Rashmi Samant, an alumna of Karnataka’s Manipal Institute of Technology, was elected as the Oxford University Student Union president on Thursday. Samant, a student of MSc in energy systems at Linacre College, is also the first Indian woman to ever hold the position.
According to the university, Samant received 1,966 of the 3,708 votes. This is more than votes received by her opponents combined.
Rashmi is from Manipal town in Udupi district. Her father, Dinesh Samant, is a businessman in Udupi, and her mother, Vathsala, a homemaker. Samant did her schooling in Udupi and graduated in mechanical engineering from the Manipal Institute of Technology in 2020.
During her election campaign, Samant promised to remove all statues proven to be imperialist, including Christopher Codrington’s at the Conference of Colleges. She also promised to increase funding for a mental health strategy, according to an official release.