SU Spring Elections 2025 Interviews: Muneeba Amjad, President

In the run-up to the Warwick Students’ Union (SU) Spring Elections, The Boar and RAW 1251AM collaborated to offer all Full-Time Officer (FTO) candidates the opportunity to be interviewed.

Muneeba Amjad, current Vice President for Education, and one of four candidates running for President of the SU, was interviewed by student media to discuss her bid.  The interview drew attention to Amjad’s priorities and propositions for improving education, increasing transparency in the Students’ Union, and tackling the cost of living crisis.

What would be your key priorities if you were to be elected as the president of the SU?

Amjad referred to her 5 key priorities as the following:

1. Tackle the cost-of-living crisis by subsidising free bus passes and attempt to lobby for lower bus prices.
2. Increase transparency in the SU by making it more accessible for students to make change in the Union, as well as protecting All Student Votes (ASVs).
3. Improving education, by making it more accessible and inclusive. Amjad also mentioned improving personal tutors.
4. Safety and Wellbeing, by increasing inclusivity of events on campus such as sports and nights out through events like the Women’s Night In and Friday Feeling.
5. Sustainability, including demilitarisation of the University from its arms and fossil fuel company partnerships.

What makes you stand out from other presidential candidates?

Amjad spoke about her experience as Vice President for Education for Warwick SU, and drew attention to her achievements throughout the year that she said she would want to continue as President: “What I have done this year shows that I have what it takes to be President.” In particular, she stressed her efforts regarding demilitarisation of the University, and bringing exam timetables forward. “Because I’ve been in those spaces where I’ve interacted with the University and key stakeholders, I feel that I would be well-prepared to continue that role as President.”

What is the biggest issue facing Warwick students right now and how do you plan to tackle it?

Amjad spoke on students facing issues on their courses as one of the greatest issues faced at the University. While acknowledging the potential for bias given her current role as Education VP, she said that issues with reasonable adjustments and mitigating circumstances could not only disproportionately affect marginalised groups, such as disabled and ethnic minority students, but also have a wider harm on the student community as a whole.

She claimed that most of these issues do not get resolved when brought before the SSLC (Student–Staff Liaison Committee), and that she would want to promote greater awareness of subsequent processes that exist for students unhappy with the SSLC’s decisions. “Improving education is the biggest priority to focus on.”

How would you help create a more inclusive and accessible SU, especially for students from marginalised groups and lower-income backgrounds?

Amjad mentioned campaigns that have already been started this year, such as the Ideas Platform, which she said had the potential to be developed into an outreach tool for students not usually engaged with SU politics. She also praised the existence of Part-time Officers, especially the Ethnic Minorities Officer that bears responsibility for representing ethnic minority students at Warwick. She added that more could be done to support the holders of these roles while they complete their degrees: “So ensuring that they’re supported with events such as Disability History Month, and other cultural events as well, and ensuring that we engage them all within our structures.”

What makes you the correct candidate to represent Warwick SU on a national level?

Amjad answered this question by mentioning her connections to other Students’ Unions across the country through her role as VP Education. She noted: “That’s been very useful in gaining insights towards what other SUs or universities do with similar issues, such as mitigating circumstances and reasonable adjustments, because a lot of universities are going through reviewing those processes at the moment.” She observed as well that other Russell Group universities are facing similar dilemmas over divestment and ethical assurance in regard to the arms and defence sector. With her connections, Amjad said that she will have insights into how other Students’ Unions in the country have been able to deal with the problems that Warwick students are facing.

How will you seek to improve transport options for students, especially those living off-campus?

Amjad noted immediately that bus services are the most important issue for resolving this issue: “I know it’s been an issue year-on-year where students have said that the bus doesn’t show up, the bus skips my stop because it’s too full.” She said that she would continue ongoing talks with Stagecoach about ensuring that bus services are sufficient and satisfactory, as well as working with National Express to ensure the same applies to students commuting from Coventry. She finished by mentioning the ongoing review by the West Midlands Combined Authority considering the feasibility of bus franchising to lower prices, saying that: “That is something I would definitely support and look at supporting regionally, as well with the NUS (National Union of Students).”

How would you continue to help achieve sustainability goals on campus?

Amjad answered this question briefly, saying that the solution focused largely on cooperation with the University. She highlighted Warwick’s Sustainability Team. and continuing to collaborate on projects with them, and said that it was important the SU ensures the University is “doing as much as reasonably possible to meet their sustainability goals for 2030”.

How would you approach calls for demilitarisation on campus? Would you consider working on projects such as the Ethical Assurance framework that SU FTOs have focused on this year’s priority?

Amjad confirmed that she will work to continue projects such as the Ethical Assurance Framework, continued by her this year alongside incumbent President Enaya Nihal, to have the University divest from arms manufacturers: “Ensuring that the University will stay true to their word on what they’ve said they will do.” She affirmed though that “there is definitely scope for that to go further”, saying that the University should “absolutely” consider divesting from companies indirectly involved in defence.

As SU President, you are the student’s leading representative to the Vice Chancellor. What do you think the relationship between the SU and the University should look like?

Amjad answered this question by mentioning that the SU and the University in fact share many goals, and emphasised the necessity of collaborating with the University: “I think ensuring that the Students’ Union has a good relationship with the University allows us to achieve so much more than if we are opposed with each other.” Achieving a good relationship with Warwick’s management, she said, was “definitely possible” and something that she’d been working towards this year.

How would you continue to support the SU drive to increase the institution’s transparency?

Amjad drew attention towards increasing transparency by ensuring that students have the right to information regarding ASVs (All Student Votes). She posited that whether or not they go through, “those outcomes should be clearly communicated to students, and firstly, especially, to the motion proposers”. This, she suggested, would lead to better understanding from the student body as to what is or isn’t feasible for the SU. As far as the University is concerned, she claimed that increasing SU collaboration would encourage the University to share the outcomes of its own processes more. “It’s definitely possible to get the University to follow suit, as it were,” she concluded. “If we increase our transparency with students, they will follow suit as well.”

This interview, along with all other interviews for Full Time Officer positions, can be watched in full using the link here.

Read Muneeba Amjad’s manifesto here.