Hello there readers. Aside from a brief departure from my usual blogging routine in a failed attempt to deliver Glyn to Big Brother victory, I left you at the end of July, predicting a busy August. I was right. August went something like this…

week commencing 31st July

Monday 31st July: Higher Education Quality Steering Group

Not the catchiest of titles for a committee (the HEQSQ acronym isn’t much better either), but nonetheless a relevant committee which brings together the QAA, AMSU - and shortly the NPC – together under the NUS banner to thrash out some of the key issues surrounding course quality in HE.

This was a particularly productive meeting which saw myself and Ellie set out a strong agenda to deal with the current problems around student representation and feedback for those studying FE in HE. More to follow in future blogs but this will be a key area of joint work for Ellie and I this year. Rest of the day was spent in NUS HQ catching up, before the worst car journey (ever!) down to Bognor Regis for…

Tuesday 1st August: Southampton Solent in-house training

I went down to Bognor to run a session on campaigning for the new Solent sabbs, which I really enjoyed, especially as I managed to (in true lightweight fashion) to avoid a big night out on the town the night before. I then jumped on the train back to London for the afternoon in time to pick up some press work (covered later) and continue catching up with the backlog from the end of July.

Wednesday 2nd: Priority Campaign planning

After a frantic morning in HQ, we went across to ULU for a creative planning afternoon around the branding, themes and messages for priority campaigning, which had started giving me sleepless nights! We’ve come up with some great ideas. Those of you who Gemma and I have met over the past few weeks will be able to testify to the excitement that we’re both feeling at the moment as this campaign takes shape.

Thursday 3rd: NEC Meeting

The first proper NEC meeting of the year. You could be forgiven – following the flurry of emails and recriminations that followed – that this was a particularly bitter meeting in which the NEC only talked about the Middle East adopted a pro-war stance and agreed that the death toll in the Middle East should last a bit longer.

The reality was a calm and measured discussion about a range of issues affecting the organisation and the people we represent as well as a motions debate which tackled some tough issues in a considered way. One of those issues was the unfolding crisis in the Middle East and, like Sam, I am appalled by the blatant distortion and misrepresentation that has taken place since. I proposed that the NEC should adopt a sustainable ceasefire position, because that implied that both sides had a responsibility to ensure that the guns fell silent. When it was proposed that the word ‘immediate’ was added, I supported this – like many others – but the wording was simply not there to incorporate. I also find it somewhat hypocritical that the group that had the most problem with the policy passed – Student Broad Left – did not choose to submit any text of their own. But then, why let facts get in the way of a good bit of mud slinging?

Middle East aside, my main contribution to the meeting included an oral update on the progress with the priority campaign, an update as convenor of the Education Zone and proposing (successfully and unanimously) that certain undesirable promotions on the NUS Extra card related to academic products and services were removed.

All in all I found it one of the most polite and well-managed NEC meetings I’ve attended. Afterwards, I jumped on a train with Ama and Cat Smith (Lancaster Women’s Officer and NW NEC observer) up to Aston University for…

Friday 4th/Saturday 5th: NPC Annual Conference

I attended the National Postgraduate Committee (NPC) Annual Conference as the voting representative for NUS and took Ama along as she expressed a strong desire to work on postgrad issues when she was elected. Joe Rukin also attended as the formal NPC liaison.

The event was filled with useful, informative workshops, which will inform my work and provided an opportunity to meet those heavily involved in representing postgrads. I’d like to congratulate all those elected to the committee for the coming year; I’m sure they’ll do a great job and look forward to strengthening our ties for the benefit of postgraduate students from across the UK.

As Ama reports, the AGM was somewhat contentious and over-ran, meaning that I didn’t catch a train until pretty late and headed back home for 10pm at the end of an exhausting six-day week.

week commencing 7th August

Monday 7th: Much needed office day and meeting with King’s

Monday was spent getting some items ready for the fortnightly mailing (I’ll try and start blogging these sorts of things, but things are constantly manic so we’ll see how it goes…) and catching up generally with planning various bits and pieces, sandwiched around a really productive meetings with Daryn, the president of KCLSU about the priority campaign, the national demonstration and the policy on the long-term strategy to fight fees passed by annual conference.

Tuesday 8th: ULU Priority Planning, meeting with FOSIS and office day

Despite the best efforts of the rail operating companies, I made it to the University of London Union (ULU) for meeting about their collective plans to build for the national demonstration and the priority campaign. I think they found it useful to get some context from me directly about the campaign and I certainly found it useful in informing the type of information and materials myself and Gemma need to get out to unions.

Straight after that I met with the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) to discuss ways in which the education campaign could represent and defend muslim students and I plan to follow up on the recommendations around university life from their report published in August 2005 entitled ‘The voice of Muslim Students’ (a recommended read if you’d like to do more yourselves on campus!). This was obviously before the recent spate of terror arrests, which reinforce to me how essential it is that we work together collectively to halt the tide of Islamaphobia that is rising on our campuses and in our communities.

Then it was back to the office.

Weds 9th / Thursday 10th: Refreshing, though hectic, days in the office

In case you wonder what I do in the office, aside from a reminder that campaigns and briefings for meetings don’t come out of nowhere, I’ve put more press work at the end of this blog and might blog the odd day or two to give you an insight at to what goes on in NUS HQ (if you’re that interested!). I love days in the office though… It provides a chance to get things done in between people trying to pull you in ten different directions to do different things!

Friday 11th: Media Training, NUS HQ

Friday was spent undertaking a thoroughly useful training session for TV interviews. It was really useful – even if I was yearning to get back to my desk to get a bit more work done!!!

Saturday 12th: Mature Students Committee, NUS HQ

Another six-day week for me, but was thoroughly worth it to meet with the Mature Students’ campaign committee. It was an opportunity for me to outline my work for the year, gather input directly from the committee (saves poor Veronica from acting like messenger) and, of course, to be lobbied ruthlessly on the case for a mature students’ officer on the NEC. For a number of practical reasons, I remain yet to be convinced, but willing to listen further and engage in the debate.

week commencing 14th August

Monday 14th: Meeting with CMU and desperate pre-training rush!

The day kicked off with a meeting with Pam Tatlow, Chief Exec of the CMU (modern universities group) with whom we’ve struck up a strong dialogue and common agenda across certain issues over the past couple of years. We discussed a range of issues in advance of party conference season, the comprehensive spending review and our priority campaign.

The afternoon was spent rushing desperately to complete some work and sign off priority campaign materials before heading off late to Chester for…

Tuesday 15th to Friday 18th: Action Through Advocacy round 2 in Chester!

I loved the course the first time around and the second round didn’t disappoint. The first day got off to an incredibly busy start as I had to leave the course for 3 hours just after it started to do a pre-recorded interview for BBC Breakfast News in Manchester on student contracts, but I was back in time for the last session and dinner. Press-wise, the course was busy for me and added to this I had to read over, edit and sign-off priority campaign materials and the campaign toolkit (so big we’re putting it on CD). Busy, busy, busy!

Of course the 17th was A-level results day, making it very tempting to plug the demo to the jubilant revellers out on the town that night.

week commencing 21st August

Tuesday 22nd: Press Briefings

Having taken annual leave on the 21st, I was back in and busy on the 22nd with a full day of one-on-one press briefings with journalists from the BBC, Observer and others on the issue of student finance and debt. I have to say I really enjoyed it and it gave me the opportunity to bring to light some dodgy dealings by certain institutions to attract students! The day started at 9 and finished at 4, giving me the chance to head back to the office to get some work done and prepare for the following day, which was massively busy because…

Wednesday 23rd: NSS Data Launch

My day started at 7am when I was picked up by the BBC to do a Five Live interview about the data launch from the National Student Survey, which – in summary – showed that 80% of students are satisfied with their courses, but a notable weakness has emerged in terms of satisfaction about feedback. Interestingly, those institutions with anonymous marking in place tend to do better on this front and I’d strongly advise you to follow the University of East Anglia’s example and look at whether departments which don’t use anon. marking are scoring lower on feedback than departments that do. I plan to write a bit more about this when I get 15 minutes to myself, but if you have any NSS related questions do just email nss@nus.org.uk

After the Five Live interview, I did one for BBC Radio Essex before heading to the launch itself where I spoke at a press conference alongside Michael Arthur, chair of the NSS steering group and Bill Rammell MP, Higher Education Minister. You can read some coverage of what I said below, but it did give the chance to get in a swift jab on fees and a helpful question from the Guardian gave me space to wax lyrical about rising expectations from students who are paying more for their education.

After that, jumped straight on a train up to Chester for…

Wednesday 23rd/Thursday 24th: Active Political Leadership, Chester

Give me a stage and I’ll rise to the performance, as delegates on the last course of the summer training programme found out when I got the chance to play a crusty old Tory MP, Dick Slick an American Republican tycoon from Texas hell bent on turning Fibchester University’s science department into a concrete jungle, Dr Les Beating the Deputy Vice-Chancellor and the Head of Accommodation Services with a dodgy Scottish accent. Bizarrely, I also role-played myself doing a union visit to help fight a course closure! Great course, great people and a great chance to go around plugging the priority campaign. I may also have sung a song or two on the karaoke, which sadly didn’t follow the NUS Extra Factor format I’d employed at the first Action Through Advocacy. I have to say that Gemma’s VC, Ellie’s UCU Rep and Stephen’s unscrupulous news reporting made for a great experience throughout the Fibchester roleplay.

Friday 25th: All about Bologna…

Friday kicked off with a meeting and video conference with the Bologna Secretariat at the Department for Education & Skills (DfES). This is going to be a big year for Britain and Europe as next summer the UK is hosting the Ministerial summit for Bologna countries. If you know nothing about the Bologna process or the Lisbon agenda, don’t worry – information will be winging its way to you during the year.

One thing is clear, however: our members are increasingly affecting by policy decisions at a European level and the challenges we face are not just national, or indeed pan-European, but global. Working with our ESIB reps I’m determined that we need to engage more with our partners across Europe and I’ll be working with them and Bubble in advance of NUS hosting the ESIB board meeting next year in June 2007.

After the meeting at DfES I headed back to NUS HQ.

Sunday 27th: NUS Scotland in Action, Stirling University

On Sunday I was given the opportunity to take some time out from my time up at the Edinburgh festival to head across to NUS Scotland’s 2-day training event for new sabbs and present the priority campaign. I would’ve liked to have stayed longer, but hopefully my presentation, coupled with James’ blog and the team’s efforts to book transport for the demo underpin the importance of the agenda in Westminster for students across the whole of the UK.

week commencing 28th August

Tuesday 29th: It’s the office again…

After the bank holiday respite, Tuesday was a manic office day. Am still trying to recover from inbox from the huge numbers of emails I still need to answer, so apologies if yours is one of them!!! Also busy preparing for our first-ever policy consultation day on Friday around our response to the Research Assessment Exercise. It’s had a really good take up and I’m really keen to see how it works in practice so that I can run similar consultations to involve our members more on other issues.

Wednesday 30th: Management, OFFA, Coalition 2010, Campaigns and Trade Unions… Back to back meetings!

Fighting the overflowing inbox was put on hold on Wednesday for a series of back-to-back meetings!

The day kicked off with Management Team, which I left early due to the early arrival in NUS HQ of Sir Martin Harris, Director of the Office for Fair Access. We had a frank, but cordial discussion about the current state of HE admissions and some of the appalling tactics that are being used by institutions to recruit students. The meeting left us with some common ground to work on, but left me utterly convinced that OFFA lacks the power or the will to take affirmative action where needed to clamp down on unscrupulous tactics and loopholes in the system.

Straight after that, I led a meeting of Coalition 2010, our alliance of unions committed to fighting to keep the cap and opposing the marketisation of education. It was great for general intelligence gathering about the current political landscape and for agreeing research priorities for the next 18 months. We are also looking to formalise the structure of the coalition, with teaching unions and those involved in JNCHES (all in all UCU, NUT, ATL, NASUWT, Amicus, Unison, GMB and T&G) forming the core group with other organisations invited to add their names as supporters. We’ve already had expressions of interest or support from the BYC, Aldwych Group, Labour Students and others, for example.

Once the meeting ended, I had a meeting with the Campaigns Team and Gemma regarding planning for the campaigns launch and some of the logistics around the priority campaign and then caught up with our Trade Union Partnerships Manager about some joint work.

Attempts to some more inbox clearing between 6 and 8 failed thanks to server problems :-(

Thursday 31st: Back in HQ, meeting with LDYS

After the all clear from the dentist, the last day of the month consisted of frantic preparations for the campaigns launch, the RAE day, responding to urgent queries sitting in my inbox and on my voicemail and drumming up support for the last few places for the campaigns launch next week.

Had a meeting with the Campaigns Team about logistics for the national demo. Can’t wait!

I also met with the new chair of Liberal Democrat Youth & Students about joint work around fees, the invitation we extended to him to speak at our fringe at Lib Dem conference and other areas of interest or concern.

Press work throughout August…

One of the most common things to crop up, whether in NUS HQ or out and about at events and training is press work. August is a busy month education-wise with results, clearing, NSS, publication of reports as well as general features making it a busy press month for myself, Ellie and Gemma…

On the publication of the OIA annual report…

Student complaints 'mishandled' – BBC online 2/8/06

Student complaints to watchdog on increase – Ed. Guardian 3/8/06

It's just not fair ... – Ed. Guardian 8/8/06

BBC’s Breakfast programme – 21/8/06, also carried on Radio 5 Live

On the publication of the NSS results…

Students happy with courses but raise complaints about marking – Ed. Guardian 23/8/06

Students 'should grade degree value' - Financial Times, 23/08/06

'Most students' happy with course - BBC News online, 23/08/06

40% of university students unhappy with feedback - The Guardian, P12, 24/08/06

Courses deliver, but feedback falls short - The Times Higher Education Supplement, P1, 24/08/06

Absence of elite distorts picture - THES, P4-5, 24/08/06

University teachers could try harder - The Times. P.26 24/8/06

Scots relishing university challenge – The Herald 24/8/06

Sleep on it – Education Guardian 29/8/06

Other bits and pieces…

Waive your legal rights Chester tells students - THES, 24/08/06

Student cash gift call - The Times Higher Education Supplement, P6, 31/08/06

Masters market hots up - The Times Higher Education Supplement, P5, 31/08/06

The question Should students take it easier? – Ed Guardian 8/8/06

Who's for a thick slice of experience? – Ed Guardian 19/8/06

New students face future of debts – BBC online 22/8/06

If you want to receive NUS’ Daily Media Digest containing these and other student related stories, email pressofficer@nus.org.uk and ask to be added!

AND FINALLY…

I will do my best to write a few more issues-based blogs and opinion pieces! September’s set to be a busy month with a hectic lobbying strategy for party conference season this year! Remember to get in touch with Stephen Brown if you want us at your freshers’ fair and myself and/or Gemma if you’d like us to take part in any first term events (general meetings etc.).

Feel free to get in touch about anything in this blog or any other issues.

Cheers,

Wes

e wes@nus.org.uk

t 0871 221 8221

f 0871 221 8222

m 07738 477 353