Hi, my name is Tharushi. My role was the student panelist for the history department.

I think it was very important to me because the way I got contacted was I'm the president of a South Asian women's society. So someone contacted me because they thought it would be important to have a brown woman's voice on a panel like this. And personally I felt that that's important because a lot of the times when reviews like these happen, you know they talk about diversity quotas and things like that. And I think it's important that we have people of color in their spaces and going through reports like this and so they can bring a different perspective on to these reviews. So I felt good that I could contribute in that way.

The highlight, I think, was being on a team with different academics and also seeing their point of view. And as a student, I think it's a right opportunity because you don't really get to be in those spaces or to look at a department and to review it like that.

We got to discuss with department heads and students from those departments how we can improve the way we approach their education in the future. We also talked about like AI, which was very interesting and how those things will affect education in the future, because I'm sure it's not just the department I reviewed, but the department that I am in.

Yeah, I definitely think in the initial stages, going through all the reports, I think I improved my analytical skills, just going through all the STD documents and everything and also just meeting new people, networking with them. It has also helped me build my confidence and being able to just address people and talk about things that I'm passionate about.