Introduction -

 

On the 15th and 16th of March 2023, Pedram (SU Co-President), Heather (Moorgate VP) and Vinayak (Leeds VP) travelled to a small town above Leeds by the name of Harrogate to attend the NUS National Conference 2023 representing the 19,000 University of Law students. In this article, we wanted to give you a glimpse of our time there and the ways we represented you! Firstly, let's establish what the NUS is:

 

What is the NUS? -

The National Union of Students (NUS) is a confederation of student unions in the United Kingdom. Around 600 student unions are affiliated and every year each student union sends a certain number of delegates to the annual NUS national conference to vote and discuss the urgent issues facing our students. The University of Law students union chooses their delegates from their elected representatives who will go to the conference along with one or two of the co-presidents.

 

Summary of the 2023 conference -

During the two days that we were there, we had countless discussions regarding student issues from lack of affordable housing to the accountability of the NUS officers. This conference brought together passionate representatives from all the Universities in the UK to discuss crucial issues students are facing today.

 

First Day -

The first day started with the opening and welcome event in which the NUS Officers gave a speech and laid out the structure of the debate. Afterwards, we received an introduction from the proposers of the policies that were going to be discussed. In the afternoon, we had the policy development sessions split by topic. The topics this year were cost of living, education, housing, NUS democracy and regional organising and International students! Myself, Heather and Vinayak each chose a topic to focus on. I chose to go to the international student policy discussion.

My highlight of the first day was sitting in a roundtable at the International student proposal discussion session next to other international students representing their University and from all over the world! From Peru to Dubai, I got the chance to work with them all. The beauty of it was that we all had much in common as migrants and International students studying in the UK. From the harsh process of getting into this country to the restrictive nature of the graduate visa, to the limited working hours during term time to the lack of support from the government. We even connected over the high tuition fees that are sometimes twice or triple what a local student would have to pay for the same service! I felt understood speaking with their great representatives and that showed me the power students have when they come together!

Heather chose to attend the cost of living policy discussion and her highlight was getting to hear from delegates in a ‘goldfish bowl’ in the centre of the room. This allowed for individual stories and takes to be expressed to a large group of people. This was particularly effective in the cost of living workshop as students could share their own stories about how the crisis has affected them. While these stories were upsetting to hear, they did foster a sense of camaraderie and meant that we could all work more effectively with one another to reach a common goal.

Vinayak decided to attend the housing policy discussion. The housing crisis is something that every student is facing right now and he strongly wants our SU to address it. In ULaw, undergrad students are provided with a guaranteed accommodation from the university, however, there is no such promise for postgrad students. This coupled with the limited housing available seriously impacts a lot of students, especially international students. Therefore, he attended the housing policy discussion and was able to discuss the housing issues and possible solutions with other delegates.

The discussion in itself was very well organised and we were able to brainstorm and debate within our groups. Vinayak highly admired the passion of the other delegates and their determination to address the crisis. However, he believes that there was a lack of awareness as many of the solutions proposed were outside the scope of SU’s or/and NUS. Regardless, there were many excellent proposals made that the NUS can consider taking action on. Overall, it was an amazing experience and the spirit of the delegates was phenomenal.

At night, we got the chance to explore what Harrogate has to offer from its huge Wetherspoons where we met many other delegates to the wide selection of restaurants where I enjoyed some of the best burgers that I have ever had! The night was young and many friendships were born. We were able to network with other delegates and get to know more people. We were able to discuss some of the policies in depth with them and understand their views and ideas.

 

Second Day -

The second day started with policy action workshops. I attended the strategic campaigning in the student movement session where I learned about mobilising students and the best strategies to use when campaigning on student issues. Vinayak attended the international student policy discussion. Being an international student, he was able to present my views to other delegates and actively participated in the debates. Some of the proposals discussed were raising/removing the 20hr work limit, the university acting as a guarantor for students, how university SUs can help the students and how the SUs and NUS can work together to achieve common objectives.

We critically discussed the proposals and came up with possible solutions, which were then debated openly. The delegates were then able to vote on ideas that they thought were viable. The issue here again was that students were not aware that some of the possible solutions could not be achieved by the NUS as they were outside its scope. Nevertheless, this was an informative experience for us and we were able to learn more about the contemporary issues being faced by students which we were previously unaware of.

For the second workshop, I attended the Housing and Cost of Living session where we continued to have general discussions and issues students are facing with little policy development. However, my attendance in this session was cut short as I saw in the delegate's group chat that another session regarding NUS accountability was getting heated. There was also supposed to be a NUS accountability panel but the NUS officers decided to move the reps from one hall to another smaller hall during the discussion which meant that there was not enough space for many delegates to attend.

I went into the new hall and the next 30 minutes were spent explaining the rules to angry delegates who felt that they did not get a chance to ask the tough questions and hold the officers into account. It was a mess, to say the least, but during those moments I understood the passion the representatives had and the possibility of that energy being channelled into student protests and students holding their Universities and the government into account. Unfortunately, due to the flaws of the NUS, the energy is currently being channelled inwards towards the NUS due to their lack of action and ability to get things done.

In the afternoon, we had live debates where delegates got the chance to argue for or against the proposals (which were 11 mini-proposals put into one). Unfortunately, the proposals lacked any detail which led to speeches that were a continuation of the feeling the delegates felt towards either Universities or the Government or Yugoslavia! (One of the speakers pulled out the Yugoslavian flag and went on an incoherent rant)!

The live debates could not have been about the specifics of the proposals because the proposals were vague but instead about shouting as loud as possible about causes that everyone in the room agreed upon and sympathised with. Lastly brings me to the flaws of the conference and the areas of improvement.

 

Areas of improvement -

The policy discussions during day 1 and the beginning of day 2 did not lead to detailed and clear proposals. I would argue that they had little to do with the proposals that were brought forward. Unfortunately, the structure of the sessions was too broad and we were encouraged to discuss “anything and everything” so there was not enough time to come up with actual resolutions to the limitless problems that the delegates pointed out.

The second day did not build upon the sessions that were had on the first day leading to a repeat of the same discussions again. We were encouraged to think about wide solutions regarding problems such as international students but that should not be the focus of a policy development session which already has a proposal to break down, go into depth with and discuss! These discussions like the live debate ended up being therapy sessions for students to either shout about the problems, speak badly about the government or use the platform as a stepping stone into local UK politics.

Unfortunately, I did not learn much during these two days and wish that for the next conference background information would be provided about each proposal and the discussions would be centred around one specific and detailed proposal such as the working hours for international students as an example. At the very least, delegates should be involved in further development sessions where they look at one part of a proposal, deeply research it and form an action plan with clear next steps and responsibilities delegates to specific SU’s, NUS officers and delegates.

Moreover, a report was provided from the NUS scrutiny panel which was only one page long with no details or action points at all. Many officers apparently did not even bother to show up to their own scrutiny panel. I spoke to many delegates who were extremely furious about this and the lack of effort put in by the NUS scrutiny panel. The NUS officer positions should be terminated if found to not be doing their roles and the delegates should be able to scrutinise their performance. But due to a scrutiny report that did not scrutinise, the delegates did not get to see what the NUS officer and the NUS are doing to address all the concerns the passionate delegates from all over the UK who attended the previous year's conferences brought to the national conference.

Many delegates left feeling that even the proposals proposed this year would just be lost in between the pile of unfinished manifesto promises, the vague proposals that were passed in previous years and the amount of work the NUS is doing to save its dying reputation due to limitless controversies. 

 

Conclusion -

I left the conference feeling hopeless about the NUS organisation’s ability to mobilise students or get anything done. However, I met many wonderful friends with whom I explored Harrogate and who I hope to keep in contact with for years to come both as friends and as colleagues with whom we can address local student issues and bring those issues to the attention of local councillors and politicians.

However, even with its flaws, the conference provided us with an opportunity to learn, network and gain insights into the policies discussed and helped us to gain ideas about how our SU can act for the welfare of our students. Overall, the NUS conference is a must-attend event for SU officers so that they can stay informed, connected and engaged with the greater student community.