2006

Education Campaign

• NUS launches ‘Coalition 2010’, an alliance of organisations committed to campaigning to keep the cap on top-up fees when they are reviewed in 2009.

• Students and officers lobby MPs in Parliament to raise the issue of top-up fees and the cap, due to come into place in the autumn of 2006.

Welfare Campaign

• Following meetings and intense student lobbying of the DfES, changes in the guidelines for EMA authorised absences are made, allowing students who receive EMA to get time off without losing their allowance for "a provider representative meeting, for example, Governors' meeting" and for "National Union of Students official business".

• A lobby of Parliament is held in conjunction with the Terrence Higgins Trust around the issue of sexual health. Students call for a reduction in GUM Clinic waiting times, free sexual health resources for students’ unions across the board and compulsory PSHE lessons for 1-19 year olds. Earlier campaigning to reduce the VAT on condoms is rewarded in the Chancellor’s budget which cuts VAT to 5%.

• NUS lobbies the Department for Health and the Health Select Committee to demand improvements to the NHS bursary scheme for healthcare professional students, including final year medical and dental students. NUS is a key stakeholder on the review group which looks at modernising the scheme.

NUS Scotland

Students in Scotland lobby the Scottish Parliament and stage a press stunt in protest against moves to introduce higher fees for medical students.