So, David Cameron has been elected as the new Leader of the Conservative Party. The election of a fourth Tory leader in eight years will no doubt provide the party with a much needed boost and the pundits with plenty to chew over and get excited about, but for NUS it should already be pretty clear what Cameron’s Conservatives would deliver for students.

Before I talk about Cameron’s policy profile on Higher Education, I should first make an admission: I was a David Davis supporter. For two reasons: first because I thought that Davis would continue the march to the right that would confine the Tories to another eight years in opposition. But secondly and most crucially for the people I represent – students – David Davis had made it clear that he would continue to oppose Blair’s top-up fees.

The Tories were never a natural ally for NUS during the fight against fees. It was only eleven years ago, after all, that Major’s Government threatened to “break the closed shop” of NUS and we led an award-winning campaign that saw the Major Government defeated in the Lords.

So it came as something of a surprise that the likes of Ann Widdecombe and William Hague were trooping through the lobbies with Labour rebels like Dennis Skinner to bring a Government with a huge majority down to a majority of just three. And let us never forget that we lost the vote, but we didn’t lose the argument – a tribute to the hard fought campaign led by Mandy Telford that brought together Tories, Lib Dems and Labour backbenchers, united in their opposition to variable fees.

The election of David Cameron spells trouble for students.

When the old Etonian set out his ideas on Tuesday about what Cameron’s Conservatism means for Britain, he said “it means well funded universities and saying how we’re going to pay for them”.

We already know how Cameron intends to pay for them. We are already know that when asked if he would scrap the Conservatives’ existing policy on fees he said: “Yes. I believe that if we want strong universities and no artificial limit on the number of students going to university, while keeping public spending under control, some contribution from students makes sense.” [Source: www.cameroncampaign.org/faqs.html#faq5]

Following the General Election and until Wednesday, NUS had enough support on the floor of the House of Commons that had we replayed the vote on the Higher Education Bill, we would have won. A policy shift from the Conservatives now, will change the nature of the debate and the scale of the challenge we face as a movement.

But that must not stop us from engaging in the debate and rising to the challenge. And that must not stop us from asking David Cameron some tough questions in the early days of his leadership. We need to ask him who should pay for Higher Education. We need ask him how that funding should be distributed throughout the sector. We need to ask him whether he is committed to widening participation. And we need to ask him when his fine words on social justice will be backed up by a policy programme that matches the rhetoric.

And NUS needs to be to provide the answers to these questions. Not just with empty slogans calling for a Free, Fair and Funded Education, but saying how we believe any government should deliver this. Not just by saying we’re committed to fair access, but demanding that any government takes the policy decisions to deliver on widening participation. Not by letting the Labour Government off the hook, but by exposing the Tories’ hypocrisy if they follow Labour up the garden path.

We also need to ask Conservative Future how they will respond to this impending policy shift. CF have always been the first to blow their own trumpet and claim credit for the Conservative whip against top-up fees and attack Labour Students for the policies of the Labour Government. As a Labour Student, I have always been – and will always be – relentless in my opposition to the this Labour Government’s policy of variable top-up fees and committed to leading an NUS that acts independently of the Government to stand up for students. I hope that CF will look to take a similar stand.

Now would be a good time for students’ unions with Conservative MPs to start calling them round for coffee. To start making the arguments against a policy shift. And start reminding them of the voting power of a movement with over 5 million members – just as we did with the Labour Party.

And nationally, it’s time for NUS to start asking the difficult questions and mobilising our membership to do the same.

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