Tuesday, 24 April 2012
Sunday, 22 April 2012
My Hopes for #NUSNC12 - Lessons from NUS Women’s Campaign Conference
NUS Women’s Campaign Conference was held last month in Leeds. This is only a short post, but I wanted to articulate my thoughts regarding how the lessons learnt at Women’s Conference can be applied to National Conference.
There is no static stage in life that can predict when someone will embrace feminism, nor when a student is likely to engage with the women’s movement. Every delegate was at a different stage of discovering their own politics, values and beliefs. More experienced activists (the hacks) can sometimes forget that they themselves have been on a journey to their current stage, with their politics and thoughts moulded accordingly by their life experiences.
We forget, to our detriment, that there are students who are yet to discover and question the plethora of issues out there. On a personal level, at this conference I learned about the issue of women sex workers. While I was previously aware of this issue, my knowledge was seriously lacking. At National Conference, we need to ensure this space for discovery, not only encouraging the spread of knowledge, but by actively facilitating the education of delegates.
Respect is key to a successful Conference. All policy submitted to Women’s Conference was passed, with numerous parts debated and discussed. Those speaking against what seem liked non-contentious motions were given the appropriate forum in which to speak. There was no booing, hissing or tutting, nor shouting of ‘shame’ when a delegate got up to speak, a culture I have had the misfortune to observe at previous National Conferences. Rather than an environment of ‘sit down and shut up’, the general approach to Women’s Conference was to optimistically consider what each delegate had to contribute to the debate.
I hope that for old and new delegates alike, we can create the same empowering and friendly atmosphere at National Conference.
Conference should be an environment of mutual respect and tolerance, and as a community we need to focus on facilitating an atmosphere where questions and debate are encouraged.
There is no static stage in life that can predict when someone will embrace feminism, nor when a student is likely to engage with the women’s movement. Every delegate was at a different stage of discovering their own politics, values and beliefs. More experienced activists (the hacks) can sometimes forget that they themselves have been on a journey to their current stage, with their politics and thoughts moulded accordingly by their life experiences.
We forget, to our detriment, that there are students who are yet to discover and question the plethora of issues out there. On a personal level, at this conference I learned about the issue of women sex workers. While I was previously aware of this issue, my knowledge was seriously lacking. At National Conference, we need to ensure this space for discovery, not only encouraging the spread of knowledge, but by actively facilitating the education of delegates.
Respect is key to a successful Conference. All policy submitted to Women’s Conference was passed, with numerous parts debated and discussed. Those speaking against what seem liked non-contentious motions were given the appropriate forum in which to speak. There was no booing, hissing or tutting, nor shouting of ‘shame’ when a delegate got up to speak, a culture I have had the misfortune to observe at previous National Conferences. Rather than an environment of ‘sit down and shut up’, the general approach to Women’s Conference was to optimistically consider what each delegate had to contribute to the debate.
I hope that for old and new delegates alike, we can create the same empowering and friendly atmosphere at National Conference.
Conference should be an environment of mutual respect and tolerance, and as a community we need to focus on facilitating an atmosphere where questions and debate are encouraged.
Thursday, 19 April 2012
Public Good of Higher Education
According to data published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families in 2007, one in six children starting school are unable to write their own name or say the alphabet. Unsurprisingly, the same data showed that there was a huge gap in literacy between children in poor areas, compared to those from middleclass families. This difficultly with literacy carries through to adulthood where, according to the National Literacy Trust, one in six people in the UK today find literacy a real struggle.
For one in six people in the UK, understanding a train timetable, reading a newspaper or helping their children with homework is a difficult task.
There is a very obvious link between literacy and social mobility - between education and the ability to achieve a sufficient and dignified standard of living. Education transforms people lives, allowing them to thrive and make life choices based on skill and aspiration.
The changes that have been made to Higher Education over the last decade are an attack on the transformational potential of education.
From £1000, to £3000, to £9000 fees; an 80% cut to the teaching budget, when the UK spend on higher education was already the second lowest in the OECD; a cut to EMA; opening of the door for private profit-driven universities; these are polices that attack the fundamental idea in equality of opportunity for education. Policies made in the excuse of austerity. Policies that deepen the divide between rich and poor. Policies that prevent people from determining their own futures.
We realised on 9th December 2010, when £9k fees passed in Parliament, that the narrative around the public good of higher education was eroding, to such an extent, that the government was able to remove almost all public funding from the sector. I fear that in five years time students and society will have forgotten that there was even a debate to be had about the public value of HE.
It is frightening that government has decreed that only the courses they deem to have commercial value – only STEM subjects – are deserving of public funding. If we cannot convince society that higher education is a public good, we can forget about winning back public funding, stopping the growth of private provision, keeping a cap, preventing upfront fees or ever achieving a progressive and accessible system of funding.
The student movement has always known that education is a social leveller. We know it creates growth in the economy: society looks to innovation for a better future. But Universities have failed to understand, failed to evidence and failed to tell a compelling story about their own public value. So if Universities have failed to make the case, and if Government denies that case, we have to. And we have to start now.
Together we need to create a UK-wide campaign on the public good of education. Not just a campaign for universities, but the education sector as a whole – a broad and unified movement, articulating our vision for education – for access at all ages, for real choice, an end to marketisation, for the reinstatement of EMA and public investment. We need a national demonstration, local action, and a new generation of education advocates to win guarantees from all political parties to reinvest funding back into our most precious gift - education.
For one in six people in the UK, understanding a train timetable, reading a newspaper or helping their children with homework is a difficult task.
There is a very obvious link between literacy and social mobility - between education and the ability to achieve a sufficient and dignified standard of living. Education transforms people lives, allowing them to thrive and make life choices based on skill and aspiration.
The changes that have been made to Higher Education over the last decade are an attack on the transformational potential of education.
From £1000, to £3000, to £9000 fees; an 80% cut to the teaching budget, when the UK spend on higher education was already the second lowest in the OECD; a cut to EMA; opening of the door for private profit-driven universities; these are polices that attack the fundamental idea in equality of opportunity for education. Policies made in the excuse of austerity. Policies that deepen the divide between rich and poor. Policies that prevent people from determining their own futures.
We realised on 9th December 2010, when £9k fees passed in Parliament, that the narrative around the public good of higher education was eroding, to such an extent, that the government was able to remove almost all public funding from the sector. I fear that in five years time students and society will have forgotten that there was even a debate to be had about the public value of HE.
It is frightening that government has decreed that only the courses they deem to have commercial value – only STEM subjects – are deserving of public funding. If we cannot convince society that higher education is a public good, we can forget about winning back public funding, stopping the growth of private provision, keeping a cap, preventing upfront fees or ever achieving a progressive and accessible system of funding.
The student movement has always known that education is a social leveller. We know it creates growth in the economy: society looks to innovation for a better future. But Universities have failed to understand, failed to evidence and failed to tell a compelling story about their own public value. So if Universities have failed to make the case, and if Government denies that case, we have to. And we have to start now.
Together we need to create a UK-wide campaign on the public good of education. Not just a campaign for universities, but the education sector as a whole – a broad and unified movement, articulating our vision for education – for access at all ages, for real choice, an end to marketisation, for the reinstatement of EMA and public investment. We need a national demonstration, local action, and a new generation of education advocates to win guarantees from all political parties to reinvest funding back into our most precious gift - education.
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