Recently, the Sabbatical Officers went to the largest student gathering in Europe: the National Union of Students National Conference. We're here with a rundown of our trip to Blackpool!
Hannah Hockin and Sharanya Sivarajah
President | VP Education
From Wednesday 17 to Thursday 18 April, the Sabbatical Officers went to the largest student gathering in Europe: the National Union of Students National Conference.
NUS represents almost all students across the country and at the National Conference, 800 students, and sabbatical officers decide NUS’ priorities and shape their lobbying agenda.
We're here with a rundown of our trip to Blackpool!
Day 1
The conference took place at Blackpool Winter Gardens, which is also used for the Strictly Come Dancing finals, so you can imagine how impressive the ballroom and conference centre was.
The first day started with an introduction from the NUS Full-time Officer team and the Democratic Procedures Committee. After, we had a panel discussion called ‘Centreing Our Humanity’ which focused on fighting back against antisemitism and islamophobia on our campuses. In the afternoon, we attended policy development workshops. The workshops are all about discussing our opinions and collating ideas.
We attended ‘For Our Future: Reform to NUS Democracy and Organising’. This policy proposes the following:
- Separate ‘England’ and ‘UK’
- Create flexible membership structures with more engagement opportunities for both students’ unions and students directly
- Invest in international student representation
- Set up the Liberation Collective to have a formal link to NUS
We discussed how the reform can deliver autonomy and effectiveness for our members.
If you’d like to know more about the reform, these slides break down what is being proposed. After, the policy workshop, we went back to the Airbnb for a quick break and to reply to emails!
For the close of the day, we headed back to Winter Gardens. The plenary included a conversation on general election actions and NUS full-time officer accountability.
Day 2
On Day 2, we headed back for further policy and debate on numerous topics. We chose to attend the sessions around Votes at 16 and NUS’ Turn Up Campaign.
‘Votes at 16’ is aimed at lobbying to lower the voting age to 16 to allow earlier political participation from young people. We discussed what the pushbacks would be – stereotypes about young people being immature and not knowing anything about politics, and found ways to combat them. We know young people contribute heavily to society and deserve a say in which government represents them. It's time to allow them to decide who leads the country!
We then attended the Turn Up session to find out more about the campaign which encourages students and young people to register and vote in the next general election. It was extremely helpful to hear what other Sabbs had done to engage their students in the lead-up to the next general election and to share best practice. We need to ensure that students are at the forefront of the next general election and enact the change they want to see. We recently met Dr Ben Spencer, MP for Runnymede and Weybridge, to discuss what our students need from the government. You can read our blog here.
The end of the conference included debating and voting on the policies that we felt were most important to the student movement. We hope to see fruitful campaigns from the NUS, and a prioritisation of student needs in the upcoming year!
Since the Conference...
After the conference, all NUS delegates vote online either passing, rejecting or abstaining from the range of policies and reports. See below for the results!
Results of voting on policies
Results of voting on reports
- Democratic Procedures Committee Report - PASSED
- Deputy Returning Officer Report - PASSED
- National Scrutiny Council Report - PASSED
- NUS UK Board Report - PASSED
- Officer Accountability - PASSED
We look forward to seeing the implementation of these policies and how they will positively impact the student movement.