Random Variable

Everything you need to know about the future careers of the NUS executive:

A couple of months ago, Peter Levine asked just how representative the NUS (UK National Union of Students) actually is. The answer, is not very much.

Having spent a day compositing in the Drafting Commissions, it has become clear to me that the NUS is run by careerists from a bunch of factions – mainly in line with New Labour or to its right.

Very few members of the National Executive Committee seem to understand that they have been elected, and paid, to represent students, not their ideological position, or their ladder up political party leadership.

Birkbeck lost the right to speak on most of its motions, either having them shoved to the end of the zones where they wont get discussed, or having our motions radically altered by partisan members of the NEC.

In addition, the NEC refuses to have genuine debates on topics of interest, instead keeping trivial, consensual motions high on the agenda in order to preserve the status quo, and make it look like they’ve been doing actual work this year. Some of the NEC’s motions have more research going into them than the amount they’ve conducted all year.

The tactics used by the partisan members of the NEC in Labour Students and Organised Independents bordered on outright bullying. They do not seem to understand that we reach the final motions through consensus, not through swinging all our partisan proxies around.

We were told that we don’t need the NUS to help us since we have the University of London Union (which has a zero campaigning budget), and we have not been invited to take part in the Campaigning Alliance for Lifelong Learning, despite Birkbeck College being one of the country’s largest lifelong learning institutions. When NUS president Wes Streeting was speaking at a government select committee in February, the chair turned to our representative and said “this is a full-time debate, isn’t it? We’re not talking about part-time students.” Afterwards, an MP quietly asked us if we were members of the NUS, to which we informed them we were founding members. With the lack of action from NUS on Equivalent and Lower Qualification (ELQ) cuts, we’re left wondering whether or not there’s been a tacit agreement with the government not to discuss the disastrous funding cuts for mature students.

So why does Birkbeck actually pay £11,000 a year (going up to £17,000 from this year), when we will have even less representation on conference floor from next year.

For now, roll on Annual Conference.