4th – 10th October

Student Finance mtg. (internal), discussing various policy responsibility areas and areas such as the 25-year rule for those entering HE later in life, where we have no national policy as decided by conference. A whole day in HQ

NEC mtg. This NEC we received a state of the union presentation about the finances and Organisational that we need to address. I believe that the NEC found it useful and are moving together as a team in order to resolve the issues and move the national union forwards. We had a lengthy discussion about the first term national demonstration, and resolved to hold it in Cardiff on the 2nd of December. The Welsh assembly has yet to decide on the issue of top up fees and the labour majority within the assembly is only 1.

There is every chance of us defeating fees in Wales, which will be a major success not only for Wales but also for the wider student movement as a whole. If we win in Wales it will inevitably throw up major contradictions within the UK funding policy as a whole. Can I urge everyone to book coaches now and start actively building for a mass mobilization. The meeting was however dominated, (as was the rest of my week) by a discussion about an Islamic academic named Tariq Ramadan, who was speaking at the European Social Forum. The NEC had little information to base its decision on and the debate was rather heated to say the least. In short it passed and condemned his invitation. All minutes on officeronline.

SU visits Cardiff (apparently the real student experience), Oxford Brookes, and Lancaster Uni.

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