Although the journey was a bit longer than previous trips to Blackpool, everyone managed to get there safe and sound – special mention to the Aber / Lampeter minibus for avoiding those problematic walls.
After (too) many years at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool, the Sage exceeded all expectations and was a great venue for our National Conference. Massive thanks must go to all of the staff who were involved in the preparation and delivery of the event.
Ko Aung, Burmese activist and member of the 88 Generation Students group opened National Conference with an emotional story of his memories of the student protests of 1988, saying that events of that day have stayed with him ever since. He told conference “you have a power to change anything in this country. Only one crucial thing, you have to believe in it, hold your belief and fight for change.”
Conference was then shown a series of video messages from Gordon Brown, Nick Clegg and David Cameron (sorry Plaid!), which received mixed reactions from delegates...! Each party leader made a plea for the student vote by outlining their party’s plans for higher education.
In terms of policy debates, conference resolved to use a range of lobbying and campaigning tactics in the fight for a fairer funding system, including a national demonstration before Parliament votes on any increase to tuition fees. Conference also discussed course costs, part time students, national student support, postgraduate funding, international student fees and financial cuts within universities.
National Conference 2010 saw a record number of FE delegates, and policy was passed on equality and diversity in colleges, supporting the Healthy FE initiative and condemning bogus colleges. Conference also resolved to defend the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA), to lobby for the prevention of course and campus closures following a capital crisis, and called for investment in adult education and greater clarity on 16–19 provision.
The Welfare Zone saw debates on a number of issues including accommodation costs, student safety, hate crime, racism on campus, sexual health, mental health, pastoral care, transport, finance, debt, student parents, faith and students as workers.
In the Union Development zone, conference discussed activism in unions, communications, union development in FE, developing sustainable funding for SUs, good governance and the value of students activities and volunteering.
As ever, we had little time for the Society and Citizenship zone debate, but conference moved quickly and passed a number of resolutions in support of votes at 16, student participation in the political system, student community engagement and anti-racism / anti-fascism campaigning.
This year also saw the adoption of NUS Wales policy – something that has been introduced since the NUS Governance Review. Luckily conference didn’t see any problems with our policy and subsequently voted to adopt it into NUS UK policy.
As far as elections went, the Welsh delegates generally seemed to back the winning candidates, seeing Aaron Porter elected as National President, Shane Chowen as VP Further Education, Ben Whittaker as VP Welfare and Susan Nash as VP Society and Citizenship. The election that attracted the most attention and discussion was for VP Higher Education, with Welsh delegates split and many unable to decide on their first preference until they cast their vote at the ballot box. The winner was of course Usman Ali, who has promised to pop across the border and visit Wales during his year in office!
So, after three days of non-stop debates, fringe events and elections, NUS National Conference was over. A few Welsh delegates were still wearing their UV paint from the night before, but everyone survived (just about) and by all accounts had a great time! Unfortunately the journey back was not without problems – Swansea University delegates’ plans to fly back to Wales backfired when an Icelandic volcanic ash-cloud led to the cancellation of their flights… (Susan Nash would probably call that karma for booking internal flights and contributing to climate change!). Special thanks to all of the unions who managed to find room in their cars and secured Swansea University delegates’ safe return to Wales!
Katie
For a more detailed report on NUS National Conference, why not read the official conference report here.