Brought right back down to earth with a thud after the New Year celebrations. It’s 2006 and the dawn of privatization in education is upon us I want to assure you all that NUS priority campaign will be focusing on the week of action including the National Lobby of Parliament.

Last night, at our NUS Annual Reception the National President launched the 2010 Coalition which seeks to unite sisters and brothers across the union movement to come out in opposition to further marketisation through removal of the £3000 cap. All signatories including the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE), Association of University Teachers (AUT), National Union of Teachers (NUT), National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) have signed up to three key principles:

1. Opposition to further marketisation of education
2. Opposition to removing £3000 cap on tuition fees
3. Opposition to variable fees

The launch of this coalition now means that organizations and individuals can sign an online petition in support of the above principles, you can go to the coalition website at www.coalition2010.org

The Coalition was launched and an Early Day Motion was submitted by a great friend of NUS, Ian Gibson MP. In its first day there has already been 22 signatures on the EDM, this is brilliant and really heartening to know that people are getting behind the campaign.

For me it’s crucial that we have maximum engagement with the coalition but we must not take our eye off the ball with regards to our own policy, fighting for free education. Today UCAS released figures from last year’s applications. The applications had risen to 7.4% and now are set to drop to –2% AT LEAST. This alone supports our argument that fees and indeed the prospect of increased levels of debt through variable fees will be enough to exclude thousands of potential students from going to university. The government have already pre-empted any fall in figures by claiming that they ‘know they will see a drop in applications’. Now, we’ve all seen the campaign to communicate information to prospective students about what they can expect to pay, what bursaries they can expect etc, but I want to know what’s next. What more can the government do to get those figures up when the policy on variable fees is so inherently exclusive.

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