Mihita Parekh is the Education Officer at Middlesex University Students' Union. She gave this speech to 10 MPs, a Lord, and 50 student leaders in parliament at the APPG for Students on 29th January 2025.

History has shown that young people have enormous potential to lead the way in solving the world’s most pressing challenges. Consistent global temperature increases and extreme weather events tell us that climate change is one of the biggest crises we face today, and young people have a significant stake in tackling it. But, to do this, they must be equipped with the right tools and information. They must also be inspired to take action rather than feeling overwhelmed and despondent by the scale of the problem, with no tangible solutions to help them.

NUS Vice President Higher Education, Alex Stanley, recounts his time at Party Conferences.

Celebrating Our Sisters

For me, Black History Month is a time to reflect, a time to educate myself further, but also (and maybe even most importantly in my eyes) celebrate Black culture. I have often found that when it comes to BHM a lot of people and/or organisations focus heavily on the reflection and education aspects and not so much on the celebratory aspect. For many years BHM was reduced to slavery, Jim Crow and Segregation with imagery centring around chains and resistance fists with dark and dreary colour palettes. While it would be amiss for me to say that these things are not of importance, these things do not comprise the sum of Black history. There is truly so much more to Black history that should be celebrated: historical events, contributions to art, life and culture and just generally expressing Black joy.