EDUCATION

06 April 2010 00:31

With University application levels at a record high, Peter Mandelson’s £450 million UK Higher education budget cut puts the vast majority of British students in a serious pickle. It means students will have to pay more for an experience that will ultimately give them less.  

Despite the budget cuts, World leaders like President Obama and Gordon Brown insist that university degrees are the key to future success. In fact, students across the UK, and indeed the world, apply to British universities knowing that higher education degrees more often than not lead to some of the best jobs and highest salaries.  

However, with UK higher education funding in dire straits, the richest institutions will continue to benefit from the lack of widened participation in education, while younger, newer universities get hit hard by the budget cuts. The irony is that it is these universities that are most in touch with the realities of student needs, that have the best systems of mentorship and feedback, and that have some of the most active student groups and unions in the country.  

The National Union of Students (NUS) has and will continue to be at the forefront of tackling obstacles students face in Higher Education such as funding, access and participation, and developing effective systems of mentorship. In the extremely challenging year ahead for universities, the NUS and its members will play a more important role than ever, continuing to campaign, lobby, and represent the student voice at a national and regional level to the policymakers who have the power to make real change in education.  

Moving forward as a student movement, we work to ensure a representative cross-section of students are engaged and involved in all aspects of their Higher Education. It is this very principle that I seek to address in my campaign for Vice President of Higher Education with the NUS: of creating a sense of student empowerment and ownership that enables students to contribute proactively to Higher Education policy making.  

The many problems that Higher Education in the UK faces means there is ample room for improvement, to say the least. I am confident that those campaigning alongside me are as committed as I am to revolutionising UK university education by helping make it more affordable, accessible, and applicable to what employers are really looking for. Indeed, it is only by students, administrators, and policy-makers working hand in hand toward this goal that the UK can be transformed to bridge the widening gap between higher educational policy and the reality of student needs.  

The elections process for NUS candidates consists of NUS delegates voting at  

the NUS Annual Conference, to be held this year at the Sage in Newcastle  

from April 13-15. NUS delegates, in turn, are elected by their respective  

universities, at which each Students’ Union has a cross-campus election each  

year to select its delegates. Speeches of this year’s NUS candidates will be  

streamed online from the conference in Newcastle.  

Usman Ali (Currently running for Vice-president for Higher Education with the NUS)  

Extracted from yourtwocents.co.uk