Wes Streeting for National President

When the global economic downturn first hit the headlines, I ensured that NUS was quick off the mark to begin highlighting the risks to students in further and higher education and to start championing strategies that would not only protect existing learners, but ensure that Britain’s most vulnerable communities had access to education in the face of unemployment.

I am proud of the work we have done this year. We have been visible and vocal in demanding more educational opportunities, not less. We have been working with allies in FE and HE to combat regressive cuts to adult education and to fight for more progressive solutions. We have been around the table with ministers, working out what must be done to ensure that people have access to the opportunities they need get themselves back to work.

I am the only credible candidate in this election, able to fight for a better deal for the millions of students we are here to represent. I’m the only one talking about adult education and part time learners and the only candidate with a credible manifesto. That’s why I’m asking for your vote on April 1st.

Wes

WHAT THE MANIFESTO SAYS…

The onset of recession is likely to hit students hard. As family budgets suffer, so will students’ pockets. As job losses continue to mount, student jobs will become scarcer. As large employers cut back on recruitment, graduate jobs will come under threat.This climate demands a response from government that sees more educational opportunities, not less: wider participation in HE, high quality apprenticeships that are widely available and a new adult education strategy to support ‘return to learners’ looking to re-skill. There must be no return to the unemployment of the 80’s and 90’s.

Re-elected, l will:
• Prioritise the fight for employment opportunities for college and university leavers.

Fighting for Adult Education
As job losses continue to mount across the country, adult education has never been more important. While we champion the importance of learning for learning’s sake, for many thousands of people the opportunity to re-skill or up-skill will mean the difference between long term unemployment and the ability to put food on the table and keep a roof over the family.

I am proud that NUS was one of five founding members of the Campaigning Alliance for Lifelong Learning (CALL), which now contains over 100 trade unions and civil society organisations united to reverse the trend that has seen over 1.5 million adult education places lost in the last couple of years, oppose the withdrawal of funding of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) provision and underline the critical importance of lifelong learning to change lives.

I have continued to highlight the folly of withdrawing HE funding for students studying for equivalent or lower qualifications (ELQ) to ones they already possess. This policy was short sighted when introduced and now looks outdated.

Re-elected, I will:
• Ensure NUS plays a leading role in CALL, campaigning for an extension of level 3 entitlements to adult learners
• Use the opportunity of the 2009 fees review and forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review to demand a restoration of ELQ funding
• Continue to push for funding for ESOL provision

“Wes has always gone out of his way to work with the further education unions that are becoming such a big part of NUS. He is the candidate who will listen to ALL members, that’s why I’m voting Wes for Pres.”
Fraser Nesbitt, Peterborough Regional College

Apprenticeships and Students at Work
We are yet to see the full impact of the recession on student jobs. More students are working than ever before to get by at college and university, most in unskilled, casual work and many as temporary or agency workers with precious few rights and protections. We must campaign alongside the trade union movement to demand better rights at work and ensure that students who can’t find work get the student support they need.

We welcome the government’s commitment to expanding apprenticeship opportunities and increase the basic rate for apprentices, but more must be done to ensure that these opportunities are high quality, based in the workplace and supported by adequate funding for apprentices.

Re-elected, I will:
• Support Living Wage campaigns, an equalisation of the national minimum wage and statutory protection for temporary and agency workers.
• Monitor the student jobs market and ensure that any unspent bursary cash and college hardship funds are used to provide emergency support for those who need it.
• Work with the TUC and their Learning Reps to campaign for a further increase in apprentice pay and ensure a high quality experience

Fighting For Fair Access
At a time when applications to universities are standing at record levels, it is disgraceful that student numbers are being capped so restrictively. Although we recognise that pressures on public finances are severe, the cost of putting students through university is far less than leaving people on the long term unemployment lists.

Too many of Britain’s top universities remain dominated by the privileged elite. As a longstanding campaigner for fair access, I will continue to champion policies aimed at widening access to under-represented backgrounds.

Re-elected, I will:
• Fight to ensure that every university takes into account applicants’ backgrounds as well as A-level grades and lower offers where necessary
• Continue to campaign for a Post Qualification Applications system

One of the greatest disappointments for me this year was having to spend to much time talking about NUS’ constitution, rather than leading a reformed NUS able to deliver. My predecessor, Gemma Tumelty, worked incredibly hard to build the NUS we have today. Thanks to her, the organisation is in better financial shape, has a stronger staffing structure and thanks to her, last year’s tranche of activists and officers and you (!) we now have a reformed structure that will be able to deliver for our members.

Last year, I promised to lead our movement as your campaigner-in-chief. On education funding I have shown we can lead a campaigning movement able to hit the headlines and impact on our debates. I am now renewing that promise and will dedicate the time spent on NUS reform this year to help building greater campaigning capacity and student involvement in your colleges and on your campuses!

Wes

WHAT THE MANIFESTO SAYS…

Changing our constitution is not enough. We must create a new culture inside NUS. I want to build an NUS that students can be proud of and feel part of. That’s why I will make creating an NUS presence in colleges and on campuses a priority: more engagement with student media, more leaders developed through our activists academies and relevant campaigns designed and delivered by you - with NUS’ support.Change must come from below. Locally and nationally, our movement is expected to deliver more outcomes with fewer resources, generate greater involvement amongst students who are working longer hours than ever before and act as a representative voice for an increasingly diverse student population. Students’ unions are about bringing the student body together, making student life easier, but fundamentally about changing students’ lives. I will lead an NUS that supports students’ unions to do just that - and inspires leadership from below.

“Wes’ commitment and passion for defending students’ rights and promoting the change our members need make him the only candidate to lead us through this highly important, transitional, period.”
Rachael Brannan, NE, Yorks and Humber Area Convenor and VP Welfare & Equality, Northumbria University

For a Campaigning Movement from the Grassroots
A union with 7 million members has enormous potential to affect change around us, but too often that potential goes unrealised. NUS is only as strong as the sum of its parts. We need students’ unions to organise students to deliver campaigns on the ground, but I recognise that you NUS to reflect your priorities.

Re-elected, I will:
• Get more students than ever before through our Activists Academy, especially leaders of campaigning societies
• Get more NEC members on hand when you need us - attending your freshers’ fairs, supporting your campaigns and promoting our National Union in the student media
• Ensure that EVERY NUS campaign has an SU steering group to put you in the driving seat of our campaigns
• Ensure that EVERY NUS campaign has an SU ‘organiser’ on the ground
• Utilise new media technologies to generate more involvement, direct action and activism and a real interactivity that makes students feel that they ARE NUS.

For a Representative and Relevant NUS
Our membership is changing rapidly. The majority are mature students, increasing proportions are part-time and distance learners and the majority are studying in Further Education. This year we have made progress in making NUS more representative; our new constitution will help, but we should not kid ourselves that we have reached the limits of our ambitions yet.

Re-elected, I will work with the VP FE and VP HE to:
• Lead a project on the part-time student experience, using Future Track research when it’s published
• Call for a full review of postgraduate support and research council funding opportunities, especially for arts and humanities students
• Fight for adult education (separate section on this will be published tomorrow)

Making International Students Feel At Home
Too often, international students get a raw deal: with the course fees, visa fees and, sometimes, within their students’ union. With more international students studying in universities and colleges we have a responsibility to ensure that international students are at the heart of our campaigning agenda and at the centre of student life.

Increasing visa charges and an unstable graduate jobs market run the risk of deterring international students from studying in the UK. As times get harder, we must fight against any temptation to engage with the dog whistle politics of ‘British jobs for British graduates’.

Re-elected, I will:
• Fight alongside the full time International Students’ Officer against increased visa charges, for greater fee transparency and for continued employment opportunities post-graduation
• Disseminate best practice on internationalising students’ unions as part of our government funded project

Better Value for Money
This year we’ve worked hard to put NUS on course to hit a break even budget for the first time in over a decade and I won’t be afraid to take decisive action to turn the taps off if it looks like we might miss our target. Under my leadership, we will not return to the old spendthrift days of wasting your time and pouring your affiliation fees down the drain.

I have started collaboration talks with NUS Services and the Association of Managers in Students’ Unions (AMSU) to see where efficiencies can be made to deliver better value for money for students’ unions and have ensured a full review of NUS Extra with a view to ensuring better discounts and value for money for our members.

Re-elected, I will:
• Oppose moves to increase affiliation fee income - we can’t rob Peter to pay Paul
• Waste no time in pushing for NUS, NUSSL and AMSU to come together to save students’ money
• Support measures to improve NUS Extra sales and bring in new income for our movement

The history of our movement is filled with examples where students have had a direct impact on our wider society and our wider world. And if ever students needed a strong NUS it is this time of all times. We are facing some of the worst economic conditions since the 1930s and in recessions or depressions it is the weakest, the poorest, the most marginalised who suffer the most.In 2009 students will be in this category. Students graduating will be leaving with thousands of pounds worth of debt only to discover there are fewer jobs to apply for. Students, particularly undergraduates, not only saddled with debt, but also not able to get on to the housing ladder, not able to save for pensions. What a state we have got ourselves in where students and young people start their careers with debt, worry, stress and fear about the future, where that’s just seen as bad luck or a quirk of fate because of when you were born.

We will not be the forgotten generation. We will not be voiceless. And a strong NUS speaking up for students is needed now more than ever.

The challenges for the next few years is not about governance reviews, not about internal structures or naval gazing. The challenge for the next few years is making the voice of students heard so that we are the ones shaping the world we want to live in - shaping a better society.

That means a fairer funding system not the regressive model we have today. That means a world where Government is taking active steps to address climate change not just paying lip service because we actually care about what state the planet is in in the future. That means not tolerating the voices of division and hatred that will be most vocal in the ranks of the BNP as the recession bites. We will be more vocal and we will be stronger than the racists and fascists who espouse hatred and division.

We are not only able to have an impact on our wider society, we have a responsibility. I have set out a manifesto that will unite our membership, not divide us. That is the choice delegates face on April 1st.

Wes

WHAT THE MANIFESTO SAYS…

I believe that the student movement has a critical role to play in shaping a fairer, more progressive society. We do not live in a vacuum: we are workers on an unequal and inadequate minimum wage, victims of dodgy landlords and unfair HMO quotas, patients who need access to free and accessible healthcare and voters with the power to change the course of elections - if only we bothered to vote.With a General Election on the horizon, I will get students registered and voting in greater numbers than ever before. I will lead an active anti-racist movement, that challenges discrimination on campuses and in our communities and fights to stop the dangerous politics of hate espoused by the BNP.

General Election: Making the Student Vote Count!
Students make up more than 10% of the UK’s total population, but the ‘student vote’ is notorious for low turnout. Apathy beats students: unless we vote in greater numbers, the true potential of our influence will never be realised. We need to learn the lessons from the US Presidential Elections, where the student vote was regularly cited as a key constituency in both the primaries and the presidential election.

The next General Election could be decided by a handful of seats. In towns and cities across the UK, let’s remind every political party of their obligation to students and get the student vote hitting the headlines for the right reasons!

Re-elected, I will:
• Run a massive voter registration drive and high profile ‘Get The Vote Out’ campaign
• Publish a Student Manifesto later this year to influence the manifestos of the political parties and apply maximum pressure on every candidate to sign student campaign pledges publicly
• Organise student hustings in major towns and cities across the UK and support unions to do the same
• Use new media and social networking sites to encourage mass debate and boost turnout

Hope Not Hate - Unite Against Fascism!
The threat of the British National Party and their politics of bigotry and hatred has never been greater. As recession grips Britain they will attempt to use the poverty faced by the poorest as a breeding ground for division.

When the BNP organise on our campuses and in our communities, racist attacks increase. This year’s European elections could see the country that fought the Nazis in the Battle of Britain electing their modern day successors to our European Parliament. This is an insult to our nation’s heroes and a betrayal of the rich diversity of our communities that make up the best of modern Britain.

I’ve made stopping the BNP our number 1 priority for the European elections and will put fighting their hatred at the heart of our agenda for the General Election.

Re-elected, I will:
• Work with Unite Against Fascism, Searchlight and our trade union allies to mobilise student activists against the BNP
• Help build active anti-fascist alliances in colleges and universities to ‘twin’ with activists in seats where the BNP are hoping to gain a foothold
• Get our movement on the front foot with ‘No Platform’ policies in students’ unions and an active campaign to expose what the BNP really stand for

“Wes’ commitment to stopping the BNP and championing the rights of all students has been obvious to all.” - Joel Braunold, NUS Anti-Racism/Anti-Fascism Co-Convenor

Students Shaping Communities
Students make an enormous contribution to our local communities: from the economic impact of the ‘student pound’ through to the hundreds of thousands of hours we contribute through volunteering each year. Too often, that contribution goes unnoticed and under valued.

This year has seen the start of the ‘NeighbOURhood’ campaign to reverse the trend of damaging quotas on student housing and build stronger partnerships between students and other members of our communities.

Re-elected, I will:
• Support the VP Welfare to continue the ‘NeighbOURhood’ campaign
• Work with the VP Society & Citizenship to promote volunteering and community safety initiatives.

Combating Climate Change
Climate change is the biggest threat facing humanity and our generation must be the one that takes action. Within our own membership, we already have activists and leaders who are at the forefront of movements like Stop Climate Chaos. NUS must be a home for these activists, supporting organisations like People and Planet who lead the way.

As students, we can make a direct impact in our colleges and on our own campuses: changing our own behaviour, greening students’ unions and reducing the significant carbon impact of colleges and universities.

Re-elected, with the VP Society & Citizenship, I will:
• Campaign for ambitious targets for carbon reduction from colleges and universities - and to ensure that these are met
• Champion the work of Sound Impact, Go Green Week and other initiatives that shape and change our own behaviour
• Ensure that NUS plays an active role in the Stop Climate Chaos coalition and mobilising to win

Citizen 16

This year, our campaign for Votes at 16, an equal national minimum wage and a minimum wage for students on apprenticeships has gained momentum. As a member of the government’s Youth Citizenship Commission, I have been the leading voice for Votes at 16 on the commission and have fought alongside our trade union allies to secure an increase in pay for young apprentices and press the case for equalisation of the National Minimum Wage.

Re-elected, I will fight to secure a commitment from every political party ahead of the next General Election.

Within the past fortnight the debate about the future of our higher education system has kicked off - big time. At a time of soaring levels of student debt, a volatile jobs market and a global economic downturn, it is breathtaking arrogant of vice-chancellors to assume that the cap on fees should be doubled to sort out their financial problems.

I have led NUS’ response to these calls with a hard hitting offensive in Parliament and in the media. We gained national coverage in virtually every national newspaper, on the TV and the radio and in regional media across the country. But NUS’ campaign can only be truly successful if we have a policy agenda and a campaigning agenda that faces up to the reality of the challenge that lies ahead.

Last year, Annual Conference chose to catapult NUS right to the centre of the fees debate by stating in crystal clear terms that - while we believe education should be free - our campaigning and policy agenda will be fixated on bringing down the market model of top-up fees and fighting for a fairer alternative. Last week, the publication of our ‘Five Foundations’ for a fairer funding system attracted signficant media and political interest. There is a growing sense that the lifting of the cap may not be inevitable and that NUS could play a vital role in securing the future of HE as one in which opportunity is defined by students’ abilities and not their ability to pay.

Next week’s presidential election presents a clear choice for delegates: between the only credible candidate who can lead a union that makes an impact on students’ lives, or the alternative choice that would see students lose out under an experienced leadership with a policy and campaigning agenda with false expectations.

This is the issue that motivated me to get involved in my students’ union. I was fighting on the streets and in the lobbies as a student when we were betrayed by Parliament and I’ve got a score to settle - not just for me, but for millions of students who might lose out if this market madness is allowed to continue.

On April 1st, I hope you will re-elect me as your National President to win a fairer funding system.

Wes

WHAT THE MANIFESTO SAYS…

The top-up fees system has been a failure: students are saddled with record levels of debt, the student support system failing through complexity and inequality and students are seeing precious few improvements to the quality of their education. As the world learns the lessons of building an economy based on borrowing, we most expose the huge flaws of building an education system that’s dependant on debt.

This year we have hit the headlines with our analysis of the ‘broke and broken’ funding system, coordinating successful national action in every part of the UK. Now we need to bring the system down.

This year we have hit the headlines with our analysis of the ‘broke and broken’ funding system, coordinating successful national action in every part of the UK. Now we need to bring the system down.

This year, with Aaron Porter, I have:
• Gained widespread national media coverage for our ‘Broke and Broken’ of the current funding model
• Coordinated a ‘Students in the Red’ national day of action, supporting unions to mobilise thousands of students across the UK
• Built for a mass lobby of Parliament to oppose the current funding model
• Won a review of up-front part time student fees as part of the 09 review
• Built widespread support for a National Bursary Scheme
• Given additional resources to NUS Wales to back them in their fairer funding fight in Cardiff Bay

At last year’s annual conference, delegates rightly chose to prioritise bringing down the current system and fighting for a fairer funding system over an unrealistic demand for Free Education. If that approach was right then, the onset of recession makes such an approach essential now. I am the only candidate able to lead our movement into the 2009 Review with the focus to halt and reverse the marketisation of our universities and the experience to win.

Re-elected, I will:
- Mobilise students in greater numbers than ever before, coordinating mass regional action and building for a National Demonstration
- Fight for NUS representation on the 2009 review group to ensure that students’ voices aren’t marginalised
- Submit alternative proposals to the current elitist, market-driven funding system
- Campaign to end the lottery in student support and win a National Bursary Scheme
- Demand an end to up-front fees for part-time students and a fairer system of student support
- Apply pressure on every single parliamentary candidate to sign a fairer funding pledge for students - and name and shame those who don’t!
- Take our campaign out into the community, with take over the town days and large debates in major university towns and cities with key student seats

Fight the ‘Cash Cow’ Culture!
International students contribute around £8.5 billion a year to the UK’s economy - with £2.5 billion in tuition fees alone! While international students recognise that they have to pay higher fees, too many feel that they do not get value for money and have little idea about how their fee income is spent.

Re-elected, I will:
• Press for a review of international student fees and greater transparency from universities and colleges about how their fees are spent.
• Work with UKCISA to better publicise financial support available

Making Devolution Deliver for Students
Devolution has enabled NUS Scotland and NUS Wales to deliver fairer settlements for students and NUS-USI to have a realistic chance of winning free education. But with the Welsh Assembly Government raiding student support for prop up the HE budget and the Scottish Government breaking election promises and making real terms cuts to funding, that progress is in danger of slipping away. I have been a President for the whole of the UK.

Re-elected, I will continue to actively support the nations in their fight and work to maximise pressure on Westminster MP’s ahead of the election hammer home the message that we will hold them accountable for their actions!

“Wes has been a truly national President: his commitment to the nations on funding has been obvious and his knowledge of the devolved HE and FE sectors is impressive. He’s head and shoulders above the rest and the only candidate who will deliver for the nations.” - Luke Young, General Secretary and President-elect, Swansea University students’ union

Wins in Wales are a lesson for us all

On the floor of the Senedd last week, the Welsh Assembly Government announced to the gathered Assembly Members proposals to take forward recommendations from the latest review of higher education funding in Wales.

Phase one of the review was to consider “the extent to which student finance is targeted to enhance widening access opportunities and encourage take up of priority subjects; how best to tackle graduate debt in anticipation of the 2009 fee cap review in England; and how this is best achieved through national statutory student finance and locally delivered bursaries, scholarships etc”. The relevance to English policy, including the future direction of that policy, could not be clearer.

When the review was established, NUS Wales faced a difficult choice: they could reject the review outright as a terrible proposition intended to raid the student support budget to pay for teaching and learning (which it was) or they could sit around the table and do their best to make the best of a bad situation. Ben Gray, NUS Wales President, chose to do the latter. Last week, his judgment was proven to be correct.Before Christmas, NUS Wales published a 10 point plan to remodel student finance. Last week, most of that plan found its way into the Minister’s speech, including a National Bursary Scheme, which NUS Wales will play an important part in designing. NUS Wales - its officers, staff and members - should be proud of what they’ve achieved for students in Wales and I have been more than happy to allocate NUS Wales additional capacity to support them through the review. They have shown us that, when we engage fully and critically, we can make a difference to students’ lives.

There are significant challenges to address when the review reports on its second phase, looking more broadly at “the mission, purpose and role for higher education in Wales” - with a further report due. The Welsh sector remains comparatively under-funded, and institutions will be looking to the review with the hope of new resources and new initiatives to develop the sector. This is right and proper - and is also in the interests of students. If possible, the review should deliver on this need, creating the opportunity for institutions to do more. But it is also right that the immediate priority should be to look again at the student support arrangements, and see how they can be improved for the future. I hope that the outcome will show for English policy makers how it is possible to make funding for students more progressive, promoting access and widening participation for the poorest, without breaking the bank.

Welsh Ministers now have a unique and very important opportunity. They can, and I hope that they will, use devolution to create a better settlement for the Welsh students than their English counterparts enjoy. We know that they have done this before, to the benefit of tens of thousands of citizens. But this time they can go further, by proving that there are alternatives to the market-based ‘get what you pay for’ logic evangelised in Westminster. It is dangerous in education to allow a market to be the prime mechanism for allocating resources - and there are more responsible and socially just mechanisms at hand. At NUS, we have set ourselves the aim of producing an alternative model for English HE funding for submission in the 2009 review.

In the next few weeks, I hope to look to Wales for some guidance on how we might do this. The potential to see new ideas from their review is exciting, and timely, especially at a time when there is precious little evidence of lateral thinking here in London. I hope that when we see the outcome, students in England may be able to say: ‘Y Ddraig Goch ddyry gychwyn’ - the Red Dragon will show the way.