Blog Part 3

Blog Mark Three

Hello everybody!!!

I know I haven’t blogged for ages so I’ll just give you a quick run down of what I have been up too. And unusually for me something fairly party political!

Any way since the last blog I have been busy! I went to Lib Dem conference in the beginning of September and I was proud to support a motion that made campaigning for an equal minimum wage for everyone party policy. Secondly LDYS (Liberal Democrat Youth and Students) put forward an emergency motion on the protection of Darfur this was not only the best motion of the whole conference but the Darfuri asylum seeker who had a longer standing ovation than any other person who spoke on any motion.

Also while at Lib Dem conference I went to the policy commission on Higher and further education and made a case for universal grants and a funding system that takes into account of non traditional undergraduate students such as mature and part time students.

Also in relation to Houses of Multiple occupancy I lobbied various councillors about their views and said the idea of any quota is entirely illiberal. One final point, I am proud to say that the Lib Dems are still the only major party which has policy for maintaining free education.

Moving on, I also have been to a few fresher’s fairs over the past month, including Plymouth University Student Union, Swansea Uni Student Union (my old union), Portsmouth and also UBU, all of which we had a fabulous uptake of everything. We got tonnes of people interested in being part of the Course Reps body in Swansea, Student media in Portsmouth, Parliament in Plymouth and finally housing in Bristol. It was awesome to see so many interested faces and reminded me of my first year when I first got involved.

I also attended the Campaigns convention, which was good to meet people out side of my region and have discussions on the education supermarket and the block of tills.

Also been to NEC meetings and the HE and FE joint meeting looking at HE in FE, which is one of the fastest growing sectors in education right now and something that exists in Cornwall due to the roll of partner colleges with Exeter, Plymouth and Falmouth all franchising courses to FE institutions!

A blog on Governance that will come soon!!!

Any way that’s all from me, again phone me on 07973566325 or drop me an email at tom.stubbs@nus.org.uk I would love to here from you!