I think I have just had one of my best experiences as NEC member- ok call me a bit silly but for me it was a great moment because today I spoke at the house of commons at the AoC lobby of parliament on the same platform as Tony Benn and to be honest I’m all a bit excited and chuffed about it- yahoo!! I think I am particularly excited because I wasn’t expecting to speak in front of 300 colleges principals, chair of co-operation boards and students just after Tony Benn and as you can probably tell I’m still buzzing from it.

See today was the AoC lobby about their Fair Funding Campaign (www.aoc.org.uk) which is campaigning about the fact that FE colleges get funded 10% less than 6th form schools so if you were a student who decided you preferred an adult learning environment rather than a school you would receive 10% less funding- for no other reason other than the fact that you are studying at a FE college. To be honest that’s all a bit wrong and is having a huge impact upon colleges across the country. Colleges that are completely underfunded. For some colleges if the funding gap was closed it would mean a difference of about one million pounds- that would have a huge impact upon college’s resources, teaching etc. especially in a time where lecturers are having to go on strike because they are being undervalued and under paid and college’s are facing huge claw backs. The other campaign that we were there to lobby about was the adult learning, because guess what the government is going to increase the fees of adult learners who want to study. The government wanting to increase fees, now what why does that surprise me?

The campaign day started off at the lobby briefing. It was great to see so many FE students there and yet again a huge thank you to the FE advocates- don’t think I would’ve got through the last few months without them and also a huge thanks to Joel and the students at City College Norwich- around 20 of them came along.

The briefing was to all principals, chair of co-operations and student reps. It was a real chance for NUS to demonstrate its commitment to FE and show some of the work that we had been doing. It was also a great opportunity for us to hammer home the importance of Students’ Unions in FE colleges and how in fact it is campaigning work like this that Students’ Unions should be doing rather than arranging trips to Amsterdam.

Then it was off to parliament. It happened to also be budget day so there was a definite buzz around the house of commons. The first part of the briefing was the funding gap and there was representation from the major 3 political parties, AUT, NATFHE and Heads of Schools. As it was budget day Kim Howells broke the news that the FE sector was going to be given more money- which was great- but still not enough. Also that EMAs were going to be increased to &75. I have to say I was warming to Kim Howells until he said that he completely agreed with top up fees. That it was top up fees that would ensure that the FE sector got funded properly. To try and justify top up fees by saying it would create more funding for FE was just wrong and as a firm believer in free education trying to rob HE to pay FE does not sit right with me at all.

After the representatives spoke it was time for questions from the floor, which started off with Michael from New college Nottingham. He was a bit annoyed that there was no student representation on the panel and asked why this was. This didn’t go down to well but to be honest was a completely justified point. The questions then kept coming and yet again the FE advocates did NUS proud. It was then a time for a break when the AoC came up to me and said that as the point had been made about there being no student representation they wanted me to do a 5 minute speech in the next session. A 5-minute speech about adult learners, in front of at least 200 people, that I was completely unprepared for and I just so happened to be going on after Tony Benn. On my god I don’t think I had ever been so nervous! So I did my speech and I hope that I pulled it off. But what really made it for me was when Tony Benn came up to me and said it was a good speech. Yay. I never thought when I stood for my post that I would never thought I would end up speaking on the same platform as Tony Benn on a subject I feel passionately about. I’m still completely made up and have to say it is days like this that I think how much I love being an elected officer of NUS. Today was a very positive day for the Fe Priority Campaign. I think it raised the profile of NUS and demonstrated our commitment to FE and yet again the FE advocates - Wilf, David, James, Josh, Joel, Michael, Mike, Adam, Dan, Elle and Nathalie were truly brilliant and motivated me to keep going. Well-done peeps- its students like you that make this role so motivating and worthwhile. All in all an awesome day.

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