This was a busy few weeks with very little time spent at home! Starting off with the Trade Union Congress in Brighton, where on the Monday I was addressing Congress, the first NUS President to have done so, I have to say I was really nervous but knew that for the first time NUS and the TUC have signed a protocol agreement for joint work, had launched the "All work and low pay" report about student employment and begun some really positive work on protecting students rights at work.

Here is my speech, you can also watch it on youtube.com

Speech –

On the Monday night we held a fringe meeting about putting the protocol into action, practical ways TU’s can engage with NUS and recruit students to their unions. Also during the day I signed a Charter for Public Science on behalf of NUS that Prospect the Union had arranged. On the Tuesday morning I had to dash to Windsor for a Further Education event on Self-regulation of colleges and back again to Brighton for the Congress Dinner, I was sat on a table with Jack Jones a living legend in the Trade Union Movement! Gordon Brown did the speech at dinner the first time I had seen him speak, afterwards I got introduced to him and he congratulated NUS on our work with the TUC!

On the Wednesday morning it was back to Windsor for the rest of the Self-regulation event http://www.officeronline.co.uk/fe then back to Brighton for some fringe meetings and the Endsleigh Annual Dinner. I felt like a bit of a yo-yo!

I must admit I was exhausted by the end of Congress but knew it was only the start with Labour, Lib Dems and the Tories to go!

Liberal Democrats Conference was also in Brighton we hosted a Fringe about Education Funding with LDYS, Steven Williams MP and Paul Holmes MP joining us on the platform, I also spoke at the UCU Fringe and had a run in with an elitist student from Bristol! The first day we got a huge huge boost when we saw that an NUS generated story about Student Contracts had made it on to the front page of the Guardian!

Labour Party Conference in Manchester was excellent, I was invited to speak at so many fringe events about education funding, adult education, and widening participation with the teaching unions, the CMU group of HE institutions and the Fabian society. I also got to watch Tony Blair’s last speech as leader of the Labour Party, Gordon Brown’s speech and Alan Johnson’s speech between fringes.

The North West Unions had organised a demo outside Labour Party Conference about education funding and it was great, loads of students from all over the region starting to mobilise for the national demo, mainly organised by Manchester and Manchester Met, by the time we had got to the rally it was pouring down with rain and we got soaked but people still stayed to hear John McDonnell MP, Roger Kline UCU and a group of school students from a local school who opposed a school closure.

I made a short speech at the rally -

As top-up fees have descended onto our campuses 15,000 students haven’t, deterred by a lifetime of debt and an estimated £33,500 price tag to a degree.

Education is a right, the key to social mobility, to opening doors, to changing lives.

It is an utter disgrace that since 1997 the costs of entering higher education have stacked up and up and so has the likelihood of education remaining a preserve of the wealthy.

We are told time and time again that there is no money to fund free education and proper student support – No money to repair crumbling buildings or to pay our wonderful teaching staff proper wages – No money to allow proper access to education.

But at the same time we’ve heard just implementing this new system has cost 2 Billion pounds and the revenue brought in from the new system is only 1.4 Billion pounds. The sums just don’t add up.

Over 2 Million pounds a day. That’s what the war in Iraq is costing us. £25 Billion proposed for replacing trident, and a further £50 Billion for maintaining trident over the next ten years or so.

And they tell us that they can’t afford to fund education properly?!

Some Vice Chancellors and their allies are already lobbying to lift the cap on fees, with no mind to the detrimental impact on non-traditional students and their access to education, nor on the lifelong impact on Graduates and their ability to pay into a pension, get a mortgage and start a family.

We must unite together as we near the review on the cap on fees –

Together we are stronger, Together with our allies in the trade union movement, in the Education sector and in Society, we will mobilise our members, win the arguments and win the battles ahead.

Thank you for attending today, the next time I see you I hope you will be on the National Demonstration, through the streets of London on the 29 October.

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Only Wes went to Tory Conference in the end – absolutely ridiculous fiasco that was. For a start the passes for their conference were extortionate, so we decided Wes and a staff member would get a pass to the Conference and the rest of the delegation would go up to arrange meetings with MP’s outside the secure area. Firstly the staff member with the other pass left and the conference arrangers would not let us change the name on the pass, so we lost the money and Wes was destined to be on his own in the secure area at Tory party conference, then we couldn’t find any MP’s willing to meet with us outside the secure area so there was absolutely no point any one else going. How can we seriously engage with all parties when they make it so hard!

Overall these conferences are absolutely worth while going to, the contacts you make for NUS and for the work over the next year are golden and getting to speak at events where MP’s and VC’s are is an excellent opportunity to get our issues back on the agenda.

It was thoroughly exhausting though!

Here is the summary of all the events we spoke at and engaged with during the part conference season

a. Liberal Democrats

'Plumbing not Pilates - Is learning just for earning?' Tue, 19 Sep 06

Gemma Tumelty, NUS President spoke at this UCU event along with Michelle Mitchell, Head of Public Relations, Age Concern; and Dennis Hayes and Steve Wharton, Joint Presidents, UCU, Stephen Willaims, Lib Dem HE spokesman. The meeting was chaired by Ian Nash, Editor; TES Focus. At the event Stephen Williams warned that the Government's 'warm words' on post-16 education were coupled with 'toughness' in the approach to funding and resources. He added that the value of education in producing 'well educated and socially well-adjusted people' would be harmed by continued cuts in adult education.

'Fairly funded universities: challenges ahead' Mon, 18 Sep 06

At this NUS organised event, Stephen Williams, MP was joined on the panel by Gemma Tumelty, NUS President, Professor Paul O'Prey, Vice-chancellor University of Roehampton, Mark Gettleson, Chair, Liberal Democrat Youth and Students and Paul Holmes MP who chaired the event. Stephen William said that although his party was due to undertake a policy review on higher education, it was still not in favour of tuition fees.

b. Labour

'Why should the Government fund universities’ Tue, 26 Sep 06

Gemma Tumelty spoke at this CMU organised event along with Sadiq Kahn, MP, Ruchard Lambert, CBI Miichael Driscol, Vice-chancellor Middlesex university and Higher Education Minister Bill Rammell. Rammell outlined his belief that there was a strong, social case for government to fund higher education. The Minister acknowledged that the Government had made several major mistakes in higher education policy, saying that it had been wrong to have initially scrapped student grants and to ask students to pay up-front fees.

'More than a skills agenda - learning through life' Mon, 25 Sep 06

The event was organised by NIACE and NUS and included Barry Sheerman, Chair of the Education Select Committee; Veronica King, Deputy Welfare Officer at the NUS; Alan Tuckett, Director of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education; and the Chair, Peter Kingston from the Guardian. Rammell defended the Government's skills strategy, especially the decision to require individual contributions towards the cost of recreational learning.

'Plumbing not Pilates - Is learning just for earning?' Mon, 25 Sep 06

NUS President, Gemma Tumelty sat on a panel for this fringe event, which discussed the charge that the government education policy amounted to economic instrumentalism.

Also speaking at the meeting were Bill Rammell, Secretary of State for Education; Neil Churchill, Head of Communications, Age Concern; Paul McCartney; UCU Joint General Secretary and Gill Howie, Liverpool University.

NUS also attended breakfast meetings, such as the Fabian Society one, and held a number of meeting with MPs during the conference

c. Conservative

NUS attended Conservative Party conference and imputed into relevant debate. NUS also held meetings with John Hayes, MP and Boris Johnson, MP.

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