So, another month is gone. I’m going to echo the comments of many of you and complain that the year is passing by too fast. Complaints about the year going too quickly may be clichéd, but clichés are sometimes true!

I’m going to draw on another cliché, too. I’ve been incredibly busy this month. So here goes. In this blog:

• November NEC Meeting
• Education Priority Campaign Meeting
• Plymouth Mass Rally
• Education Funding debate at Reading
• NUS/Daily Mirror Student Media Awards
• The eyes have it…
• Thank you, Foster
• LGBT Compositing
• Meeting with EIS
• Democracy workshop at Edinburgh
• LGBT Committee and Conference
• NUS HQ
• Anti-Racism Conference
• NEC Delegation Meeting
• Home Affairs Select Committee Response on volunteering restrictions for international students
• FE Governors’ Training

November NEC Meeting – Tuesday 8th November

Looking back on November’s NEC meeting, I’m finding it hard to draw conclusions about what I thought about the whole affair. On one hand, it was one of the best NEC meetings I have attended. We listened to a comprehensive and thought-provoking presentation on reform of the regions by Jim Dickinson and had a very positive discussion around officer-to-officer interaction via the web. We discussed the possibility of fighting a landmark test case on behalf of one of our Constituent Members. We heard the outcome of a disciplinary matter that had been sensationalised and distorted disingenuously on educationet and also listened with concern to disturbing reports about the working conditions and finances of our colleagues in NUS-USI.

All of these were important, strategic and organisational issues that I’d hoped we’d get to discuss more often on the NEC.

But for some reason the meeting was still particularly acrimonious. Recriminations over the excessive expenditure of the International Students’ Officer, deciding whether or not to give Will Page his expenses if he resigns his responsibilities (Will has since done the honourable thing and resigned) and the meeting losing its quorum before we could get through the motions all contributed to my headache.

One good thing to come out of the meeting was our resolution to support the AUT’s campaign for increased campus wages, in spite of efforts by some Vice-Chancellors to divide us, is a welcome move as far as I’m concerned. It was a tough choice and I did empathise with the arguments put forward by Peter, Daniel and Suzie amongst others as to why we should not lend our support to this move. However, having seen the statement negotiated by Fletch, I’m convinced it’s the right thing to do. I wrote to Kat asking her to send this statement out to the membership and she has assured me that she will do so.

Education Priority Campaign meeting – Wednesday 9th November

The next day was spent in HQ for the Education Priority Campaign meeting. Having been a vocal critic of aspects of this campaign and having made a number of positive proposals to strengthen the campaign, I felt that this was a very positive meeting, chaired by Julian.

Sadly, following the meeting, it transpired that the activist briefing days had to be cancelled, due to a lack of activists. This highlights to me a serious challenge we face during the coming year to rebuild the campaign. There is an air of complacency about in our movement, that the review isn’t until 2008 or 9 – an infinity in terms of sabbatical terms – and therefore we might as well leave it to our successors.

Actually, the review process starts in just over a year’s time. I’m glad that Kat and Julian are working on building a strong coalition with our partners in the trade union movement and our supporters in Parliament, but we are going to lack troops on the ground unless we take some urgent action soon to reinvigorate our campaign. I had a look at the Stop Fees Now archive on Officeronline to remind myself what the campaign was like before. We’ve a long way to go, in a relatively short space of time.

Plymouth Mass Rally – Friday 11th N ovember

On Thursday night I headed down to Plymouth for decision day on the future of the Exmouth Campus with Gemma, Julian, Stephen and Dan Randall.

The turnout was great, the atmosphere was hopeful and I received from good news in the form of Kat Fletcher – armed with an embargoed copy of the Foster Report on Further Education, which I browsed excitedly as I read some of his comments on the learner voice (more below).

Sadly, the news was not so positive for Exmouth. Despite a truly inspiring campaign led by Katie Shaw and the team from UPSU, Levinski got his way and the campus now faces closure. It’s a bad decision for students, schools and the community in Exmouth and we were all gutted.

Education Funding debate at Reading – Friday 11th November

With the decision still ringing in my ears, I was on the train to Reading where I was to take part in a debate with Rob Wilson, Conservative MP for Reading East, one of the Pro-Vice-Chancellors and Mike Hance, the VP Equal Opportunities and Ethics.

What I had seen in Exmouth provided the basis of my opening remarks in the debate: “Tuition Fees – Is the war over?” Clearly not.

I really enjoyed taking part in the debate and fielding some interesting questions on variability, pensions and debt. I also got to have a bit of fun at Rob Wilson’s expense because – in spite of his opposition to Blair’s top-up fees in the HE Act – he’s a David Cameron supporter, who has made clear his support for fees. He also began the debate by addressing the audience, saying: “small and exclusive – just the way I like it”.

Indeed! The basis for Rob’s argument was the education could be free if less people went into HE. I borrowed a line from the great student activist Dan Mayer (Student Respect – but I won’t hold that against him) that Rob wanted to preserve our universities “for the cream of society: rich, thick and full of clots.”.

The debate was held as part of a wider Student Finance week, organised by the sabbs at Reading and I was glad to have been given the opportunity to do it!

NUS/Daily Mirror Student Media Awards – Saturday 13th November

I’m sure this was a good night, I can’t remember much. Except for myself, Veronica and Ellie drinking too much free vodka, winning a Fortnum and Masons hamper, hitting the chocolate fountain with Derfel and clapping enthusiastically for the winners. Thanks to the sponsors, the event at the Marriott Hotel in the Docklands was almost as lavish as the spreads put on by NUSSL!

The eyes have it… - w/c 14th November

I paid the price for my antics at the media awards, however. Never sleep in your contact lenses. The effect in my case was oxygen deprivation, a swollen cornea, some grazing to my eye and temporary loss of vision in my left eye and irritation to my right eye. Coupled with no less than four visits to the hospital in the space of a week.

The result was that I had to miss National Council – the only democratic event I’ve missed all year – as well as the NATFHE demo and Midlands FE Essentials. It was a truly awful week and the thought of losing my vision – which seemed a possibility at my first hospital vision – means I’m off contact lenses for the foreseeable future.

Thank you, Foster

One highlight of an otherwise dreadful week was the news I’d been waiting for since I’d spoken with Kat – the release of the Foster Report.

Ellie and Kat have already blogged about this, so I won’t go into the ins and outs. I do, however, want to pay tribute to the fantastic work that they’ve both undertaken as leaders of the campaign during this past year. The quality and quantity of the work that went into building NUS’ response, from the number of students who answered Foster’s ’10 Big Questions’ through to the intense lobbying that took place was reflected in the report itself. Ellie Russell has been an outstanding VP FE during this past year and I hope she stands again for election again on the strength of her record. Despite our tendency to lock horns (sometimes over rather trivial issues), I also think that Kat’s record of FE has been the real achievement of her presidency and one that will provide a strong legacy for her successors.

Now we need to make sure that Foster’s fine words are matched by action on the part of the Government and FE colleges.

LGBT Compositing – Sunday 20th November

There’s not much you can really say about compositing, except that this was unusually good natured!

Meeting with EIS – Tuesday 22nd November

With my eyes slowly recovering, I was able to make a meeting with the EIS (Scottish version of NUT) up in Scotland, which was productive and gave me a good grounding in devolved arrangements for student teachers. I also managed some time to catch up with the sabbs at Glasgow Cale and Stirling, which was good as this was my first visit to Scotland all year.

Democracy workshop – Wednesday 23rd November

On Wednesday I ran a workshop with our newest affiliates at Edinburgh on the motions process, compositing and NUS Conference, as James Alexander was putting in a rather impressive performance submitting evidence to the Scottish Parliament and the other sabbs were out of town.

I’m really pleased with the work that has been done on opening up our democracy this year. I’m very open about the fact that I support political groups operating in NUS (I’d be a bit of a hypocrite if I didn’t!) but I also understand all too well how alienating the processes can be if you’re not in a faction. This has got to end. I hope that sessions like this, coupled with the Democracy Guide, can ensure a truly open democracy, where participation is based on whether you have something to say, not just whether you know how to go about saying it.

LGBT Conference – Friday 25th – Sunday 27th November

Due to another eye appointment I was unable to attend the Aldwych Group meeting in BUGS as I’d hoped, but arrived in time to catch a few of them in the bar before heading off to LGBT Committee and Conference.

The Conference was excellent. Some positive reforms were passed, we enjoyed some engaging policy debates and some particularly good speeches by Jo Salmon (Salmon for President – Leaping to Victory! … I’m kidding, Jo!) I was proud to open the motions debate with an opening speech on education, which I’ll blog when I’ve had time to type it up. Other highlights included a particularly thought-provoking powerpoint presentation on internationalism from Scott Cuthbertson, NUS Scotland LGBT Officer and a poignant, personal speech on hate crime from Hayley Mills from the Committee. More light-hearted points were provided throughout the weekend by Flick Cox, who literally made me cry with laughter at one point.

Day in HQ – Tuesday 29th November

Tuesday was spent in HQ, catching up on emails and putting in my expenses. I’ve been terrible with expenses this year. No, not because I’ve been claiming loads of your affiliation fees, but because I keep on missing the deadlines and forgetting to keep my tickets! It’s confirmed to me what I’ve known all along – I don’t think I’d make a very good National Treasurer (but then judging by the state of the finances that’s not stopped some people in previous years!!!).

Anti-Racism Conference – Wednesday 30th November

Wednesday was spent at Anti-Racism Conference at ULU. It was an interesting day all-in-all. Although I missed his opening speech, Tariq Ramadan gave some very thought-provoking responses about Britishness during Q&A and Pav, Jess and Jamal each did us proud with their organisation and workshops. Lee Jasper, the Mayor of London’s Equalities Advisor gave the most humorous and animated speech of the day, which I enjoyed very much, even if I did raise my eyebrows at one or two of the things he said about immigration policy.

NEC Delegation Meeting – Thursday 1st December

The NEC met at ULU in the same way your union council would – to decide which motions to submit to National Conference and to elect our delegation leader. Kat Fletcher was duly elected unopposed as Delegation Leader, which confirms that she is not running for the Block of 12 (the only position on the NEC she would be allowed to under NUS rules) and will be leaving at the end of the year after involvement in the student movement since the Romans invaded.

We passed a motion from Veronica King on Student Rights for the Welfare Zone, a motion on our place in society as active citizens from me for the Society & Active Citizenship debate, Peter Leary’s motion on Education Funding and one from Derfel (with some composited text) on NUS Extra.

Despite being a bit stressed in the middle, we left unscarred.

Select Committee Response on International Student Volunteering – Thursday 1st December

After the NEC meeting, like most of the others, I went into HQ to get some work done. I spent the afternoon editing a draft joint response from Student Volunteering England and NUS to the Home Affairs Select Committee on International Student Volunteering.

This brought together two of my pet projects this year – policy affecting international students and youth volunteering. International Students face unnecessary and unfair restrictions on volunteering in comparison with their counterparts from the UK, which seems grossly unfair and contrary to the Race Relations Amendment Act. I’m grateful to Pav and his Black Students’ Handbook for helping me out with some of the finer points on this. Hopefully it’ll make an impact on Government policy.

FE Governors’ Training – Friday 2nd – Sunday 4th December

Ellie, Sian, Kat and I attended FE Governors’ Training last weekend. It was fantastic. Supported by the Centre for Excellence in Leadership (CEL) and the Association of Colleges (AoC), we enjoyed presentations from a range of top-notch speakers and a range of engaging workshops to equip Student Governors with the skills they need.

I think a good time was had by all.

So that was November. December looks set to be eventful to say the least.

All the best,

Wes

e: wes.streeting@nus.org.uk
m: 07738 477 353

ANSWERS TO MY QUOTE QUIZ

And here are the answers from my Regional Conference quote quiz: