Monday 17-05-2021 - 15:46

To all my fellow students, firstly I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you once again for voting me in as your NUS delegate. It was an honour to represent you all and to be your voice and ear at the conference. I hope that after reading my report you will feel I served you well as I had all our best interest at heart.

 

The NUS conference kicked off with the Red Flag Campaign, put together by Kelly Balmer and Grace Clark from York University. They brought to light some facts that surprised and saddened me. 62% of students have experienced sexual abuse and only 2% reported this abuse. 1 in 7 students are in or have been in an abusive relationship student feel as though universities are not addressing this issue instead, they are covering it up with a staggering £87 million pound being paid out in pay offs. The NUS have put together a campaign and have noted that these figures need to improve, they aim to improve services to support survivors this will entail a blanket approach for all universities to eradicate inconsistencies. These services will be accessible to all genders and sexual orientations. Holding institutions accountable for how they deal with these issues because our students must be safeguarded. They also aim to promote education around consent so that soon all students as part of their course will have to demonstrate they understand what consent means. This campaign was voted in by myself I feel no student should be subjected to abuse either on campus or away from it and I feel tutors need to be empathetic and understanding towards any student that has survived any abuse and the university has a responsibility to safeguard and support their students.

 

The following day the conference moved on to discussing the cost of living for students. They have launched a campaign named Students Deserve Better. This campaign sets out to uphold student’s basic legal rights, give rent rebates and put in place no detriment policies. 61% of students say that covid has had some impact on their lives and increased their cost of living. 73% of students have had concerns around managing finances during Covid and 9% of students have had to use food banks in order to get them through this hard time. The NUS have already won £70 million from the government in England for a hardship fund for students and a £10 million rent rebate. Scotland were granted £50 million for their hardship fund and were given £4.75 million for digital funding. In Ireland each student was given a £500 Covid disruption payment. The campaign continues as the NUS are asking for an increase in maintenance grants and for students to be given compensation as they have not had the education, they signed up for with remote learning therefore it is the consensus we have paid for a service and not received that service so we should be entitled to some money back. This campaign was voted for by me and was passed.

 

The final day focussed on students mental health and I know this last year has been a strain on all of us and it has caused the mental health and wellbeing of students to plummet. From the discussion I had from other representatives it is clear that some universities are doing more than others to support their students with mental health issues and this just isn’t good enough. The NUS have found that over half of students say mental health is an issue for them. There is a lack of mental health provision and a lack of help from universities to tackle these issues causing our students mental health issues. They have also found that universities are focussing on ranks and ratings as the universities are ran like businesses which mean that students wellbeing is not a priority, however as I pointed out in the conference if the university is a business and we are their customers it is in the universities best interests to ensure we are safeguarded, supported and our wellbeing maintained in order to promote the university for future customers and to ensure we complete our courses and have a positive experience. The NUS are asking the government to fund better resources within each campus that will be tailored to meet all mental health issues they will have to provide specialist staff who can either offer support themselves or be able to signpost students to services that will meet their needs. The campaign itself was very vague and there were issues raised as to how they planned to fund this if the government were noncompliant. It would be nice to think that universities would increase their mental health provisions for their students, and I know how important this is under the circumstances so I did vote for the campaign and it was passed however I am slightly pessimistic as to whether this will benefit us as students and whether its even feasible.

 

I was deeply impressed by the NUS leaders and their passion I believe they really care about our experiences as students and want to really help make a difference. Our generation has been described as snowflakes so let’s embrace that term and take ownership of it. We maybe snowflakes because we know our rights and we will speak out if we feel those rights are being taken away from us as many have done before us. It is the only way the things we are unhappy with will ever change. It deeply saddens me that in 2021 we still must fight for equal rights and equal opportunities theses were rights given to us in the Human Rights Act and yet oppression and discrimination still exists. So let us be snowflakes that fines because together we can form a blizzard of change that will ensure that oppression and discrimination become something only read about in history books. We are all human beings; we all make mistakes it’s about taking ownership for those mistakes apologising and moving forward. This is how we come together, this is how we bring about change and this is how we form a blizzard.