Edited by Olivia Griffin
Joshua Tandy discusses his 2026 Students’ Union Presidential bid with Head of Politics Ruaidhrí Gillen Lynch.
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This interview is published verbatim. Views expressed are those of the candidate and do not necessarily reflect the views of Gair Rhydd or Cardiff Students’ Union.
Okay, Josh Tandy, you are of course the VP of Heath Park. Could you tell us a bit about your time as a student? What did you study, and what experience makes you the best candidate for President?
Yeah, of course. I studied biomedical anatomy under the School of Biosciences. I was a student rep, student chair actually, for all three years of my time, and I really enjoyed it. I’ve always loved student voice, always have. You know, prefect and all of that in sixth form.
I was also involved in a lot of society work. I was Society President and Vice President, and also the Musical Director of Show Choir, so I’m well accustomed to that sort of environment too. I’ve done various other things as well: student mentors, working with the university quite a lot at college level even before I was a VP, so generally a nice spread of things. The most important thing is that I really do enjoy working in the higher education sector.
In the future, after I’ve finished my time as VP, and hopefully after my time as President, I really hope to go into the higher education sector and do it right. I think there are too many people who don’t look out for students, and I want to be one of the people at the top that does.
Tell us a bit about where you grew up, what kind of school you went to, and anything notable about your childhood.
Yeah, of course. I live in the southeast of Kent, very near France. You can see France on my doorstep because we live on a hill. It’s really, really nice. I went to the Dover Grammar School for Boys.
Growing up in a boys’ school was a little bit different to mixed schools, but I think it made me a little bit more confident and a little bit more persevering. It was hard at times, but I think it was a good challenge, especially because that sort of environment tends to be more hetero-centred. Growing up gay as well did present its challenges, so that was something notable in my childhood.
When you think about your life outside of university and the campaign, what does that look like? How do you spend your time when you’re not running for VP?
In my spare time, I still do musical directing of Show Choir, and I really, really enjoy that. I have tons of hobbies, you’ll probably see eventually when I post it on my campaign page. I like candle making, I do some photography (probably not as good as you guys), and I compose my own music. Sporting wise I also do some skiing and squash as well!
I play piano and I sing, and I teach both of those as well. I like my academic side too, and I will hopefully, fingers crossed, go on to do a PhD. But I also really like the duality of creativity, and I think both help each other, even with that extracurricular side of things.
Do you have a favourite social event in Cardiff? A pub, a club or any sort of social event?
Yeah, so I’m part of CU Pride, and I really like it. I just think it’s a really welcoming environment, and I’ve worked a lot with them this year to bring up House, which is the SU’s queer club night. That was rebranded from Q last year, and we’ve done lots of good work, and it’s turned out really well.
It’s self-sustaining now in effect, but I’ve really enjoyed the work I’ve done with the community; even though, in some sense, it has been work. But when you take your lanyard off, everyone is just so lovely. It’s really nice to be able to access that community, and I think I’ll definitely have those friendships after my role, and probably after I finish at Cardiff Uni.
Moving on to your time as VP Heath Park. You’re running against your current president, Maria. Why?
I think that over the last year; I’ve done really well. If you look at what I’m working on, on the website, you’ll see that all of my manifesto points are in the final stage or completed. I can guarantee you – and I know people throw that around a lot, but I do not throw it around easily – that all of those points will be completed by the time I finish.
That’s not something you see a lot as a Sab (Sabbatical Officer), and it’s because I do sometimes work until six or seven every day. I put in the hard effort to make sure I complete what I say I’m going to do. I’m not saying anyone else does or doesn’t do that, but I want to take it up a notch, and I want to work on higher-level stuff.
I think I’ve proven I can do Heath Park, and with the removal of the VP Heath Park position, I think I can make sure the transition into a new sabbatical structure is really meaningful for both campuses.
In your time as VP of Heath Park, what are you most proud of having achieved?
There are lots of things that, towards the end of your term, before elections happen, are kind of budding. On the 9th of March, Cardiff Uni is going to have a meeting with Cardiff Met, USW and Cardiff Bus to come together and agree a discounted student bus pass for students in Cardiff; for all students, not just Heath Park students and I think that would be really beneficial.
I’m also proud of the Heath Park Pantri opening up, which was really useful for the cost of living. And this weekend, I’m going to run Heath Park on Tour, where we’re running events over Wales. I’m going up to Wrexham and Bangor, and I’ve finalised those details and sent out the dietary requirements. I think it will be really good to support our students away, which hasn’t been done for many, many years. It’s hard to orchestrate, but it’s going to be so worth it.
Perhaps the most notable event in your term was the abolishment of the role you hold. Why did you support this?
You can either remain neutral, go against it, or be for it. The board’s position – our external trustees, internal trustees, the Sabs and student trustees – was that they needed to do this because of one major reason. There’s a rule now in elections where you have to be of the demographic you’re representing to run for that position.
That would mean if the role continued, Heath Park students would only be able to run for VP Heath Park, which makes perfect sense and should definitely be in place. I’m not a Heath Park student. I’d say I did a good job, but there was definitely a skill curve to learn and understand the environment because I wasn’t a Heath Park student by nature. The only reason I think I was helped is because I worked at college level, so I did have experience.
The reason it was removed is because, looking back at previous years, only one of the last four years of Sabs were actually from Heath Park. If history repeated itself, and we were seeing that pattern, you’d probably have no one fill the position. Then you’d only have six Sabs, and although each has a specified area, the amount of work they do outside of that area is a lot. That would place pressure on a six-person team instead of seven, and you’d also have no Heath Park representative.
Whereas now, if you look at the elections, you’ve got four or five candidates for the campaign officer positions, which I put through the Senate and got passed. So it has been beneficial, and it should be the case that Heath Park students can and will represent themselves.
What do you say to people who feel the voluntary officer systems coming in are insufficient, and that Heath Park student voices may not be heard?
I understand that position, and I do sympathise. But I’d say two things. One, you could end up with no Heath Park representative if the system stayed the same, and I think that’s a very dangerous road, just chancing it. At least this way, representation is guaranteed.
Second, yes, we have campaign officers, but there’s also a whole host of other things in the works. For instance, I’m putting another policy through the Senate so that one executive committee member for every executive committee is reserved for Heath Park. That’s another form of representation.
I’m also working on a good handover at the end of my position, not only to the next set of Sabbs, whether or not I’m elected again, but also to the staff in the Students’ Union. Because, for example, Freshers’ Fair at Heath Park was a great success, really good, but that work was entirely led by me. If I wasn’t there, it simply wouldn’t have been done.
What needs to be the case now is that the entire Sabbatical Officer team takes on Heath Park instead of it being one person’s responsibility, which secures representation. The current, or should I say previous, system is very unsecure and unstable.
At the AGM, you disagreed with the motion to not renew AGM affiliation. Some said your arguments were misinformed because the proposal was to leave NUS UK, not NUS Charity UK. Do you still hold that position?
I took a deep dive into understanding what people were saying. We interact with NUS quite a bit, and it can be hard to take an external view when you’re part of something. So I took a step back and re-evaluated.
I do stand by that there are good commitments that come from NUS in terms of representing us at national level, and having the consortium, which is separate from the charity. There are benefits to those. Equally, I do understand what students said on that stage, and by no means do I stand by NUS in that regard. They should be fixing and amending those issues.
As for my current status, I’m going to do exactly what you elect me for, in the capacity you give me. It’s not my decision whether we should be part of NUS or not, it’s the students’ decision, and that’s why it’s put to a referendum. Regardless of the outcome, I’ll work within the realm of that referendum and do everything I can to do my job as effectively as possible while still listening to students.
Other candidates have policies to better safeguard and protect student media and editorial independence. What are your views and intentions regarding student media?
Student media is always an interesting one because of the location of it, being an independent group but also associated with the SU. In terms of free speech, you’re an editor and you should be able to write what you want to write. However, because you are aligned with the SU and effectively funded from the SU budget, you do have to be careful in terms of the laws. That’s not just my personal view; it’s what’s written.
It’s been mentioned to me that you have to send SU politics stuff to the team to check you’re not being overly critical or unfair. Sabbatical officers don’t get involved in the democracy side because you can’t, otherwise we could effectively rig elections, so we don’t really deal with that. Anyone who says we do needs to take a hard look at the bylaws.
In terms of funding, you have to acknowledge that no other societies get permanent funding every year. But costs are rising, and while I don’t know your budget, I do think you should have increases in line with inflation. As someone who sits on the board and hopefully will continue to, those should be brought through the VP Societies and Communities role. The President role focuses on university-wide issues and supports the team, but you should elect the right VP Societies and Communities for your opinions.
Student media is usually aligned with communities, like societies, but you’re not a technical society because societies can endorse and you can’t. You need to be politically neutral. You are a community, and a good one, and I hope the new structure represents you more. If you ever don’t feel you can go to that position, you should reach out, and I’d be more than willing to help, because you should be represented by someone.
I’ve sat on finance and risk, but I don’t know exactly where your funding comes from. I assume it’s under activities, and there are different budgets there. Elaine will probably talk with the head of activities Paul about how much you need. If you’re worried about your budget, I’d say get in touch with the Sabbs, they sit as board members and can raise concerns. We should be very proud of student media, and we need to support you with as much free speech as guidelines allow, and with the financing to do what you want to do.
You referenced bylaws that don’t properly protect student media. What’s your view on reviewing them, potentially led by student media?
I had this prepared because I was genuinely intrigued. Bylaw 15.1.1 says student media won’t express comment, criticism, or offer opinion about any candidate from the close of nominations until results; 15.1.2 that student media is prohibited from publicising names, aliases and pictures relating to candidates in that period; and 15.1.3 that the returning officer (or deputy) acts as a consultant on all election matters.
I don’t think the returning officer part is an issue, because they’re external and we need an unbiased perspective. The publicising names and pictures part exists to keep the playing field level – like with posters, where printing beyond the allowed amount would be election fraud.
The most contested bit is not expressing comment or criticism. At the moment, you can write what a candidate has said, but you can’t say “I don’t think he’s going to do this” or “I think this candidate is really good.” I think it’s difficult because student media is tied to the SU in a way societies aren’t. I would love for you to have the ability to do that, because it would make student media more functional and more enjoyable, but you’d have to be delicate about where your funding comes from, and that’s what causes conflict.
More broadly, not just election bylaws but the wider bylaw set that dictates student media behaviour. If you want to change things, any student can propose changes to our rules. We’re a union for students, so if you came to me as President, or after the election as VP Heath Park, we could start that conversation. I always encourage challenging the landscape you sit in, because that’s how progress is made. There may be some hard lines, but there are always ways around things, and I think we should at least have a consultation.
What systems did you go through in producing your manifesto? Whose voices did you hear, and why did they lead you to these decisions?
I’m VP Heath Park at the moment, but I do a lot of work for Cathays too, and I represent students generally all over, like all current Sabbatical Officers do. Throughout my year, speaking to people and seeing priorities, a lot of them are things I can see actively that the university is either dropping or trying to improve on but failing.
Sometimes university staff have really good ideas, but they’re shut down by upper management. They need people at the top, and in this case, that’s student representatives, to bring those good ideas up because we sit at those high levels. I’ve seen examples from staff who genuinely care about students.
And of course, students. I’ve been speaking to a lot of students. I’ve gone to loads of events, not only for the campaign, but because I genuinely enjoy it, and through that passive uptake I can see where student priorities lie. I think my manifesto reflects where students are and what they want over the upcoming year.
Your top priority is a student protection bill, recognising students as a vulnerable group. Some say it relies on lengthy lobbying outside your jurisdiction. How do you reassure people, and what would it tangibly produce?
It has been done with other groups, but not students specifically in other countries. Recognising a group as vulnerable means the government has to consider them in policy; housing, cost of living, mental health and so on. That’s crucial, because at the moment they can bring through, say, a housing bill and not really think about the effects on students, except for groups already listed as vulnerable.
Having that consideration in every law is a lasting impact – not a one-off – and it would roll on and help future Sabbatical Officers here and across the country. It could also give rise to more novel ideas around student protection. I think it’s a good starting place. I’m trying to be realistic: I’m not putting something on my manifesto that I can’t do, and you can see that because I’ve delivered everything on my manifesto this year.
You say you want to deliver on all Time to Act commitments. What are these, and how will you do it?
There are quite a lot of commitments, but they’re accessible online. If you go into the AGM motions and then the Time to Act ones from the previous three years, you’ll see them all there. Some are already done and some, even if they’re done, could be done again and improved.
Earlier in the year, the Sabbatical Team and the SU put out a post about our work on Time to Act and apologised for a lack of work on sexual violence. We don’t want to have to issue another apology. It’s not really my jurisdiction as VP Heath Park, but I’ve been doing work on sexual violence on placement, and I want to start working on bigger ticket issues and improve tackling sexual violence university wide. Being President would give me the ability to do that.
Is there anything within that work you feel most passionate about?
Consent and bystander training is really important. We do have a commitment from the university but it’s a slippery slope because they can commit and say they’ll put it in, but in what capacity, in what way and how truly mandatory it will be is another question entirely. We need to hold them to account on what they’ve already committed to.
I also want to expand the Let’s Talk Consent campaign. Having it in freshers is really important, because that’s when people are arriving and some aren’t educated on it, while others need refreshers. Then, if something happens, it matters that people have had the training. The university also needs to hold students to account in terms of tackling sexual violence and follow through with what the policy says. I don’t think the current policy is up to scratch or being followed, so we need to review it, ensure it stands for survivors, and ensure they’re actually doing what they say they’re going to do, because we all know that doesn’t happen in a fair few cases.
Your manifesto mentions monthly survivor working groups. How do you plan to deliver these, given the emotional cost for victims, and how will you safeguard people who come forward?
At the moment we have the Tackling Sexual Violence working group, which is what I’m referring to. They’re doing great things, talking and actioning points, but I want to make the points more visible, to show we are actively doing things and to let people know what we’re doing. If people disagree, they can come in and help: that’s democracy.
It’s also not a hugely large group. I don’t think we’ve seen the uptake I’d personally be happy with so I want to expand it, get more important things on the agenda and have that group not just meet with the Sabbs, but meet with the university directly and involve them in those conversations. There’s only so much we can do to support, in terms of the university upholding policies and putting in consent and bystander training. They need to see how much this means to students, because it means an awful lot.
You talk about visibility of delivery, including a policy motion tracker. What is it, and how will it be displayed?
If you look at any of the sabbatical officers’ “what I’m working on” sections, you’ll see a tracker format: the manifesto point, then a drop-down showing what’s been done so far. With an AGM policy motion tracker, it would function similarly.
At the moment, AGM resolves exist and we’re held accountable to them in the Student Senate, and minutes are published, but they’re not accessible or engaging. I’m not saying it should be fun to read, but it should be readable and more outgoing in how it’s communicated. The tracker would let you click a motion and see exactly what’s been done, with timelines, so students can hold us to account.
I also think we should make more presentable content: reels about what we’ve done on tackling sexual violence, but in multiple formats. If someone doesn’t like reels, they can read it, but if someone needs something more accessible, including people with dyslexia, formats beyond long paragraphs would help.
On mental health, you want to reduce waiting times by introducing a triage system. Some worry that triage complicates access to vital support. How do you respond?
This is already something I’m working on as VP Heath Park and I want to see it through to full fruition. The current proposal from the wellbeing team is triage: you file your case, it’s triaged, and it immediately goes to one of two teams; SIT, the Student Intervention Team, for immediate support, or the therapies team if it’s non-urgent.
SIT waiting times are really good for emergency support if you contact the right people, and the emergency side would remain the same. Triage wouldn’t affect emergency waiting times. The key is clearly communicating it, because right now SIT and therapies sit separately. With one clear access point, cases can be routed appropriately straight away. What it would do is massively improve waiting times because the therapies team would expand and there would be new treatments, one has already started and I’d like to expand that and look into others as well.
Your manifesto also mentions expanding specialist therapy options like EMDR. Given funding pressures and the decline of services like Cardiff Nightline, how realistic is this?
I think the university is currently going through a process where they’re trying to crack down on costs, and I think we can all agree there are costs that have been mismanaged by university management. They’re trying to rectify this, and through that you’ll hopefully make savings, and I think those savings can be used for very important purposes.
The discussion around how much responsibility universities have for student mental health comes up all the time. Quite frankly, they should be doing it for students, but even if they won’t do it for that reason, they need to do it for the legal aspect. Because if someone’s mental health is poor in that university environment and they can’t access support, that becomes the university’s problem, and they need to resolve it. That’s why it’s really important to cut waiting times.
Last question, what makes you the best candidate on the ballot for students?
Personally, I love this job. I commit so much to it, and if you ask any of my friends or the other Sabbatical Officers – maybe not my opponent for neutrality purposes – they’d tell you I truly love it. I spend a lot of time after hours working with students and doing student things, and I’m not being paid for it, but I’m going to bring that same energy to next year for the bigger ticket items.
I think the reason is that I care. And I also have a confirmed masters next year, so I’m going back into the university realm, so not for a selfish purpose, but because I’ll actively see the issues, and I want to fix them because that is what I would want when I am studying my course. That really propels me into working. As they say, I’ll be on it like a bonnet, and if you look at my track record, quite frankly, it is flawless – and if you want the same for an SU Presidential manifesto, then you should think ‘it’s time for Tandy’.
Thank you very much.