• Phone conversation with Bill Rammell over the 2006 entry system, it seems there is a very real concern from the DFES that top up fees are going to have a severe impact upon applications, and that their messages are simply not getting across. Whilst it’s tempting to say ‘told you so’, that strikes me and others I work with as not acceptable. The reality is that both society and the individual get huge amounts out of entering higher education, and we want students to go into university with or without top up fees, and therefore this was the start of building some kind of an agreement over ensuring the widening participation agenda continues and that we see higher education continue to be accessible to those from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds.

• Special NUS Services Board Mtg., on the NUS Extra Project.
• Mtg. With Andrew Thompson from the Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA), NUS is bidding from LSDA to run a specific project which fits into their ‘quality agenda’ to run a project similar to NUS Scotland’s SPARKS project, but would here deliver specifically for the FE sector alone, in developing course reps and other representative structures.
• Dinner Mtg. with the NASUWT to discuss our joint working agreement and potential events.
• This week NUS had a number of Ukrainians over who were looking into student union and representational governance. Dan Chilcott took on the responsibility of taking them around various students unions and entertaining them and was a complete star. For my part I simply had to give them a tour of the HQ and explain our structures and procedures. Not only did Dan assist and guide them all week, but he also ended up cooking salmon and potatoes for 17 of us, and I’m guessing was exhausted by the end of the week.
• NEC mtg., for details on what was discussed etc please visit officeronline.co.uk, my over riding memories of the mtg. were two things, Firstly the look of utter bewilderment on the Ukrainian Students faces, and secondly that as I had to run off after the mtg. due to a last minute commitment I could not make the affiliation debate at UCL, that I was due to, having already prepared the speech I asked the NEC for a volunteer to go and my behalf, after a few pleas and promises one NEC member Joe Rukin agreed to attend, so thankyou Joe, but what was frustrating was that many NEC, who it seemed could not possibly stay a little later in Bloomsbury, were happily drinking in ULU’s bar as I left.
• I also wrote my guardian article for which I get paid £204.

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