Balance Your Books

One of my manifesto promises was to make the mentor scheme more dynamic and inspiring, and during my hustings I spoke a lot about making the campaigns that the student mentor scheme runs more relevant and pro active.

The first campaign that I have fed into was launched this week, and can be viewed on the Guild website here.

Balance Your Books is a campaign which addresses the financial difficulties that many students face, and offers easy advice and sources of information. Last year at NUS regional conference, we were presented with a cheque to represent the massive underspend on the part of our University on bursaries. This means that students were entitled to financial help from the University, and for some reason or another, did not recieve it.

This makes it clear that many students are confused by the bursary system, which is riddled with complexity.The campaign aims to heighten the awareness of financial help available to our students, how to apply, and where to find the support to guide you through your application.

The campaign is so relevant in the current economic climate, with the expected increase in food and fuel costs more and more students are going to find themselves in serious financial difficulties.

Check out the website- which has loads of information and a budget planner that you can download

Broke and Broken- NUS Video

NUS Broke and Broken Report

Guild TV News

The first Guild Council of the year...

Last night was the first meeting of Guild Council (and also the first official post GC curry of the year- see photo)

It was a good meeting we had some good debates- and it finished at a reasonable time- an advantage that we are rarely awarded. It was also great to see some new faces in the room.

Guild Council voted on 11 motions all together, but I am most excited about the following...

-> to call NUS Extraordinary conference, and vote in favour of the reform proposals
-> To stock One Water in our bars and to lobby The Spar, and other outlets on campus to stock One Water and One Condoms (woop!)
-> To endorse the NUS 11 Point Manifesto on Sexual Health
-> To look into creating a Guild letting agent
-> And also an enforcement of having an affiliated Taxi company, and relaunching the night bus!

Broke and Broken- Students in the Red

I wrote blogs over the summer, on why HE is unfair and why we need a fairer funding system. If any of you were at my introductory talks during Welcome Week you would have heard me speak about the 2009 review of the cap on tuition fees and the national campaign for a fairer funding system.

Ben Whittaker, from the NUS National Executive Committee (NEC) was also at our fresher's fairs explaining the national campaign (see picture).

Variable fees represent the biggest threat to students in years- student debt is reaching record levels. The whole system is underpinned by an overly complex bursary and support system, typified by massive inequality.

This is why the National Union of Students (NUS) passed policy at annual conference, to oppose the marketisation of higher education and demand that the national campaign addresses all of the failures in the current system.

Vice President (Education and Access) Tom Marley will be writing a series of blogs to keep you informed on the campaign, but I am going to use this blog to tell you about the upcoming West Midlands Area NUS (WMANUS) action.

WMANUS are holding a regional day of action, which will take place some time in November (date to be confimed). The regional campaign will include action on individual campuses, and then a regional collective rally with speakers. The theme of the day is students in the red, and every MP and Vice Chancellor in the region will recieve a red suprise! Keep reading for updates!

Calling Student Parents

The National Union of Student's Welfare and Women's campaigns, have combined to conduct research on the experiences of students with children in both further and higher education. The results of this research will be utlisied to shape the NUS campaigns on improving the experience of students with children in the future.

"We know from the research that we have already carried out that learners can face problems to do with student finance and benefits, course organisation and childcare, and that studying with children can sometimes be an isolating and stressful experience. We also know that individuals and their families benefit enormously from parental education and that further and higher education can have a huge impact on child poverty and children's educational attainment."

The survey should take 15-20 minutes to complete, and everyone who completes it will have the chance to be entered into a draw to win one of three £50 High Street Vouchers.
The survey results are completely anonymous and can be completed here

Central Kitchen

The sabbatical officer group were lucky enough to get an invitation to University Central Kitchen over on The Vale last week. We got a tour of the HUGE kitchen, which produces 37,000 meals per week, for all catering outlets across campus.

We went all around the kitchens, through walk in fridges with very tempting cakes, saw Fresh Thinking- where many student groups and the RAs get food for events and even a fridge just for cheese. WOW WOW WOW.

Some fun facts from the tour....

-> The kitchen use non alcoholic wine in their recipes- to cater for students with specific dietary requirements
-> They get through 39,000 kgs of chips each week
-> And 15 litres of soup per day!
-> AND 140 cucumbers

I will add more facts when the rest of the sabbs remind me what they were!
We are all off to the Hub at Shackleton soon for tea- will let you know how Central Kitchen fair up!

Abortion Rights

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill was debated in the last session of parliament, before the summer recess. The Bill was established to update the 1990 Act- however amendments to restrict abortion law were tabled during the passage of the bill.

During this time, the Guild of Students passed policy to enforce our pro choice position- opposing amendments to decrease the time limit for women wishing to have an abortion and solidifying our commitment to the belief that it is the right of individual women to decide what happens to their own bodies.

The amendments were an area of contentious and intense debate, but they eventually fell by 233 in favour to 304 votes against. Members of last years sabbatical team- Laura, Naush, Rhea and Lizzy went to parliament to join the Abortion Rights lobby and even got snapped by BBC News.

In addition to my role at the Guild of Students, I also help out with the West Midlands Area NUS Women's Campaign. Along with Sophie Kettell, WMANUS Convenor I attended a public meeting in the Houses of Parliament in October, regarding further amendments tabled regarding abortion law, due to be debated on the 22nd of October. Such amendments included extending abortion law to Northern Ireland, letting women take the abortion pill in the comfort of their own homes and removing the law that requires women to visit two doctors before an abortion is approved.

Other amendments, designed to restrict abortion law were tabled, including enforcing a 'cooling off' period before an abortion is approved and increasing the number of doctors required to approve the procedure. After attending this meeting, I set about the task of writing to every MP in the West Midlands, urging them to vote accordingly on all relevant amendments when the Bill is in its final stages of debate (check out the stack of letters in the first photo!).

With allegations of fillibusters and procedural motions to push specific amendments off the agenda, and thus away from the governmental radar, Abortion Rights organised another lobby outside parliament.

Myself and some of the Women's Network Association went along to show our support the Abortion Rights movement, and our solidarity to the women of Northern Ireland (see second picture).