Yesterday, Izzy, Sean, Leo and I spent the day lobbying MPs on Higher Education Policy as part of the NUS ‘Come Clean’ campaign. We set out to inform MPs of students’ concerns over changes to Higher Education. We pressed home the need to have a proper public debate over further proposed changes to the Higher Education landscape. In the last 12 months, Higher Education has slipped off the political agenda and it is deeply worrying that some changes are being enacted without being publicly challenged. We are still waiting for a government White Paper on Higher Education despite being promised one twice. Such radical changes to Universities should at least be accompanied by due parliamentary process and not decided in the backrooms of Parliament. 

Our message was for the government to ‘Come Clean’ and deliver greater transparency on the changes they are making, so that we can ensure that students are at the centre of this new system.

We challenged MPs on:

-          Getting Universities to put money into bursaries rather than fee waivers to put money in students’ pockets when they need it

-          Postgraduate funding – why are there no plans to improve postgraduate funding and maintain postgraduate numbers? Will students with £36k student debt want to take out a bank loan to continue their studies?

-          The lack of political debate on Higher Education and the absence of a White Paper

-          The impact of For-Profit institutions in the Higher Education Sector

-          Reduced incentives for Universities to take into account the standards of your secondary school when looking at your A-level grades (a key method of ensuring students from poorer backgrounds get to University)

-          The lack of guarantee of a 30 year cut-off point in repaying your student loan

We also asked MPs to sign an ‘Early Day Motion’ (EDM) signalling concern with the pace and incoherence of Higher Education Reform in an attempt to force a debate in Parliament.

Here’s what they had to say:

Jeremy Wright MP (Kenilworth and Southam, Tory) – Argued that the delay in the White Paper was due to David Willets having to wait his turn in the legislation process and that he would prefer a properly considered paper to brought forward than rushed through. However, he has written to David Willets to express our concerns on this issue. Wright did not see a way of financially supporting postgraduates. He would not sign the EDM.

Paul Blomfield MP (Sheffield Central, Labour) – Shared our concerns over for-profit institutions and the speed of changes to higher education without full debate and legislation. He wishes to work closely with the student community to consider funding models for Postgraduate courses. Blomfield is the primary sponsor of the EDM.

Adrian Bailey MP (West Bromwich West, Labour) – Bailey was very knowledge about the problems facing PG funding and pledged to see how the BIS Select Committee could look into it (he chairs it). He stated that his position as Chair of BIS made it difficult for him to sign the EDM as it was a potential conflict of interest. Bailey shared our concerns about Fee Waivers over Bursaries. He said that the Lobby was very useful and that he had learnt a lot.

Jim Cunningham MP (Coventry South, Labour) – He has already asked a question in Parliament about hidden course costs which aren’t included in tuition fees. He asked me write down further questions we have for government ministers which he will ask in Parliament. He agreed to sign the Early Day Motion.

Chris White MP (Warwick and Leamington, Tory) - He seemed keen to know what the issues were, although wanted more specific information to follow up our concerns which we will provide him with. We also raised the issue of postgraduate funding and talked about the likely knock-on effects that the new undergraduate fee regime would have on postgraduate study. He was keen to forward questions on to relevant cabinet ministers, so we asked:

1) how will the government ensure that widening participation with regards to postgraduate taught courses is improved.

2) How does the government intend to fund the build-up of expertise in society with regards to postgraduate taught funding?

We also handed letters over to him from Warwick students highlighting similar concerns.

Bob Blackman MP (Harrow East, Tory) – Shared our concerns about the non-existence of a government White Paper and agreed to write to David Willets expressing serious concern about the scope and rapidity of the changes to Higher Education without due Parliamentary debate. He said he would consider signing the EDM and we shall send him our concerns in writing to feed into his correspondence with Willets.

Ann Mckechin MP (Glasgow North, Labour) – We explained how PGT courses are vital for employability and the wider economy. She was sympathetic but wanted to see data on PGT employability which we shall send to her in due course. We explained how changes to the admissions system have meant that the context of your secondary school education is less likely to be taken into account when applying to University, leading to a disproportionately negative impact on high performing students at poorly performing schools. She was unaware of this issue.

Over the course of the day, Sabbs from across the country managed to lobby 200 MPs and we hope that this will at the very least get our concerns discussed in the corridors of power in Parliament and prompt a more public debate very soon. We found that we were listened to with courtesy and made some headway in educating MPs about our concerns. Several agreed that the far reaching implications of Higher Education Policy had not been properly thought through. However, it was particularly concerning that many government MPs were simply unaware of many of the problems which were less ‘high profile’ such as postgraduate funding. They seemed happy to fall back to the well-rehearsed ideological arguments for transferring education from the state to the individual but appeared to know little about the many other problems which have yet to be addressed. It is our job to make them aware of these problems.

Warwick SU will continue to put pressure on MPs to come up with answers so that we can challenge them in public and force them to think long and hard about the implications their actions will have on our Universities. 

Christmas is almost here, deadlines have subsided for a while, and everyone is psyching themselves up to eat their own body weight in turkey. Meanwhile Sabbs, it seems, are taking the opportunity to blog the living daylights out of the lot of you – and I’m no exception.

Each term we have to report to Union Council, who then make sure that we’re not being tyrannical despots, so I thought I’d let everyone know what I’ve been doing with my time.

Things I’ve done

As a sabb:

• With the rest of the team ensured that the Atrium was improved with furniture and colourful walls furniture and wall painting (and yes, the massive faces)
• Secured funding for and organised coaches to the 9^th Nov demo against the Government’s  Higher Education White Paper
• Defeated No Platform policy at the General Meeting
• Interviewed Street Team applicants  
• Barely slept and eaten unhealthily

As Societies Officer:

• Secured with the Marketing Team a fully equipped rehearsal area for Societies – the IKEA Membership Space, which seems to be very popular.
• Helped deliver Societies Fair which was great fun with some fantastic performances. 9720 students are in a society (a big increase on this time last year) and most are a member of at least 4
• Held Societies Convention, which I hope wasn’t too long or boring
• Delivered my election promise to have a Societies Surgery to answer any questions you have – or at least attempt to!
• Recruited a team to organise the exciting Student Arts Festival 2012 – I’m looking forward to seeing their ideas come to fruition.
• Advised Societies Committee and oversaw 8 new societies who’ll be starting up next term
• Fully updated the Society Exec pages
• Secured a discount price for Society members at Top B
• Answered 2728 emails!!!
• Successfully resolved a number of internal society issues (there’s been quite a few)
• Got RaW to broadcast in the Breadoven - watch out for launch in Term 2! All credit should go to Chris Luck for this!
• Got all exec positions recognised in the HEAR project (exec positions to go on degree transcripts)
• Taken part in the Membership Services Review which is reviewing the services we provide to you and looking where we can improve.
• Selected Warwick’s University Challenge Team – good luck guys!

Things I haven’t done (sorry!)

• Improved society storage above the Duck. I know this is causing lots of problems and I will hopefully come up with some solutions in Term 2.
• Also, yet to address the issue of missing items from this area. This will be a priority in the week before Term 2
• Been to enough society events. I want to attend more of them!

Things I’d like to do next term

• Offer a meeting with each and every exec to see if I can help with your plans or problems (don’t worry, not obligatory!)
• Go to more society events!
• Have an awesome Refreshers Fair
• Come up with an exciting new format for the Societies Awards
• Run the London and Paris Marathons in the same week for charity *shameless plug for sponsorship*
• Get a slide built from the top floor of the atrium into a ball pool on the ground floor (unlikely, but I can dream)

Thanks for making the last few months so enjoyable and special thanks to Sean, Chris S, Chris L, Leo, Izzy and George for being a great team to work with. Now for a Christmas pint or few…

Happy Christmas!

Hi all,

I hope everyone's managing to keep above the rising tide of essay deadlines and project submissions..or at least managing to blag deadline extensions (one of the greatest skills you acquire at University).

Unfortunately, I'm going to have a bit of a moan about something. To some it may seem trivial but I think it's the manifestation of a society where the Self is at the centre and it needs to be addressed. 

Many people have been using the IKEA Membership Space for rehearsals, talks and just general chilling. Most people seem to agree, especially societies, that is a useful extra area in our building. And yet I walked in to it this morning to find half-empty beer bottles, rubbish, contact lenses (presumably someone is walking into a lot of things today) and one of the wicker chairs donated by IKEA has been stolen. 

This is very frustrating as it means extra work for the cleaning staff who already have a tough job. More annoyingly, someone has selfishly taken something that belongs to everyone. I'm not sure why that individual thinks they are more worthy than everyone else, but frankly, it's not on. This sort of thing makes it difficult to get concessions and better deals for students.

I hope that whoever stole the chair returns it swiftly before the room starts having to be locked and monitored, which would be a pain for everyone. Think of your fellow students, not just yourself. 

Rant over. Time for a coffee.

I'm sure reading week now seems like a distant memory. Congratulations to arts students who've managed to finish their essays or blag an extension, commiserations to science students on their choice of degree...

The last few weeks have been fairly busy, I've been whittling down 185 University Challenge applicants to the final 20 and will soon be putting them through a rigorous final round to see if they're up to facing Paxman. 

Things have also been getting political when the SU took 65 students down to London on 9th November to demonstrate against fees, education cuts and government White Paper due in the Spring detailing proposals supporting the marketisation of Higher Education. Find out more from Sean Ruston 

But despite only being in Week 7 Term 1, I'm looking forward to the end of Term 3 when Warwick Uni will be hosting one of the best student arts festivals in the country. There will be shows, street theatre, comedy, workshops, talks and much much more and I'm looking for 2 people to coordinate all of this.

These people need to be creative, organised, great in a team and excellent communicators. Whether your a first year or just finishing off your Phd this is a great opportunity to do something fun that you can be proud of. If you think you fit the bill, apply here before midday Wednesday 16th November. 

After the excitement of Freshers, the grim reality that the University may actually require you to do some work is rapidly becoming apparent. This is traditionally a very sad and worrying time as students clutch to anything that can assist them in their procrastination (facebook, washing up and solo ‘Ring of Fire’ are all tried and tested methods).

But fear yee not! Back in the annals of time, students came up with an excellent alternative to academic work…no, not ‘special hugging’... but Societies! We are lucky to have well over 200 here and I’m pleased to say that over 5000 of you have already sorted your lives out and joined one.

Societies are a fantastic way to meet new people, learn new skills and have fun. There’s something for everybody, and if you feel there’s something missing, please come and see me in SUHQ to talk about setting up a new society.

If you’re a Fresher, you’ve probably signed up to 10 societies already – good work. If you’re a 2^nd, 3^rd, or 4^th year and you haven’t already joined, now is the time to start that thing you wanted to do last year but didn’t want to take it up half way through the year. Finally, if you’re a postgrad, it’s time for you to show the young’uns how to do it, come along and try something out, 100s of other postgrads already have!

Most of all, please, please don’t come to the end of your time at Warwick with just a degree – it would be such a waste!

You can check out all the societies online at www.warwicksu.com/societies