Voting in the Oxford University Students’ Union (OUSU) elections opens today and will close this Thursday. Cherwell reached out to the students running for election to hear their plans for the organisation.
OUSU is led by four full-time, paid Sabbatical Officers, alongside a range of part-time, voluntary officers and Student Trustees. Sabbatical Officers are the primary representatives of Oxford’s student body.
The Sabbatical Officer roles are President for Undergraduates, President for Postgraduates, President for Communities and Common Rooms, and President for Welfare, Equity, and Inclusion. This will be the first set of elections to elect the four Presidential roles directly, and successful candidates will begin their roles this July. Last year, the four positions were elected as Officers, and were later renamed ‘President’ to reflect the responsibility the roles carry.
This was not the first reshuffle to OUSU’s structure in recent years. In 2023, the portfolios of the five Sabbatical Officers existing at the time were changed, for example replacing the Officer for Women with one for Liberation and Equality.
In Hilary Term 2024, OUSU was hit with a wave of controversies. The elections held in week five saw accusations that some candidates had been working together in a “secret slate”, despite rules against this. As reported by Cherwell at the time, Corpus Christi College disaffiliated in protest. The SU’s Trustee Board, responsible for the internal affairs of the organisation, blocked three motions of no confidence in the student council, which has since been replaced by the Conference of Common Rooms.
Accordingly, OUSU announced a “Turnaround Plan”, later rebranded as a “Transformation”, which saw much of the organisation effectively shut down during the 2024-2025 academic year. After President Dr Addi Haran resigned in protest against “institutional malpractice”, the Trustee Board abolished the role of President, producing the structure of four Presidents now in use.
President for Undergraduates
The President for Undergraduates is responsible for representing undergraduate interests in University governance. The two candidates running for the role are Zagham Farhan and Digby Gough-Boyak.
Farhan, a third-year History and Politics student at University College, told Cherwell that his goals for the presidency include having an “external review of the University’s sexual misconduct processes”, “creating a website to view how busy libraries are”, and “creating a student societies hub”.
Gough-Boyack, an Archaeology and Anthropology finalist at Hertford College, says that if he is elected, he will “improve engagement with both the SU and the Conference of Common Rooms through collaboration and communication”. He told Cherwell: “Through clear representation, the SU can establish a mandate with which to deliver meaningful change at a university-wide level.”
President for Postgraduates
There are four candidates running for the position of President for Postgraduates: Wantoe Teah Wantoe, India Kelly, David Quan, and Mergen Dorjnami. The role is analogous to the President for Undergraduates, sitting on University governance committees to represent the interests of graduate students.
Wantoe is the current office-holder, who took office last year after completing an MSc in Comparative and International Education at Somerville College. Wantoe told Cherwell that his campaign is focused on “continuity, experience, and finishing work that is already delivering for postgraduates.” He encouraged students to stay engaged with OUSU, saying: “Oxford Students’ Union can deliver when it is focused on substance rather than slogans.“
Kelly is an MSc Archaeology student at Kellogg College. She told Cherwell: “I want to be President for Postgraduates in the Oxford University Student Union because I know that postgraduates who are in short (year-long or less) courses feel as though they don’t have a say in the University.”
Her main goal as president is “to increase outreach to graduate students” and to add “OSU [sic] student advice pages, creating resources to reacclimate non-traditional student’s [sic] that have joined from the workforce, and, of course, advocating for as many students as possible”.
Quan is an MSc Education student at Wolfson College, and his goal is to create “one community – undergrads, postgrads, alumni, staff, and locals together”, adding that this involves “transparent access to hardship funding, a food bank for those in need… and AI literacy”. He believes that the “SU has enormous potential to be the hub students actually turn to – for practical support, for connection”.
Dorjnamjil is studying for an MSc in Clinical Embryology. She wants to be President for Postgraduates because she believes that “the Students’ Union should be focused on making postgraduate life easier to settle into and easier to live, rather than making it more complicated”. Among her goals for her presidency, she mentioned making “funding, financial support, and scholarships more accessible”, supporting “postgraduates at different stages of life”, and representing “all postgraduate students across all fields rather than being shaped by only a political performative mindset”.
President for Welfare, Equity, and Inclusion
The candidates for President for Welfare, Equity, and Inclusion are Catherine Kola-Balogun, Henry Morris, Khansa Maria, and Fitzroy Pablo Wickham. The role includes advocating for students from underrepresented backgrounds by voicing their experiences of studying, both within the institution and beyond it.
Kola-Balogun is a third-year undergraduate student studying History and Politics at St. Hilda’s College, who has previously served as her college’s JCR Access Officer and undergraduate outreach ambassador. The goals of her presidency include “creating scaffolding for support” particularly for neurodivergent students, “cultivating stronger community”, and “more visibility and connection” between the SU and JCRs. She advocates a standardised university policy on rustication and more collaboration with external organisations on sexual harassment reporting.
Morris is studying for an MSt in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. In the past, they were involved with the Class Act Society and setting up the free subfusc scheme. Morris told Cherwell that some of the goals of their presidency is to “launch an investigation into the ways sexual misconduct is handled at the University”, “provide free food support”, and to “support suspended students”.
Maria is pursuing a DPhil in Education. She told Cherwell: “I want to be President for Postgraduates because I see how easily postgraduate concerns are absorbed into broader conversations and then lost.” Regarding her goals for the presidency, she listed wanting to “strengthen how postgraduate concerns are gathered and tracked”, the need to “improve accessibility and communication”, and wanting “postgraduate voices [to be] embedded earlier in decision making”.
Pablo Wickham is a final-year DPhil student in Clinical Neuroscience, and throughout his time at Oxford he has “served in several pastoral care roles, including Peer Supporter and Welfare Officer at New College”. Wickham told Cherwell: “I strongly believe in data-driven advocacy; without it, leadership risks prioritising personal agendas over the real needs of the student body.”
President for Communities, and Common Rooms
There is one candidate running for President for Communities and Common Rooms, Roxi Rusu, who is a PPE finalist. The role entails representing students on University committees, leading SU projects, supporting Common Rooms, and acting as a link between colleges, societies, and the Students’ Union.
College Common Rooms are represented at the SU through the Conference of Common Rooms, at which JCR and MCR representatives vote on issues concerning the student body. The body has faced difficulty with a lack of student engagement. Out of the four CCR meetings held in 2025, two failed to attract enough delegates to have any motion reach the quorum required to pass.
Rusu told Cherwell: “I see the CCR President like a ribbon: connecting, not controlling, all the independently thriving communities in the University. I see this role as reinforcing the features that make societies and common rooms unique, while actively working to minimise their inequalities. Colleges should differ in flavour, not quality.”
Some of her goals include “bringing back the Yellow Pages”, “creating a Uni-wide Calendar” and “emphas[ing] the power of Conference of Common Rooms”.
Other roles
Also up for election are a variety of voluntary officer roles. The majority of these are designed to represent particular marginalised groups, or groups occupying a distinctive role in the student body, like international or suspended students. There is also an Environmental Officer, a Societies Officer, and a RAG (Raise and Give) Officer, who will manage RAG, the arm of the SU set up to raise money for various charities.
The other role up for election is a voluntary Student Trustee, who will represent student interests on OUSU’s Trustee Board, which governs the internal affairs of the organisation. The board consists of the four Sabbatical Officers, four Student Trustees, and four “external”, non-student trustees.
 elections opens today and will close this Thursday.){kind=link}