9:00am - Team meeting with BCUSU delegates
9:30am – Opening talk by Larissa Kennedy (President of NUS)
“Keep your crumbs. We want the whole cake.”
The real passion and emotion that can be felt by students all over the UK this year was channelled beautifully by Larissa who opened the conference. Larissa has been a voice against student injustice over this past year and hearing her experiences and plans for the future was extremely inspiring.
She spoke on the mistreatment of students by the government both leading up to, and during the pandemic. The difficulty of student finances and support was touched upon where she called for the government to remember students are “people not pound signs”. This point really resonated with myself as I am sure it did with many others. The lack of responsibility the government has taken in regard to student finance (both maintenance and tuition fees) is appalling. Students are told by universities that they do not have the physical funds available to compensate students for the damage done to their learning this year. The government maintains that they are not responsible. Leaving students with nowhere to turn. To hear this spoken about on such a wide platform has made me realise that together we are many and cannot be ignored.
Another issue touched upon in the opening of the conference was the decolonisation of Further/Higher Education. This has been an ongoing issue which can be a complex and difficult issue to resolve due to the institutions in question are often built upon “historical genocide, enslavement, displacement and colonialism”. This topic led Larissa to introduce the next section of the conference….
10:00am – Speakers: Chante Joseph and Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan
Now I must admit as a middle class, cisgender, heterosexual, white, female, the issue of decolonisation was one that I had only heard whispers about. This introductory talk from the guest speakers really helped educate me on this topic along with a selection of others.
Chante Joseph shared her experience as a Students Union Officer when studying in Bristol. She shared her advice that students need to just dive into issues. They do not need to have a role or a title, but they need to be passionate and willing. I found this very motivating as I think so often students are reluctant to get involved in the issues they care about and feel that they do not have the power to make change when in fact it is enough to just jump in. She did follow this by speaking of her personal experience with online trolls and even negative press found within a popular mainstream newspaper. Describing the difficult period of time, Chante shared how under attack she felt and how much hatred was directed her way, which can quickly become damaging on a personal level. This can be the price that some pay for speaking out against long standing ideas and institutions. Chante’s message was clear: by continuing our activism in the face of difficulty, we will make change and students have a very important role to play in this.
One of the most important messages from Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan was that we are human, and we are imperfect. A lot of the time the intention behind the action is the most important. We must have humility and try our best and that is all you can be asked to do. She also shared the thought that those who have visibility have responsibility. This could be visibility in regard to a job or position or it could a social position – any area where your actions or voice will be seen or heard. If you hold such a position, you have a responsibility to use it to support those who may not. In support of Chante, Suhaiymah spoke about student activism and its importance. However, she also spoke about the risk that can come with publicly lending your time and voice to activism which was something I reflected on.
2:30pm - Collective Care in Practice with Rami Yasir
I won’t warble on about this workshop as it was largely artistically based – the results of which I will share below. This workshop looked at splitting into smaller groups and discussing with peers the subjects surrounding collective care and what barriers are there that prevent its success. It was a really nice approach to discussion – involving artistic expression of ideas and collaboration with others.
3:30pm - Debrief and Summary
Overall, I really enjoyed my first day at the NUS Conference. I felt like I learnt so much from others and at the end of the day education is the name of the game. I look forward to policy proposal and reviews tomorrow!