I went to this event to represent the NEC and tap into issues that may affect the NUS Disabled Students’ Campaign and University of Sheffield Union of Students. What took place was a majority verdict that a broader conversation had been outlined that pushes forward with a national demonstration and making a bigger and better activist base more advantageous, particularly to those less politically orientated. I would certainly advocate the latter as it can often be too crushing to be stuck in the political quagmire, even though it is necessary.
We spoke little on the effect of the budget cuts in the arena specific to disabled students, as the event covered ‘the student body’ in its entirety, although I would argue that a majority of channels that University funding goes towards will affect the students I represent at some point during higher education. We discussed at length the lists of such channels including:
- Student numbers
- Student support services
- Quality control & monitoring
- IT provision Courses
- Bursaries & Scholarships
- Estate Management & Rents
- Staff Costs
It was our role to decipher what was most likely to be cut, and why, and if there ‘channels’ that affected all or most of the others which one would it be? Overall a very valuable insight and at first, an appreciated clash of viewpoints and judgements (leading to a negotiation of compromise). The majority of the conference concerned workshops and speeches by NUS full time officers (Aaron Porter and Usman Ali), Student Union Sabbatical Officers (Liverpool Guild of Students), and the UCU.
One workshop of note was coping with cuts to the student experience, where three different Unions gave their perspective of forthcoming reductions in University spending. I listened to in the workshop, and later spoke to RUSU officers, about the proposed cutbacks at Reading University to disability support, among other services. An outcome of this conference has been to ask for more information about this case specific occasion, but am fully aware that this is likely to be a repeated issue nationwide as budgets are tightened and disabled students are affected. Kings College London also referred to a similar situation. One to note is that in instances where disability support is reduced financially, the effect on the student is not always that their support measures are cut, but instead are delayed. That is one importance difference to define and the conference helped in that respect.
Finally, something that could affect us is the clash between widening participation by increasing student numbers versus a financial reduction. Would we get into a situation where participation is proudly endorsed with more students yet the student experience is compromised and people graduate disenchanted? It is imperative that the government sticks with the internal statistics, percentages and goals for disabled students that come to university, regardless of the amount of places each year.
I did get a little cheesed off at times at the characters wandering around with petitions as the guest speakers took stand to voice their part and considered this insensitive. I too disappreciated the slightly robotic applause at times that appeared to be operated on a puppet string, But on the whole this was very engaging, both as a networking event (even though I remained mostly quiet and reserved) and as an opener of new opinion. It also made a case in hand that if Student Unions are to do a national demonstration about Higher Education funding, then they aught to do so effectively, organised in advance and a date set quickly for it to be successful. Mobilising the troops must commence.
Chrisadvisor 