At times they say it is better late than never. I would like to serialise my diary as I ponder on why and how I, a part time officer, can work on a Full-time basis and create that time to blog. Is it better for people to judge me by what I do than what I write? Instead of writing philosphy for you I am going to write my diary for you all till next year. Waking up at 6am in the morning to catch a train to London, returning back to Manchester to do my part-time job, and going to bed at about 1am 4 days a week, is not an easy task. I am only human. So, here we go...

July 1st – Visit to University of Manchester (Director, International Office) I had a meting with the Director of International Office, University of Manchester to discuss on various issues affecting international students and how support can be provided. Discussions also centred on the International Students Festival and recruitment of more international students to the UK. For those who do not know, the University succeeded in increasing the number of international students by 30% last year, against the national average of 5%, which I think is impressive.

July 5th – London Parliamentary Breakfast on refusal of appeal rights Early in the morning, I caught a 5.15 train to attend the House of Commons parliamentary breakfast where other stakeholders were present to lobby key MPs on the government’s proposal to withdraw the rights of prospective student from appealing against the decline of visa issuance. Although the government says that this is a minimal number of students, statistics however show that 40% of those that appealed had their appeals upheld. What this indicates is that overzealous officers often decline visa applications without careful consideration on the impact this may have on prospective students. This also contradicts the intention of the government to increase the number of international students coming to the UK to study, thus leading to a negative impact on education institutions. This withdrawal of the rights of appeal was included in the 5-year immigration plan, which had its second reading in the House of Commons. The motion was passed and it now goes to the committee stage in October before it is brought to its 3rd and final reading before it goes to the House of Lords.

July 5th – 6th Sheffield Hallam University (Manifesto to Action) Before heading to Sheffield, I did 2 media presentation (the BBC and BBC World Service) on the 5-year immigration plan. At Sheffield Hallam, it was nice to meet the new sabbatical officers in the region. I thought that the training was useful and had a wonderful time with the officers.

As Sheffield University couldn’t make the training due to the clash with their handover period, I headed off to Sheffield University to see the President and the International Students Officer. I had discussions about the International Students campaign and proposal on the International Students Festival in the region. As usual, there was the positive response to helping out with organising the Festival. I decided to head for Manchester instead of to London for the NEC emergency meeting for 2 main reasons: my part-time work commitment and the blatant misuse of NUS funds in organising an emergency meeting 5 days before the next NEC meeting, simply to discuss the National President and her mishandling of the internal investigation involving the Union of Jewish Students.

July 8th – Manchester (Interview of National Co-ordinator for ISF) I was at the University of Manchester to discuss on how the University of Manchester Union could help support this event. I raised the issue of having an experienced hand in raising funds and for the overall event organisation. It was agreed that Paul Parkes, the Retails Services Manager will be capable of handling the project and would be fully available to spend one day a week to help out. This would also help the CIS with any employment and legal issues that may arise if they were to engage into staffing issues. Paul Parkes would officially start in October after the Freshers Fayre, as he is heavily involving in putting things together for the Union. University of Manchester will eventually bill the CIS and this would be tied to how much sponsorship we are able to raise for the event.

July 11 – London (NEC meeting) At the NEC meeting, allocation of responsibilities to NEC members was made of which I was allocated the Welfare, Internationalism, and Education. Although, once again, we see “International students” listed as one of the areas, with Wes Streeting placed in “the team”, my committee passed a motion last year and reiterated this year that we do not see any need to have a “team” running alongside the International Students Committee. At this meeting, I also presented an update on the International Students Festival. I would like to elaborate more on this but to add the chronology of events here. . The International Students Campaign still remains a semi-autonomous campaign in which international students self-organise themselves, passes policies at our conferences and its policies implementation are carried out by the International Students Officer/Committee elected at international students conference. It was therefore at this conference that we passed a policy on April 27th on the Festival. Throughout the month of June regional consultations were carried out on the Festival. On 11th July, at about 3.40pm, a formal presentation on the Festival was made to the NUS National Executive Committee of which Kat (National President) and Andy (National Director) were present. The purpose of this formal presentation was to keep the NEC informed of what we were doing. Obviously, it has since been misconstrued that I took it to the NEC for approval. On July 12th, I again met with Kat in her office were I specifically told her how involved I want the NUS in organising the event. On Friday 29th at 11.30am I had a meeting with Kat, Andy and Veronica King (NUS VP Welfare) about the Festival; giving extensive details about the Festival.

More to follow...

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