Postgraduate Students’ Association

BY JOSEPH CHAN

The Postgraduate Students’ Association kicked off the year strategising and positioning the Association to better represent postgraduate students both in the year just past and for future years. The committee have been busy representing postgraduate students.

The engagement team have filled the postgraduate calendar with opportunities to interact socially with each other. We have continued to strengthen our partnership with the University Club through our monthly PSA Connects. The PSA River Cruise was the flagship event in Semester 1, situated on the beautiful Crystal Swan and with a sellout crowd, we cruised up and down the Swan River with a drinks and food package. This will only be topped by our PSA Ball that features a sit-down main meal and buffet dessert.

Further we have organised smaller events that are less alcohol centric such as the Women’s self-defense class, Family Day event and laser tag. In collaboration with MASA the Family Day event featured the Australian Mucky Duck Bush Band, giving students an opportunity to bring their families onto campus and have a dance. Our laser tag event was another sell out event giving postgraduate students a reminiscence of their childhood.

2021 saw changes to the University structure. Our research team have worked hard to support research students this year. Social Science and Molecular Sciences were the two major restructures affecting students. The Association has continually been working with University executives and the Graduate School of Research to ensure that students are represented, and their voices heard. We have successfully pushed for more student consultation when changes are announced and have provided students with more forums to express their concerns. The team will continue to work with student representatives to ensure that students are supported from the Graduate School of Research through these changes.

Research Week was an opportunity for students to attend a physical conference. The weeklong event, which enabled students to communicate research to a wider audience, provided opportunities to network with industry and to provide HDR students with professional development opportunities.

Over three locations, there were a total of 59 presenters from a variety of schools at the University. The Research Week Sundowner provided students an opportunity to network with industry and University representatives in a casual setting.

The Postgraduate Students’ Association committee have tirelessly been pushing the boundaries of what the Association can achieve to represent Postgraduate Students. We can’t wait to see how the next committee take on their roles.