On Thursday 18^th September, Warwick SU took part in a national day of action as part of the Cut the Costs campaign. This is an ongoing campaign which has recently seen the NUS launch legal action against the government regarding their proposal to abolition of maintenance grants for students from low-income backgrounds.

In addition to the Sabbatical Team initiating a Twitter Thunderclap which saw 100+ students achieve a social reach of over 85,000 people, SU President Isaac Leigh and Welfare Officer Luke Pilot met with Chris White, Member of Parliament for Leamington Spa, to discuss the proposed abolition.

Mr Pilot said: “Despite the mounting costs of Higher Education and the burden of debt being of huge concern to students nationwide, Chris White made it clear that he fundamentally disagreed with the principle of maintenance grants and Free Education. While he did offer to facilitate further correspondence on the issue, it is obviously disappointing that he chooses to act on personal or party-political grounds rather than listening to the views of his constituents – of whom students constitute a significant proportion.”

Isaac Leigh also contacted Coventry South MP Jim Cunningham, who we are pleased to announce has been more supportive on this issue.

Members of the Sabbatical Officer team are now planning to take part in the upcoming march in London on 4^th November – for more information on the background to this, please see SU Education Officer Charlie Hindhaugh’s latest blog post.