Cost of Living, Career Support, Campus Facilities: the Big Issues of the SU President Elections

From Mary McHarg to Goksu Danaci, who will be the next President of the Students’ Union starting in July ?This year, 8 candidates are campaigning for this highly disputed role, which consists of representing UCL’s students to various university bodies and within the Union. Ahead of the vote closing on Friday, here are the main issues raised during this 2025 voting week.

‘Make UCL Cheap Again’

Student cost of living is something Ben Scanlan, this year’s Accommodation and Housing Officer, takes as his unwavering pledge. His ‘Make UCL Cheap Again’ campaign wishes to freeze and decrease prices across SU services, as well as improve material support such as the hardship grant schemes. “I think that money needs to be spent directly on materially improving student conditions rather than, you know, bringing in llamas or putting up Ferris wheels,” he told Pi Media.

The goal of making food on campus affordable is shared by Anam Eijaz Ahmed Choudhary and Leon McNulty, himself pledging to “fix the refectory”. Having successfully pushed for an affordable food policy last year, he wishes to continue this fight as President. His manifesto also includes other concrete plans, such as finding an alternative to Barclays for SU finances, launching an Impact Careers Fair, and supporting working students. “I know people who are somehow managing to be very good students and working 20 hours a week, and that is a real stress and a burden and needs to be recognised as a concern and needs extra support.” When asked about his plans for tackling cost of living, Jay Mrityunjay Sharma in turn told us about his idea for industry partnerships to provide more scholarships.

Plans for our Careers ?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, plans to enhance career support and student employability is prevalent in this year’s campaign. If elected, Jay plans to leverage his position to attract recruiters into a campus Placement Accelerator. “If JP Morgan wants to hire 200 people per year, it can come to UCL with a target of 15–20, and conduct the entire application process within a week or two” he told Pi Media. The “engineer turned entrepreneur” wishes to alleviate difficulties facing international students, from visas to complex sponsorship rules, pushing for an ‘International Careers Desk’.

Former Student Council Representative, Sam Cao, pledges to expand career fairs and networking events to give UCL students practical career opportunities. He also wishes to expand mentorship programs, which also features in  James and Deepali’s manifestos.

‘Fix What is Broken’ and plans to Unite with UCL East

Making UCL’s campus a “true home” for its students is also a recurrent theme in this election, as per Anam’s manifesto. The Union Executive, who harbours a vast portfolio of leadership roles, promised to “fix what is broken” within UCL Estates to upgrade study spaces, classrooms and campus facilities. Alongside her, James Brown Scopas pledges to push for expanded study spaces, as well as Xueren Lyu who wishes to update the ‘Book a Study Space’ system (perhaps resolving the endless cycle of kicking each other out that we have going on now).

Xueren’s top priority concerns ‘student safety’, concerning incidents of robbery on streets around campus. In his manifesto, he envisions a ‘Zero-Politic campus’ “without the danger of facing propaganda or parades”. In turn, the idea of uniting UCL East, Canary Wharf and Bloomsbury into a single campus experience is expressed in Deepali Mahesh Desai’s manifesto. Deepali’s conviction to strengthen postgraduate representation also stands alone amongst this year’s manifestos as Academic Representative.

Reconciling Students with the Union

Finally, candidates strive to cater to the health of the SU’s democracy, which despite a rise in voting in 2024, still did not exceed 24% turnout. Leon plans to set up regular drop-in stalls with him, “so you can kind of just walk by and think ‘Oh yeah, actually, I'm thinking about the union, it's really annoying me.’” Other candidates such as James and Sam both mention accessible feedback channels in their manifestos.

Jay told us his presidency also focused on tackling the SU’s lack of integration outside of Bloomsbury, and implementing a dedicated building for the SU.

Ben’s vision for the Students’ Union is one that would bring back advocacy and be a voice for change, mentioning in his manifesto that the Union had abandoned students politically. As he puts it: “the union is the students and the students are the union.”

Here is the link for you to vote now.