The next candidate questions were of the role of Education officer, chaired by Jack Watson and Ella Smith.
Candidates for this role are Morgan O’Carroll (he/him), Niamh McAuley (she/her) and Matthew Lamb.
Morgan started their speech recapping their manifesto comprised of “three [big] points”. Increasing the flagship career days on campus, providing more transparency to postgraduate students and redevelop the student and faculty rep systems.
He stated that his past experiences being an academic rep, student ambassador and previously being a society exec strengthens his campaign as he’s ‘been at the forefront of changing education for better.’ On top of this, he’s had a hand in changing education curriculum in his department, which has proven very popular with 1st years.
You can read Morgan’s full manifesto here: Candidate_Manifestos_LUSU_Elections_2025.pdf
Niamh as the current rep for FASS (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences), wants to draw parallels between the different roles a student may have.
Running through her manifesto, she stated that she wants reading weeks for all students, spread out assessments and realistic deadlines over holidays and a restricting to the academic rep system.
For last 5 months, she has represented 9 departments in FASS. Alongside Cerys Evans and Harrison Stewart, she has attended senates, the highest university experience committee. Building strong relationships within FASS has given her confidence in her ability to replicate this university-wide.
You can read Niamh’s full manifesto here: Candidate_Manifestos_LUSU_Elections_2025.pdf
Matthew Lamb commenced his speech in a flourish, stating he can positively impact education university-wide by reducing class sizes, stopping academic strikes and occupations and closing and selling The Sugarhouse to a private company. Expanding on this, he said that ‘under the government of the Student Union, it is making massive loss’.
Additionally, he stressed the need to ‘save our campus bars’ and a campus culture by proclaiming LUSU is broken and LUSU needs reform.
You can read Matthew’s full manifesto here: Candidate_Manifestos_LUSU_Elections_2025.pdf
Question for the floor: With regards to the Curriculum Transformation Programme, how would you allow students to contribute to the conversations happening in departments on the future of their courses?
Responding to this, Matthew declared his intention to spearhead The Department of LU Efficiency.
Following this, Niamh highlighted the importance of talking to students about the programme and the way it will impact them.
Every student deserves a say in their future. Ensure that people can talk to their students reps before changes to their courses are made. -Morgan
Thoughts on Reading Weeks
One of Niamh’s initiatives is getting reading weeks for all students. Something that Morgan said is important for wellbeing and catching up on notes. Disagreeing Matthew viewed this proposal as ‘another holiday’ and suggests that students who want reading weeks should look into condensed courses. Reading weeks should be on a case by case basis.
Matthew lamb- disagrees. Sees it at another holiday. Suggests looking to condensed courses. Reading weeks should be on a case-by-case basis.
Decolonisation of the curriculum
On this topic, Morgan stated that each ach degree is their own and that students should have similar aspects uniting their subjects.
Niamh, taking a moment to internalise the question, promised to work with Equality Diversity and Inclusion representatives on this continued effort. Continuing Work with EDI reps. Continuing, she stated her desire to make all programmes inclusive by design with reading lists and a wide range of resources.
However, Matthew was ‘sick and tired’ of this conversation, believing that it is ‘forced’ and that he is proud of his British heritage.
Academic reps
On this topic, Niamh championed for a complete restricting of the system and more interactions. This is something she has worked on as a faculty rep. Both Morgan and Matthew were an agreement with this. Morgan added that a lot of 1st year students don’t know who their reps are while Matthew argued that there needs a more formal election of academic reps.
Access to the Candidate Questions livestream is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV7ab1jV51M&t=3434s
Voting is open now and closes tomorrow at 6PM
Link to vote: Lancaster Students’ Union
