NUS Conference - Policy

Ok, this may sound really boring, but each year at conference unions submit motions, which then get debated. If they pass, they become NUS policy and the officers are mandated to carry them out over the next 12 months.

Motions fall under four zones - Education, Strong and Active Unions, Welfare and Society and Citizenship. Each zone gets allocated a certain amount of time to be discussed, but unfortunately there is not time to discuss all motions. This year, the education zone was first and it ended up taking the most time which is fair enough, as we are all here for an education, but it also meant that very little Society and Citizenship policy was passed, which is important to a lot of people.

Some motions of note that passed:
1. If you're a PG student, good news - the NUS are now mandated to lobby the government regarding PG funding. Obviously undergrad courses are government funded (to a certain extent) but PG courses are completely marketised - but hopefully this motion will kick start a debate around this issue (I voted for this)
2. Policy has also been passed to continue to support degree reform so that extra curricular activities are included in degree classifications. I voted against this because I think it is subject to terrible abuse from people who just do something for their CV without caring, and also devalues the hard work that people do on their degrees and other activities who still do well.
3. More policy was passed mandating the NUS executive to lobby the government for an alternative funding system, and to demand student (NUS) presence on the government review group. I voted for this.
4. If you're more interested in student groups than representing, then fear not - NUS now has policy to strengthen the networks for activities officers (such as Rich) to share best practice and to increase the work they do with other organisations such as BUCS. I voted for this.
5. There is now policy against initiations - I voted for this.
6. The NUS will now be more involved in promoting student rights at work - if you are being exploited by your employer, and if you are working to help fund your degree, then the NUS will be doing a lot of research and lobbying into this, as well as presenting the findings of this to be included in the 2009 fees review. I voted for this!
7. Policy has also been passed regarding responsible drinking. This means that NUSSL (the commercial branch of the NUS who supply bars) may be forced to operate minimum pricing in the bars it supplies (Birmingham Guild is one of them) to ensure that students drink more responsibly - higher prices = less alcohol consumed apparently. The VP Welfare at NUS is also mandated to lobby supermarkets regarding their prices as they are often low for alcohol. I voted for this - but I must say I sort of regret this. From my point of view, with responsibility for finance, which is as perfectly valid as any other, higher prices will drive away students from the Guild, to places in town or Selly Oak that are often less...interested in student welfare, which is bad for all involved. Plus, less people will spend their money in the Guild which means less funding....bad times!


I must say, I was disappointed by the level of debate that was held. Almost every debate focussed on the recession, and it felt that every time we debated a motion, the same old arguments were coming up again and again. Big respect to the delegate who stood up and spoke against the votes at 16 motion - although I disagreed, it was a new argument that hadn't been heard.
It was also interesting to see the content of the motions - only one was on student housing which I would say is one of the biggest issues to students at Birmingham...
The outcomes were also fairly predictable, due to the fact that motions are often backed by factions, and therefore have block votes which swing it one way or the other - conference would have been more unpredictable if this wasn't the case!