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Niamh Andrews Fraher is running to be your Graduate Officer.
Niamh Andrews Fraher is one of the two candidates for UCDSU’s next graduate officer.
She has been a student at UCD since 2022. She graduated with a Bachelors in Drama and English, and is currently completing an MA in Writing for Stage and Screen.
Alongside her academic career, she has been actively involved in student advocacy, having worked with the Access and Lifelong Learning team as an Access Leader for the past three years and serving as UCDSU’s Mature Student Coordinator since September 2024, roles that she continues to hold.
When asked about the initiatives and projects she is most proud of, Fraher talked about a project addressing class and socio-economic differences within university life: “We worked on case studies focusing on students from low income backgrounds,” she explained. “Presenting this research at a symposium, and later at the University of Galway, really showed that class is still very much present across universities, especially at UCD.”
Motivations and Goals
Inclusion and belonging sit at the heart of Niamh’s campaign: “This is my great passion and the reason I decided to run as a Graduate Officer” she says. “I realised that mature and graduate students often face the same difficulties when it comes to feeling included on campus.”
She referred to a survey she read three years ago as a turning point - she was shocked by how mature students were excluded from societies and general campus, a feeling she also shared unfortunately. “It was an eye opener, it’s something I really want to work on. If I’m elected Graduate Officer, I’ll have a louder voice to push for change.”
One of the main priorities for Niamh is improving communication and cohesion between UCD’s Belfield and Smurfit campuses, which she argues currently operate in isolation from one another. To bring an example, she points out that while Smurfit this year had several successful graduate events, many students from Belfield were unaware of them. Niamh describes this as a broader communication failure between the two campuses. “We’re all graduate students working towards the same degree, so it doesn’t make sense that we’re not communicating or building relationships with one another,” she says.
Niamh believes that this divide can be resolved through clearer communication and more inclusive events that attract not only law and business students, but also to those in the arts and sciences. “It’s a challenge,” she acknowledges, “but it’s one that needs to be addressed.”
A real challenge will be her proposal for a needs-based scholarship for graduate students. While the details are still vague, she envisions a system that would provide funding based on financial need rather than academic performance, taking inspiration from similar initiatives in graduate medicine. “If the medical school has achieved something like this, why not apply it to the schools of arts, sciences, or law?” she asks.
For Niamh Andrews Fraher, one of the most important aspects of the Graduate Officer role is ensuring that graduate students’ voices are heard and properly represented. She points out that many programs, including her own MA, lack basic support such as orientation and campus tours, and that graduate representation within the Student Union remains limited.
When asked why she considers herself the ideal candidate for the role, Niamh explains that her experience as an Access Leader and her years of involvement with the Students’ Union have given her strong relationships with the administration, as well as a solid understanding of how UCD operates and how she can make a difference for graduate students.
Affiliations
Niamh has never been involved in the campaign of a previous SU sabbatical candidate, nor is she a member of or connected to any political party.
Working with the SU
When asked what the three greatest issues UCD students are facing, Niamh said, “One of the biggest things that seems to be kind of across the board seems to be hidden costs, which has come up quite a lot last year with Access, but this is the first time I've really heard it come up in Union. That could be because, you know, the officers or whatever, that's what their manifestos were. But it's things like hidden costs, like lab coats for the science students or the medical students. For us, in my course in particular, we had to go to the theatre, which was say another €200, €300.”
She continued, “The price of the accommodations again this year, and the fact that some students were living in cars because they couldn't get accommodation, that some of the digs students are staying in, they say they have to leave every weekend. That's coming up a lot, like people struggling to just find somewhere to live. Some people are sharing a room with maybe three other people in a house just to afford the rent.”
Niamh cited AI and its impact on assessment as the third greatest challenge impacting students. “For example, in my final year of my undergrad, what used to be an assignment was turned into an exam because they were afraid students were using AI and then people who maybe didn't examine well, then their GPAs or whatever plummeted because now they have to sit an exam. For that teaching and learning aspect, AI seems to be, at least in the arts and humanities, coming up a lot.”
When discussing engagement with the SU over the past year, Niamh told us she wasn’t sure if she would say it “has been good” but noted an increase in graduate students compared to the year before.
“When I speak to my own classmates, when we had to get our nomination forms signed, people were just like, but what does the SU actually do for the university?”
When asked about how she would respond to a mandate she does not agree with, Niamh discussed the importance of being respectful when working with people you disagree with. Niamh believes that the constitution “needs to be desperately updated,” but doesn’t know which way the upcoming constitutional review is going to go.
While discussing policies, Niamh was asked her views on how the union has been mandated by the student body to support BDS and Palestine. She responded, “It’s a really, really difficult issue, although it is an important issue.” She cited concerns over how following BDS principles in the SU Shops may impact profit. “The stuff that are on the likes of, say, Coke and stuff, they would probably be really, really high earners for the shops, therefore income for the union.”
She continued, “So I think it’s a really, really hard one because you have to look at why it needs to be done, but then the students’ union also has to run on funds. So although BDS is absolutely important, I don’t know if it’s even plausible to get rid of the items that get rid of most profit . . . But BDS is important.”
Our final questions for Niamh were lighthearted - Niamh told us that her favorite UCD building is Sutherland School of Law and says the best place for coffee on campus is the horse boxes.