Union is ‘entering into block grant negotiations with the university for them to gain more of an understanding of the amount of work that we do and impact that we have with a small budget.’
As Events Officer, she has reached out to the student body to understand their thoughts on the funding situation and what students feel is required, gathering statistics on ‘our current financial situation and the barriers that this causes to access’. Goodchild also stated that she has ‘invited the university executive team to attend events run by students’ so that they can see their value in person.
Goodchild identified two major issues facing next year’s officers: the cost-of-living crisis and the financial situation of higher education in the UK. She sees these as both drastically affecting student life for those at the University.
Like Lynch, Goodchild sees academic credit for work within societies, and activities such as volunteering, as good ways to help students balance work life with student life. As she puts it, ‘due to the high pressure that part-time jobs are putting on students alongside a bad job market for graduates, we believe that including practical skills as a criterion for achieving academic credit is super important to help students balance student life.’ Goodchild believes that academic credit would allow students to balance hobbies, studying, and a part-time job more easily.
Lastly, when I asked about what achievement from this academic year she was most proud of, Goodchild listed the creation of the popular student event, Liberation Live. She is especially proud of the 1,300 tickets sold and over £5,000 raised for charities and union causes, and aims to ‘bring bigger artists to campus to make great memories for students and also to bring back a nightlife to campus.’ In addition to her work on Liberation Live, Goodchild stressed her aim to bring more new events to the campus, such as more political events to engage students in politics, and to work with Brighton and Hove Albion to bring their inclusive football programme to campus.
International
When interviewing the new International Students officer, Zarak Rais, I asked them about their plans for student life and living for international students, and this is what they had to say.
To ensure a good student life for international students, Rais plans on holding ‘community-led events and cross-society events to support international students, especially those affected by conflict in their home countries.’ Rais sees the most significant issues facing student life for international students not to be connected to ‘systematic discrimination’ at the University of Sussex, but rather in relation to ‘the precarity of international student life in the UK in general’. Despite this, they still believe that the University holds a responsibility to do better in certain areas. According to Rais, the University of Sussex needs to do better in housing, jobs, and communication, where international students are at a greater disadvantage.
Wellbeing
The second re-elected officer I spoke with was Annie McEntee, Wellbeing officer. I only had one question for McEntee, on the current state of the University’s therapy and counselling services. Student experiences of the counselling system can vary significantly, particularly depending on when support is needed. For those who need support during the terms, it can often be a very different experience, with long waiting lists or no access at all.
When asked about her plans for addressing this situation or increasing support elsewhere, McEntee said the following: ‘The University’s counselling service is under-equipped to meet the demand of Sussex students.’ She pinpoints the reasons behind this as the ‘University’s financial position and their voluntary leavers scheme’ which have allowed the service to ‘continue to shrink rather than grow.’ To provide students at the University with mental health support, McEntee has been working to expand support beyond counselling services, providing spaces for students to speak, connect, and feel less alone while they wait on the long, long waiting list.
She has been working on peer-to-peer support groups and drop-in mental health coffee sessions. McEntee acknowledges that these spaces are not the same as licensed therapy, but ‘research shows that peer support groups can significantly improve an individual’s wellbeing and the goal is to open conversation, build community and ensure that no student ever feels like they have nowhere to go and no one to talk to if the counselling service fails them.’ McEntee hopes to continue developing and expanding the availability of such spaces in her second year in the position.
Across the newly elected officer team, common themes emerged: financial pressure, student wellbeing, and improving opportunities both inside and outside the lecture theatre.
Another article you may enjoy – https://thebadgeronline.com/2026/06/university-of-sussex-staff-could-face-a-further-200-redundancies/