Students as Partners in Practice Conference

Hello there, Blogger! S'been just over a month since my last post, mostly because I've up to the metaphorical eyeballs with uni work rather than work work. Actually, that isn't true. My eyeballs are not metaphorical, they are in fact very real. But it would still be untrue to say that the work is metaphorical, as although I do frequently use metaphor in my writings they are, on the whole, also very real. The metaphor actually only works if you choose to imagine me standing in that work, which is a little odd visually as I do most of my stuff on the old computer. I suppose you could imagine me up to my eyeballs in a pile of electronic goods, but that would probably give the impression I've just won a particularly cool prize, like on the Gadget Show. When I have, in fact, been doing work.

Look, I've been busy.

A busy bee. Or a swarm of busy bees,
determined to take their revenge
on humanity.

The one major piece of Mentor work I've done was attend the Students as Partners in Practice conference at the University of Glamorgan's Treforest campus. Or "the old homestead", as I like to think of it.

In essence, it was a number of speeches followed by a number of workshop-like affairs, followed by questions to the panel. On the whole I was rather pleased by the whole affair; particularly in that it wasn't just a group of academics and bureaucrats deciding for themselves the needs of students. Students appear to be consulted at just about every stage, and a lot of sensible questions were raised. Most of those can be found here, in a handy Twitter Storify thing. Yes, that is about the extent of my understanding of what happened there. 

Incidentally, the event appears to have turned me into some sort of Twitter whore. For those looking to see what was said on Twitter, #HESTUDENTPARTNERS is the hashtag that you're looking for.

The only controversial question that seemed to arise - on Twitter actually, and was scarcely touched upon by the panel itself - was the concept of remuneration for student advocacy roles. Put in English, that is to say paying students for fulfilling roles such as Student Mentors. Or, put in Gaf, Paying Me for my Mother F@&%ing Time.

Granted, it's not as clear cut as all that, but it seemed a shame to end an otherwise positive event on a note that seemed to fly in the face of an equal relationship between students and institutions.

It's okay to sound mercenary. Boba says so.

Other than that? I grew a glorious moustache for Movember and raised £45. I'm not actually sure what the MoMentors raised as a whole, but between bake sales and assorted other shenanigans I'm sure we did very well! Nice one Rogue Squadron. I also got Photoshop back on my computer after several years, and have been wasting far too much time re-learning how to use the bloody thing. As a consequence, I now have a shiny new header for this blog, which makes me approximately 76.7% more awesome than I was before. 

I'm clearly rambling now, so until next time!