Was very impressed by the latest issue of Diva magazine, which Kat Louis was showing around the office… They’ve basically done a student special, incorporating LOADS of Kat’s ideas. It was great seeing NEC members and LGBT committee members in print. It also included a survey declaring Man Met to be the most LGBT-friendly uni in the country! Congrats to all those in the top 10 and to Jamie for being officially declared the leader of a big gay union by some of the NUS office team! And, of course, hats off to Kat for getting such great exposure for the LBT women’s campaign so early in the year!
International Students’ Meeting at Birkbeck – Also on Tuesday
Later that day I headed over to Birkbeck for a meeting hosted by Benson for the London region (and some of East Anglia) on the International Students’ Festival that is currently being organised. I think the discussion we had was productive on the whole and it was good to get an oversight of the planning of the project.
There was also a lot of enthusiasm towards campaigning on international student issues this year, which was really encouraging. International Students are often stereotyped as rich foreigners who can afford to pay exorbitant fees and charges. For many students, however, this is far from the truth.
NUS needs to take affirmative action this year to stop the year on year inflation busting increases in international student tuition fees, visa hikes which many of them cannot afford and changes to the immigration system (see below).
Up to the West Mids – Thursday 11th August
On Thursday I headed up to Coventry to visit Warwick. Despite getting absolutely drenched, it was a really useful meeting covering a number of challenges facing Warwick and other institutions next year, how we balance promoting fair access to university from 2006 without giving up the fight for Free Education, international student recruitment, support and campaigning and the National Student Survey. It gave me a lot of food for thought to take onboard.
I then jumped on the train up to Birmingham to meet with the President of BUGS to talk about my Youth Green Paper project. Richard Angell has done quite a lot of stuff with the British Youth Council and other youth agencies and gave me a lot of contacts to pursue as part of my project (pending approval by the NEC) and we discussed some ideas and ways forward.
LGBT Committee – Saturday 13th August
On Saturday morning I met Stephen and Derfel at Euston station and we headed up to Manchester University for the first LGBT committee of the year, where the priority campaigns were decided, motions were debated and the tone for the year forward was set.
I thought the meeting was largely productive. I spoke on the priority campaigns (sharing our experience from NEC), in favour of internationalism in the campaign and a motion on Stagecoach and the NUS Extra card. I also used the opportunity to talk to a number of members of the committee engaged in youth work about the project proposal I put into the NEC on the Youth Green Paper.
It was a long day, involving a 5 hour round trip, which was made more bearable by some beer and wine on the train back and a night out in London.
Defending International Students’ Right to Appeal – Sunday 14th August
My week ended with some work on an issue that I suspect I will be working on throughout the year: the right to appeal in international student visa applications.
The Asylum, Nationality and Immigration Bill going through Parliament contains a proposal to withdraw the right of appeal for applicants who are refused visas, which will have a significant and detrimental impact upon prospective international students.
This is particularly bad, given the available evidence concerning the success rate of initial applications and the success rate of appeals…
- Government figures show that over 25% of student appeals against refusal of entry clearance in 2003 were successful
- The Immigration Advisory Service, which provides legal advice in visa cases, reports that of those appeals which they handle, 60-75% of international student visa appeals are successful.
- 90% of prospective international students with offers from the University of Sheffield who are initially refused visas have the decision overturned – either on appeal of before it reaches that stage.
UKCOSA, the Council for International Education in the UK, has produced a comprehensive report as to why the right to appeal for international students is so vital to ensuring fair treatment.
Whilst it is understandable that the Government wants to ensure tighter immigration controls, it is vital that the immigration is not just SEEN to be fair, but IS fair.
The International Students’ Campaign has decided that this should be one of its priorities this year and I spent Sunday contributing to a project proposal by Benson Osawe for the next NEC meeting, which I hope will pass successfully.
If you’d like more info about this, please don’t hesitate to contact myself and Benson. You might also like to check out:
www.ukcosa.org.uk – which contains briefings on this issue
www.universitiesuk.ac.uk – whilst vice-chancellors are not my favourite people, UUK is with us on this issue and their website contains some of their media releases on this.
So another busy week. As ever, feel free to contact me about any areas of my work, stuff going on in your unions or NUS in general on wes.streeting@nus.org.uk or 07946 840 167.
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