 Coedles of Power is a project based at SOAS University of London, and the aim of the project is to create pathways between Westminster and universities and to address the knowledge gap between the two, in this way improving the impact of research and helping create better policy decisions. We do this by offering training and support to students and staff at universities, and we write policy briefings on various current affairs which get disseminated to MPs around the country. When I started working here I was delighted to find that SOAS was still the politically engaged and driven place it was back when I studied here as an undergraduate, and it's actually been a real force for policy change both in the UK and overseas. Because of its unique regional speciality and a strong social conscience among staff, students and alumni, SOAS is ideally placed for policy engagement, particularly on things like foreign policy, immigration, sustainable finance, development and corruption, ranking fifth in the world for peace, justice and strong institutions in the time's impact rankings. It's been a leader across the university sector on decolonisation and working to close the black and minority ethnic awarding gap. The Coedles of Power project means we can harness the expertise of the SOAS community and means we can directly engage with the government on some of these key issues. For my MA it was always going to be SOAS. SOAS is an amazing place in many ways, not just in terms of its world-class education. SOAS wants its students and its academics to be engaged and making a difference to society and shaping policy. The Coedles of Power project is all about the student voice being heard. We were dismayed when this month during Covid, government cancelled online voting for MPs. We wrote a briefing on this and we will continue to petition the government to reinstate online voting so that SOAS students, all students and all constituents of our MPs are represented in Parliament. I've worked in a few different schools and universities and SOAS is the first place where I've been actively encouraged to engage in politics and to use my expertise to lobby Parliament. We're doing this through the SOAS Coedles of Power project and if you come to SOAS you'll be able to join us and help to change the politics in our country as well. Of all the universities I have studied or worked at it's got to be the most unique in terms of student activism and engagement. It's a very unusual conduit of cultures, languages, ideas, movements and whatever the subject that you choose to study at SOAS you will learn much more than just your degree. I'm learning a lot about political activism and lobbying and how university research is so pivotal to creating better public policy so do check out our audio briefings and our one pages through the SOAS Coq website and you'll see just one example of how universities are staying at the heart of the discussion.