Student Staff Council and School President
The Student-Staff Council (SSC) has representatives for students in each year of study, and also a postgraduate representative and members of staff. Its primary purpose is to serve as a forum for the discussion of academic issues, but it also oversees some of the social facilities available in the building and some student activities. Officially this body is one of the University's student-staff consultative committees, but our council has opted to keep the name that it took on when it was one of the first to be set up in the UK back in the seventies.
The two meetings per semester are normally held 1–2 pm. The meetings are chaired by the School President. Student reps are asked to discuss matters of interest with the relevant year coordinators before the meetings. Broad academic issues in the School are debated and more serious or ongoing academic matters from year and subject groups are discussed. Matters in the reports from external examiners and from the University module evaluation questionnaires will be reported on and discussed where appropriate. The School's Director of Teaching normally provides a note some time after each meeting indicating what actions have been taken on the items covered. The School President and others may seek input for, and report back on, meetings of University committees with which they are involved.
The SSC often runs a mid-semester survey of students asking them to give feedback on how their modules are going. The SSC has been the source of many useful suggestions that have gone on to be of value in the School's teaching programme.
SSC members are also involved in organising social events such as the Burns Supper Dinner Dance, now traditionally held near the start of Semester 2.
School President
In each School in the University students elect annually a student to the role of School President. This person chairs that School's Student-Staff Consultative Committee, is a point of contact for students in the School, and sits on a number of University committees.
For 2024-2025 the School President is Hugo Decitre.
You can contact him by email: physicspresident@st-andrews.ac.uk.
Student Staff Council Members 2024-2025
First year
- Astronomy - Lucy Naismith (lrn1@st-andrews.ac.uk)
- Physics
- Elise Liu (ecl20@st-andrews.ac.uk)
- Rebeca Tornini (rt204@st-andrews.ac.uk)
Second year
- Astronomy - Nadia Benssassi (nb242@st-andrews.ac.uk)
- Physics (direct entry) - Alisa Senses (as746@st-andrews.ac.uk)
- Physcis (returning) - Lukas Hobson (lh272@st-andrews.ac.uk)
Junior Honours - level 3
- Astronomy - Sham Ahmed (sa207@st-andrews.ac.uk)
- Physcis (experimental) - Bridey Simpson (bs256@st-andrews.ac.uk)
- Theoretical Physics - Ellie Shaw (es336@st-andrews.ac.uk)
Senior Honours - level 4
- Astronomy - Anna Hayes (ajh48@st-andrews.ac.uk)
- Physics (experimental) - Amartya Singh Panwar (asp25@st-andrews.ac.uk)
MPhys year - level 5
- Astronomy - Rory Brown (rdjb1@st-andrews.ac.uk)
- Physcis (experimental) - Stuart van Breda (svb1@st-andrews.ac.uk)
- Theoretical Physics - Ava Kelly (aedk1@st-andrews.ac.uk)
Representatives
- Joint Honours - Rachel Golden (rg262@st-andrews.ac.uk)
- ID4001 - Josie Bloom (jrb35@st-andrews.ac.uk)
- Taught Postgraduate (Astro and Photonics) - Sebasian Gaume (slg22@st-andrews.ac.uk)
- AstroSoc - Anna Hayes (ajh48@st-andrews.ac.uk)
- PhySoc - Luke Campbell (lc334@st-andrews.ac.uk)
- Sustainability - Murray Purkis (mp325@st-andrews.ac.uk)
- Careers and employability - Chico Paulics Bresler (cpb5@st-andrews.ac.uk)
- Equality, diversity and inclusion - Elle Debienne (ed221@st-andrews.ac.uk)
- Disability and academic support - Renee Knapp (rfk1@st-andrews.ac.uk)
- Head of School - Jonathan Keeling (hospanda@st-andrews.ac.uk)
- Deputy Head of School - Graham Turnbull (gat@st-andrews.ac.uk)
- Director of Teaching - Lucy Hadfield (ljh11@st-andrews.ac.uk)
- Deputy Director of Teaching - Antje Kohnle (ak81@st-andrews.ac.uk)
- First Year Co-ordinators - Bruce Sinclair (bds2@st-andrews.ac.uk) and Aleks Scholz (as110@st-andrews.ac.uk)
- Second Year Co-ordinators - Cameron Rae (cfr@st-andrews.ac.uk)
- Honours Co-ordinators - Graham Smith (gms@st-andrews.ac.uk), Natalia Korolkova (nvk@st-andrews.ac.uk), and Jean-Charles Ribierre (jr43@st-andrews.ac.uk)
- Laboratory Co-ordinator - Cameron Rae (cfr@st-andrews.ac.uk)
- Project Co-ordinator - Friedrich Koenig (fewk@st-andrews.ac.uk)
- Director of PGT - Martin Dominik (md35@st-andrews.ac.uk)
- Director of EDI - Janet Lovett (physeqdiv@st-andrews.ac.uk)
Former School Presidents
- 2010-11 Claire Motion
- 2011-12 Chris Carroll
- 2012-13 Danielle Harper
- 2013-14 Gerald McLaughlin; Patrick Sandquist and Martha Tabor
- 2014-15 Louise McCaul
- 2015-16 Tomi Baikie
- 2016-17 John Weaver
- 2017-18 Alisa Danilenko
- 2018-19 Amy Suddards
- 2019-20 Amy Gallacher
- 2020-21 Sarah Johnston
- 2021-22 Thomas Rintoul
- 2022-23 Isabelle Terry; Carol Ballinger
- 2023-24 Anna Conti