SU Spring Elections 2026 Interviews: Manya Gupta, VP Postgraduates

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

Manya Gupta, running for the Full-Time Officer position of Vice-President for Postgraduates in the Spring Elections, sat down with The Boar‘s Co-News Editor, Tom Ryan, to discuss her campaign.

Throughout the interview, Gupta emphasised the importance of clear and effective communication with postgraduates, that she hopes will allow postgraduate students to take more advantage of the services already provided by the SU.

Why did you decide to run for this position and what makes you stand out from the other candidates?

“I’m running for VP Postgraduates because I’ve seen how capable and driven the Warwick students are – but students lose so much time and energy navigating the systems and realising that it’s not clear to them the information that’s being supplied. I’ve realised that the postgrad degrees, they move really quickly, especially [for] Masters’ students, and the small gaps in communication create a lot of stress for students.”

“My campaign focuses on making post-grad life better, clearer, and easier to navigate, to reduce the stress and the ambiguity that exists.” Gupta hopes to “bridge a gap between the opportunities that [postgraduates] have and the resources” of the SU, by communicating with “more simplicity”.

Many postgraduate students feel disengaged from the SU, societies, and sports clubs at the University. How would you make sure the SU is more inclusive to postgraduates?

“I don’t think they feel disengaged particularly. They are really busy!” Gupta remarked, adding: “They want to engage, but they don’t have the time.”

Gupta says she has experienced wanting to take part in activities, but not knowing how to because of a lack of clear communication from the SU. “So what my campaign wants to essentially do is actually build that bridge from a microscopic communication level so that they feel ‘this is where I want to be and this is how I get it’.”

“I think once students have the clarity as to how to access information, how to be there, they will start engaging themselves. So clear communication is how I plan on engaging the students [with] the SU, which is already doing so much for students.”

What new services, provisions, or spaces would you aim to introduce to support postgraduates studying at Warwick?

“I think the SU is doing an exceptional job already at providing a lot of resources to students. What I’m going to be doing is providing them [with] a concise view of what exists and how to utilise it. So I’m not adding more to it, I’m actually making things out there simple, clear, and accessible. So now you don’t have to go through five different websites to get down to where you need to be – you have it ready.”

Gupta reiterated how the busy schedules of postgraduates call for clearer communication: “Everybody needs to have it quick. Everybody’s super busy and we just need somebody to tell us where to be, instead of having to constantly run around accessing information.”

“Something that I’m planning on doing is having a clear ‘what’s coming up, what has changed, and what will change’ on the SU website so you know where to be, where you are, what went well, and what did not. [That way] there’s a lot of accountability, a lot of clarity, and a lot of upfront information that will be supplied to you, but in the most simple way, so now you’re not going to be bombarded with a lot of information. We’re going to have it very crisp, to the point, that’s what I plan on doing.”

How would you ensure that postgraduate students who come to Warwick from different countries feel welcome and supported during their time here?

“I think I can answer this well, because I am an international student. Something that I personally felt, something that also made me stand for this position today, was the presence of so much ambiguity with regards to things, because you’re coming to a whole different country.”

“You’re basically starting [from] scratch here, right? To make students feel comfortable, warm, and welcome, I think providing information in a way that they feel that, ‘OK, I understand this’, instead of it being printed or digital words, I think that’s what I wish to do.”

“I also think that if I had information as to how to access the resources of the SU earlier, I would have been able to engage more. Providing information in a very clear manner is what I believe will allow me to connect with students who are already here [and] who are planning on coming.”

“International students are already risking so much. I think what I want to do for them is to let them know that it’s not a risk, it’s a journey that they should enjoy. And for the journey to become the most amazing journey that they have, they need to take a deep breath and understand that everything is here – all you need to do is just access it. So I want to build that accessible bridge for them.”

Many postgraduates also deliver teaching to undergraduates at Warwick. How would you represent and protect these postgraduates’ particular interests?

“I believe that teaching is such a big part of the student journey, because I think that it forms you in some way. So to protect them, I think I will, again, equip them.”

Gupta reiterated the need for easy access to concise information and resources. “I think most of the process revolves around making things visible, because I believe the SU offers everything at the moment. Obviously, there’s always more to build, but what I want to do and how I want to protect everybody is to make them realise that there’s already so much: just jump onto it, access it, use it, and make a difference.”

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

You can also view a list of all candidates and their manifestos here.