King's Doctoral Students' Association

The King’s Doctoral Students’ Association (KDSA) is the recognised representative body of the Postgraduate Research (PGR) student community within King's Student Union (KCLSU). As an academic association, we have representatives across all nine faculties and five campuses. All doctoral students at King’s are automatically part of KDSA.

 

Aim & Mission

KDSA works closely with the university to further improve the PhD journey:

• Ensure effective representation of part-time and full-time PhD students:
  • uphold, extend, and defend the rights of all PhD students at King’s
  • address student concerns such as funding issues, work-life imbalance or lack of support which undermine the student experience and research output
  • enable collaboration and exchange of good practices among faculty and department representatives
• Foster equality, diversity, and inclusion in research:
  • create and sustain peer support networks for academic and non-academic topics
  • improve and raise awareness of specialist support and resources available to different groups of PhD students
• Improve representation of Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) and Graduate Research Assistants (GRAs) interests
• Organise and support PhD activities, such as:
  • social events to strengthen the PhD community and connect students at King’s
  • career events to build professional skills and strategic networks
  • academic events to showcase research and facilitate academic collaboration
• Refine and raise awareness of resources available to PhD students.
• Promote sustainable research by encouraging bottom-up initiatives

Current campaigns:

Support our campaigns to improve your PhD sutdent experience!

• Facilitate Good Supervision campaign
• Relaxing IP Regulations campaign
• Fair Pay and working conditions for GTAs and GRAs campaign
• Emergency support for PGRs during cost of living crisis
• Pandemic Work Recognition Reward for all PGRs campaign

Current events:

Find all our events on Eventbrite!

 

KDSA Board for 2022-23:

Executive board:

• President / Chair: Lina Kramer
• Vice President / Vice Chair & Treasurer:: Aleksandra (Ola) Olszewska
• Secretary: Navsheen Kaur

Extended executive board:

• Public Relations Coordinator: Tatjana Irina Zoller
• Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Leads: Oluebube (Love) Nwajiaku
• Wellbeing Lead: Xenia Stieger

Representative for:

• International Students: Diana Catana & Zhaozhang Sun
• Part-Time PGRs: Susan Steward
• Healthcare Professionals: Juliana Fernanda Holanda Bezerra Pereira
• Graduate Teaching Assistants & Graduate Research Assistants: Raúl Zepeda Gil

Campus Representatives:

• Strand campus: Leontine von Felbert
• Denmark Hill campus: Manar Ageeli
• St Thomas's campus: Jie (Jill) Tang
• Guy's campus:

Faculty Representatives:

• Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy (SSPP): Chara Christodoulidou
• Faculty of Arts & Humanities: James Rowland
• King’s Business School (KBS): Mmekidmfon (Mfon) Umanah
• Dickson Poon School of Law: Marianna Ryan
• Faculty of Life Science & Medicine (FoLSM): Mariana da Silva
• Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN): Mariia Bogdanova
• Faculty of Natural, Mathematical & Engineering Sciences (NMES): Sinuhé Perea
• Faculty of Dentistry and Craniofacial Sciences (FoDOCS): Oscar Allan Furlong
• Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care: Ling Wang
• Francis Crick Institute: Miki Uchima

If you have questions or feedback regarding our work or ideas for future activities please get in touch with [email protected]. We are looking forward to hearing from you!

 

Vacant Committee Positions for 2022-23 Board:

• Representative for Guy's campus

If you are interested in supporting KDSA in any way contact: [email protected]

 

KDSA's achievements in the past years

KDSA campaigned to improve the PhD student experience and brought:

• Thesis Writing Space to King's
• Lockers for PGR Students
• Fair Pay For GTAs

As well as

• Delivered academic training such as public-speaking training or Scopus and Mendeley workshops
• Contributed to linking PhDs with industry through co-organizing Promega events.
• Organized focus groups to improve part-time PGR student experience at King’s.  
• Circulated useful content for PGRs through our social media platforms. 
• Created environmental awareness by promoting metal straws and reusable water bottles on KCL campuses.

Furthermore, KDSA-supported events such as

• Women in Science: Debate on how to fight gender inequality where female academics talk about their careers, focusing on the challenges facing women in research and how they have overcome them.

• Black in Academia: To raise awareness around people of colour and create a strong community of young black researchers at King's

 

Useful Links:
KDSA Agreement
Centre for Doctoral Studie