Dear Welfare Officer,

At NUS, our Press Office receives daily enquiries from regional, national and international media. Journalists are often wanting to know more about welfare issues affecting students. They ask us things like:

What are students’ experiences of paid work & budgeting? …of student housing? …of relationships? … sex? …physical & mental health? …prejudice? …drugs & alcohol?

Journalists often look for the ‘human angle’ to personalise the dry facts and statistics – the human angle that can make dull news seem more relevant and ‘real’.

Journalists want to know what students who face a particular issue are really going through.

So, while journalists will interview an NUS officer… oftentimes, they look to speak to ‘Case Studies’ as well, i.e. current students who can talk about their own experiences.

Having this human interest angle can sometimes mean the difference between running the story or scrapping it altogether.

To cut to the chase,

NUS needs your help to keep student issues on the news agenda!

Do you know any case studies?

We are looking for volunteers to talk to journalists about their experience of student life. Topics include:

• Student accommodation
• Finance and budgeting issues, especially students who have high levels of debt
• Sexual health
• Alcohol and drug use
• Part-time work
• Mental Health
• Discrimination

Students should have direct personal experience of an issue and should be happy to speak to the press openly about the subject. Students can request that their experience is anonymously attributed, however journalists generally prefer to print personal details such as name, age and university or college name.

In the past, case study volunteers have found the experience of assisting a journalist and seeing their experience mentioned in the press or media to be a rewarding one. A large part of this reward comes in the form of personal satisfaction – the feeling that one’s own direct experiences could help another person deal with a similar situation… or help others understand what it feels like to walk in someone else’s shoes.

But personal satisfaction is not the whole story. Experience of dealing with the media is a transferable skill that is good preparation for many careers. These days, experience of dealing with the media is useful in an increasingly wide range of vocations.

If you know of any students who would be willing to volunteer as a case study, could you ask them to complete the enclosed form and send it back to pressoffice@nus.org.uk or: Press Office, NUS, PO Box 52611, N7 6XX by Friday, 21st October 2005

Thank you in advance for helping us to compile this valuable resource.

Yours sincerely,

Veronica King
NUS Vice President Welfare

Download case study form

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