The month of June has been another tiring month. In the middle of examinations, I organised the training weekend for the newly elected International students committee in Portsmouth University. The committee passed its first motion calling on the National President to get rid of the creation of an international students’ team on the NEC, as they do not add value to the work at the international committee was already doing and are not international students themselves. This is contrary to the motion passed at Annual Conference that makes our campaign semi-autonomous and calls for a campaign for international students and by international students.

At the training, responsibilities were divided amongst the members and our priority campaign for the year was set out. We feel that we need to highlight the need for a full-time international students’ officer, as we realize that, for the campaign to have an effective and dedicated officer the post should become a full-time position.

In the month of June, I commenced a month long consultation meetings across the country to find out from institutions their contributions towards organising the International Students Festival. On June 9th, I was in Edinburgh, Scotland for the first meeting of such meetings. I met with the Deputy President of NUS Scotland and two other institutions. Four other institutions in Scotland also indicated their interest in being part of the Festival.

On June 12th, I headed to Colerain, Northern Ireland for UKCOSA conference. The conference was interesting and was the first that I was attending as a Board of Trustee for UKCOSA. I was also able to meet with Philip Morgan, Policy Director of the Department of Education and Skills. He supported the International Students Festival and promised to look into providing “some” financial support. At the conference I also organised a fringe meeting on the International Students Festival. Over 30 conference delegates attended. There was a positive response received towards the conference with good suggestion coming from the delegates.

At the end of UKCOSA conference I headed to Belfast to meet with the new Sabbatical officers in Northern Ireland. I caught the officers at the tail end of their one day training and introduced the international campaign to the officers. Again there were positive response towards the Festival and our call for full-time International Students Officer.

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