Over 1500 students voted in our Strathclyde Student Elections with Benn Rapson being elected as their Student President.

Despite disruption on our website which halted some of our students from being able to cast their vote due to a Denial of Service attack on our server, our Strathclyde Student Elections powered through and the students showed their support for our candidates. As a result of this, we extended our voting period to make up for this disruption.

Benn Rapson became well-known across campus for his role as VP Welfare over the last academic year. He has worked over the last year to ensure students have access to the best support needs at Strathclyde. As well as campaigning to prevent student hardship which has been widely important over the last year.

He comments on his election: “Thank you to everyone who voted and took part in the election. After a sometimes challenging but extremely rewarding year as your VP Welfare, I’m super excited to be given the privilege of being elected your next Strath Union President. There’s a lot of work to do over the next year, as we finally get to open our new Union and look to return to campus, but I’m super keen to get stuck in. I’m looking forward to getting started with the new dream team and working hard to make change happen at Strathclyde!”

Alongside Benn, we have Vice-President of Community, Ru Wallace, who has been elected for a second term after a positive year, supporting students and societies during lockdown. Ru comments on his re-election: "It's been a tough year for our on and off-campus communities, and I'm really excited to get stuck into providing support and representation as we hopefully move back to in-person activity."

We also see some new faces this year in the positions of Vice-President Welfare: Lewis McDermott, Vice-President Education: Savvina Kritharidou, Vice-President Sport: Kirsty Bannatyne and Vice-President Inclusion: Nesha Malone after the conclusion of successful campaigns.

Lewis McDermott comments: "I'm honoured to have been elected to this position by the students and I cannot begin to thank everyone enough. I'm so excited to make the change that Strath needs this year to become a safer and more supportive community for students and I can't wait to start working on it! Thank you!"

Your new Vice President Sports, Kirsty Bannatyne, also expressed her joy with the results. “I am really thrilled to have won the election following my campaign which I am very proud of. Sport has played such a huge role throughout my university experience and I am excited for the next chapter representing sporting students next year.”

Speaking of her ideas and objectives for the year ahead, Vice President Education Savvina tells us. “I’m very excited to take on this role and try to improve students’ learning experience! I’m looking forward to listening to all the students’ and reps’ feedback and I also have loads of ideas that I’m looking forward to implementing!”

Nesha, your Vice President Inclusion, expresses her thanks: "First of all I just want to say thank you to everyone that gave me your vote! I'm excited to get to work with the rest of the team to start on making the student experience more welcoming and accessible for all students at Strathclyde!"

The Student Executive team will take up their full-time positions in June 2021. From there on, they will be focussed on listening to, and representing student views to the University and wider community.

Manish Joshi, Strath Union CEO, said:
"Well done to all candidates who participated in our elections this year. Not only were the circumstances more challenging due to the COVID pandemic but you also had to contend with the disruption to our website - thank you for bearing with us through this.

The elections were well contested and candidates all brought forward fresh ideas that will be crucial as we consider the resumption of activities back on campus later in the year. If you weren't successful this year I would encourage you to stay engaged with the Union and work to make some of those manifesto commitments a reality.

For those that are going on to take up office next year, my congratulations to you all. On behalf of all the staff at the Union we are really looking forward to working with you next year in what will be an exciting an unique year for Strath Union as we prepare to open the doors of our new building - your engagement and leadership will be key to the success of the new Union as we welcome our students back to campus!"

Student Executive 2020/21:

Full Time Officers:

•           President – Benn Rapson
•           Vice President Community – Ruairidh Wallace
•           Vice President Education – Savvina Kritharidou
•           Vice President Inclusion – Nesha Malone
•           Vice President Sport – Kirsty Bannatyne
•           Vice President Welfare – Lewis McDermott

Non-Executive Officers:

•           Democracy Convenor – Kyle McGettigan
•           BAME Rep – Nathan Epemolu
•           Disabled Students' Rep – Aspen Lynch
•           International Students' Rep – Zhun Tang
•           LGBT+ Rep – Ailidh Hamilton
•           Interfaith Rep – Abdullah Nadeem
•           Part-time Students Rep –Sean Jamieson
•           Women's Rep – Eva Curran

Faculty Representatives:

•          Faculty Rep Business Postgraduate Taught – Daksha Sharma
•          Faculty Rep Business Undergraduate – Arran Lamont
•          Faculty Rep Engineering Post Graduate Taught – Ashwet Malvankar
•          Faculty Rep Engineering Undergraduate – Charlie Wilson
•          Faculty Rep Humanities and Social Sciences Postgraduate Taught – Louise Nicolson
•          Faculty Rep Humanities and Social Sciences Undergraduate – Liam Mosson
•          Faculty Rep Science Postgraduate Taught – Iman Chaudhry
•          Faculty Rep Science Undergraduate – Callum Barclay

Click here for full details of the election results including voting totals