KOZHIKODE: A young Malayali woman's mission at the University of Cambridge to end the 'systemic sexism' which has been causing much hardship, especially among girl students from India, has yielded rich results. The 32-year-old Nikita Hari of Kozhikode, who was recently in the news for becoming the first Indian citizen to be featured on the Telegraph’s ‘Top 50 Women in Engineering’ list, has won the coveted post of vice-president, Students Union of University of Cambridge.
An elated and thrilled Nikita, in a message to Express from Cambridge, said: "PhD here for a woman from India is very difficult to get -- so many issues going on. So that's one reason I ran for this post -- should make some changes to make sure student rights are protected."As per the university's website, the Graduate Union is the varsity-wide representative body for graduate and mature undergraduate students at the University of Cambridge and is one of the only students’ unions in the UK that works exclusively with graduate students.
It is a registered charity in England and Wales. The GU is run by a board of elected sabbatical and student officers and in the interest of representing graduate and mature undergraduate students.Nikita, who is doing her fourth year PhD at the university, said the vice-president post was fulltime - paid position with a remuneration of £21,000."It's a very complicated job involving negotiating with VC and team, researching policies and suggesting changes and holding campaigns.The term is for one year and I was unanimously elected," she said.