I left my last blog at the beginning of December with the ESIB Board Meeting in Paris. ESIB Board Meetings will become a recurring theme during the coming weeks as we’re hosting the 52nd ESIB Board Meeting in London in May to coincide with the Bologna Ministerial Summit in London. Anyway, on with what happened in December…

Confronting the challenge and the Midlands & East Ed/Welf Residential – Monday 4th December

Monday was spent with an all too infrequent office day, during which I had a one on one meeting with our new interim Chief Executive to talk about the problems confronting NUS and the impact they’re having on our ability to deliver in terms of education campaigning and academic representation. The outcomes from this meeting formed the start of what we would eventually deliver at the NUS strategic conversation in January. I have to say that this came at the end of what had been a pretty low time for me in NUS.

I then went up to Nottingham for the Midlands & East Education & Welfare residential.

Midlands & East Education & Welfare Residential – Tuesday 5th

This was a great event which brought together officers from across the Midlands & East to talk education and welfare for two days with myself, Veronica and Richard Angell, as well as the staff team from the region. We had some useful debates and discussions, which fed into the work of our campaigning nationally.

Priority Campaign Meeting – Wednesday 6th

Another welcome day in the office, taken up largely by a planning meeting for the priority campaign. Again attendance was thin on the ground from the NEC. Whilst many of the NEC are incredibly busy and take time to catch up and feed in with what’s going on, I find it a bit rich that certain quarters continue to attack NUS and specifically myself and Gemma for our leadership on education funding but can never be bothered to attend meetings to present their own radical alternatives.

Student Finance Information Meeting – Thursday 7th

Due to a last minute scheduling change, I had to drop a longstanding commitment to chair the AGM at Nottingham Trent to attend a meeting of the ‘Coalition of Partners’ on Student Finance Information. This was the first real opportunity I had to take on Bill Rammell face to face over his claims that NUS is scaremongering about fees in front of the rest of the sector who’ve begun to sing the same tune.

NUS remains commited to ensuring that applications have accurate information, advice and guidance to make the right decisions about their futures. In fact, we’re the only organisation to publish a comprehensive handbook on the full range of benefits and entitlements that students are able to claim, something we do each year in partnership with the Child Poverty Action Group.

Sorry Trent!

Making Members Count Event: The Future of the NSS – Friday 8th

Friday saw the second of our Making Members Count events on the future of the National Student Survey. It was an incredibly productive day with useful feedback which will feed directly into our work with HEFCE and IPSOS-MORI as the project nears the end of phase 1 and a full review begins at the end of this three year cycle.

Labour Students’ Council – Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th

National Council is Labour Students’ winter policy making conference which brings together delegates from Labour Clubs across the country to pass policy, hear speakers and cast their vote in elections, including the selection of our candidates for NUS elections. Following this meeting, myself and Richard Angell are standing for VP Education and VP Welfare respectively while Katie Curtis (President, Winchester) and Be Pringle (Education Officer, Nottingham Uni) are standing for the Block of 12. I’m also delighted that the Women’s Caucus selected Kat Stark for re-election as National Women’s Officer.

A week in the office – week commencing 11th

An entire week of catching up before my Christmas holiday! I did have one external meeting which was a meeting of the Delivery Partnership on Admissions – the successor group to the Wilson and Schwartz groups on admissions. This really is the last chance saloon for the HE sector to get admissions reform right and I look forward to playing an active role in the group during 2007.

I was on Annual Leave on Monday the 18th, Tuesday 19th and Wednesday 20th at a friend’s house in Crete – a much needed rest!

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