Making the NUS about its members, by involving its members
The average student is apolitical. They don't care enough to fight against social injustice because if the last 25 years have proven anything it's this; politics in this country is run by the elected government, not by the people. Marches, riots, protests and petitions on the whole have raised issues that have had their moment, failed to bring about change in policy, and departed from the scene.
Tuition fees are increasingly becoming such an issue. Student protests have come and gone since fees were first introduced eight years ago, and are likely to drift into the chasm of yester-year unless the student movement can spark a revolution (of policy and approach I may add).
So how do we do this? Another protest that sees 20,000 "leftie" unrepresentative students march on the capital? I hope not. A national concert of 150,000 students, followed by a march to Westminster, covered by all national media is, I believe, our best chance.
The cry of the students would be this; yes we are united, and yes we are prepared to engage with the apolitical to be so. We are here to campaign from a free, fair and funded education and will never vote for a government that will not support such a notion. What would people think of us then? The future of our country putting two fingers up to the major political parties. It could, just maybe, make this difference, so that one day education is for all, not for those who can afford it.
As a president of a students' union in a large HE institution I have been relatively uninvolved with some of the issues the NUS looks to address. Further education has rightly become a sector where people want to see results, not more rhetoric, and I entirely agree with this sentiment. The way this should be done is through the regional process, where larger and better funded HE and FE institutions share best practice and actively engage with those unions who fail to receive adequate recognition by their colleges. The regionalisation of the movement is fundamental to its future success; the NEC is a body that looks to embrace the diversity among student bodies, yet it barely allows them to feed into the NEC. This will change if I am elected national president.
* Mike is president of Nottingham University students' union
