The fortnight from the 25th October was as hectic as ever… It started with a meeting with UUK about the Code of Standards we’ve been working on for Halls of Residence. Although UUK have had a seat on the working group, they don’t appear to have decided whether or not they want to support the Code and they’re thinking about producing a different one. I believe it’s crucial that there is a consistent set of standards right across the whole sector, so that no matter who manages their Halls of Residence they know exactly what standards they’re entitled to.

Considering that a number of Universities have already signed up to the Code, I do hope that UUK will come on board. They’ve had lots of chances to input in to the process, and as all the big Private Providers have signed up it would be great to send out a clear message on this.

Friday was the NEC meeting before extraordinary conference, and was the NEC’s chance to submit motions to that conference. It was very frustrating that we weren’t quorate for over an hour - for a while we thought we’d have to cancel the meeting. Fortunately a couple of late-comers arrived and we were able to move on with the meeting. We submitted policy on ‘zoning’ to conference. I’m really pleased about this as I spent quite a lot of time researching how trades unions conduct their policy debates, and I believe this new proposal will massively open up our policy making procedures and help more students and students’ unions to get involved. Together with some other NEC members I also proposed an amendment to the NEC’s motion (which was accepted) to research other options for revenue streams in addition to the NUS Card. I hope that if conference passes this it will give the movement a balanced view of the different options available to NUS.

Weekends don’t seem to exist when you’re involved in student politics, and this was the same as ever as I spent the weekend at Labour Students annual Political Weekend - a chance for Labour Students activists from across the country to get together to listen to speakers from the Labour Party, the Trade Union Movement and the Government and (crucially) to make our voices heard. I helped run a session about the importance of Liberation campaigns and led the session on NUS and the importance of students’ unions. I realise this isn’t part of my NEC duties, but people often seem to think that Labour Students events are shrouded in secrecy. We talked about the role of women in the trades unions, the importance of campaigning against the BNP, the future of education policy, the UK’s role in international social justice and much much more.

Monday was back to NUS and Regional Conferences. The ones I attended were fantastic and I was pleased to see the way that the structure has been changed to give delegates the chance to work on policy development. I also enjoyed giving the presentation about NUS democracy, as I think too often NUS doesn’t spend enough time explaining its complex procedures! Hopefully delegates now have a better understanding of how NUS’ democratic procedures work and how to get involved.

Tuesday was also the launch of the Code of Standards for Halls as well as being UUK’s conference on students and the community. I spoke at the launch, and was pleased to see a sizeable turn out from universities and private providers. They all made strong speeches about their commitment to the Code - let’s just hope that they can put their words into practice.

I’m really pleased about the Code’s launch. Whilst we strongly oppose privatisation of Halls, it is clear that private halls are here to stay, especially those who just spring up in city centres with no relationship to the college or university. Hopefully the Code will be a good start in raising standards right across the sector, in both private and university or college run Halls. It also includes a clause that states that no students should be expected to pay rent if their accommodation is not ready on time and if no alternative accommodation (of exactly the same standard, managed by the same company, with 0.5 miles) can be found. This will hopefully help put an end to late deliveries in the future, as currently it’s often cheaper for Halls to be delivered late with little or no compensation paid, than it is to pay the extra money to have them ready on time. I hope this will provide a financial disincentive to delivering Halls late.

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