► NUS Scotland

NUS Scotland Conference (6^th-7^th March) 2010 Report

Delegation: Susan Duncan (delegation leader), Samantha Phillips, Scott Winchester. Apologies for absence received from Daniel Copithorn and Alex Crichton.

Day 1

Opening remarks from Liam Burns (NUS Scotland President). Keynote address from Mike Russell (Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong learning). Highlights from speech and questions included Mike Russell stating that the Government does not believe that tuition fees are the way to go and a pledge that tuition fees will not come in to play in Scotland. A question from conference floor regarding why SAAS stop funding at the age of 52 led Mike Russell to say that he would discuss this with SAAS.

Liam Burns introduced the Scottish Executive report to conference and the Scottish Executive committee then took questions on it.  The report showed how NUS Scotland won more money in students’ pockets this year, with £30 million extra in funding secured to help the poorest students and £2 million for childcare. As well as a tenancy deposit scheme where students will have an independent service to turn to if they feel that a landlord is unfairly withholding a deposit. The President also spoke of how they had secured funding for a pilot project for Student Led  Learning and Teaching awards and about the NUS Scotland Think Positive mental health campaign. For a look at the full report, please ask the Depute President, Education & Welfare or go to http://resource.nusonline.co.uk/media/resource/IMPACT%20REPORT%20WEB.pdf

Motions and their results, as well as election results can be found later in the report.

Day 2

Day two was taken up by elections, workshops and NUS Scotland Unwrapped. Election results and workshop reports can be found later in the report.

NUS Scotland Unwrapped

NUS Scotland Unwrapped is a review into the governance structures of NUS Scotland. Suggestions raised by NUS Scotland Scottish Executive Committee included a structure similar to the NUS UK with “zones” instead of Scottish Council. Zones would include such like Education zone.

Motions

Zone 1: Higher Education

Motion 1 : Postgraduate student representation  (Submitted by Edinburgh University Students’ Association)

This motion resolved to create a permanent position on the SEC (Scottish Executive Committee) for a postgraduate student representative, to create a postgraduate student committee and to madate the SEC to actively seek funding for postgraduate issue based projects.

Amendment 1 to Motion 1 (submitted by SEC)

This amendment resolved to delete all of the conference resolves from motion 1 and replace with mandating the SEC to integrate devolved and Scotland-specific postgraduate student issues into the work of NUS Scotland, to continue to seek innovative ways of engaging international students and to ensure that NUS UK takes its UK wide remit for postgraduate student issues seriously.

The amendment to motion 1 fell (SAUWS delegation voted for the amendment) and then motion 1 passed (SAUWS delegation voted against the motion).

Motion 2: Engagement with University League tables (submitted by Aberdeen University Students’ Association)

This motion basically stated that NUS should engage with University league tables, as a lot of students use these tables to make judgements and that this is unlikely to change. However this motion asked that NUS Scotland engage with the compilers of these league tables to improve the kinds of information that is available to students, so that the information better reflects what students and the student movement believe are important components of quality student experiences and quality institutions. The motion also mandated NUS Scotland to campaign to keep HE funding separated from any form of league table.

Amendment 1 to Motion 2 (submitted by Edinburgh University Students’ Association)

This amendment resolved to insert “to lobby NUS UK to” in front of the statements in the main motion which involved NUS engaging with the compilers of league tables as the compilers and commissioners of league tables and other publicly available statistical resources have UK-wide remits, and so this is not a Scotland-specific issue.

Amendment 1 to motion 2 passed (SAUWS delegation voted For this amendment) which changed motion 2 as stated above. With the changes included, motion 2 then passed (SAUWS delegation voted For this motion)

Zone 2: Strong & active unions

Motion 1: Finding Scottish funding for environmental projects (submitted by Aberdeen University Students’ Association)

This motion highlighted how externally funded projects run by NUS UK are not open to Scottish Student Associations, as Climate change is a devolved issue and so external funding opportunities are often specific to Scotland. The motion asked for NUS Scotland to help students’ associations in finding these funding opportunities and helping them to apply for them.

Motion 1 passed (SAUWS delegation voted For this motion)

Motion 2: International Students’ Officer at NUS Scotland (submitted by Stirling University Students’ Association)

This motion instructed that a position for an International Students officer be created at the next Governance review.

Amendment 1 to motion 2 (submitted by Edinburgh Napier Students’ Association)

This amendment basically asked for an international student officer and a sub-committee of four international students to aid the work of the international student officer

Amendment 2 to motion 2 (submitted by NUS Scotland Executive Committee)

This amendment resolved to delete the instruction to create an international student officer and instead to mandate the SEC to integrate devolved international student issues into the mainstream work of NUS Scotland and to make sure that NUS UK takes its UK wide remit for international student issues seriously.

There were parts taken on amendment 2, which were to remove one part of the conference resolves which would mean that the motion would no longer mandate the SEC to integrate international student issues into their work and would not ensure that NUS UK takes its UK wide remit for international student issues seriously and the conference resolves from the main motion would not be removed. The vote was taken and the parts were removed (SAUWS abstained). With changes, a vote was then taken on amendment 2 which passed (SAUWS abstained). Amendment 1 to motion 2 fell (SAUWS delegation voted against the motion). Motion 1 (with changes) passed (SAUWS delegation voted against).

Motion 3: Election Caps (submitted by Robert Gordon University Students’ Association)

This motion resolved to introduce a cap to the budgets that each candidate can use to campaign for NUS Scotland Sabbatical positions.

Amendment 1 to motion 3: NUS Scotland elections (submitted by NUS SEC)

This amendment would mandate NUS to conduct a review of election procedures according to a number of principles.

A move was then made to make amendment 1 an “add” amendment, which would mean that it would not delete or change anything in the main motion, instead that the amendment in its entirety would be added on to the main motion. This passed (SAUWS delegation for) and then the amendment passed (SAUWS delegation for). A vote was then taken on the amended main motion which passed (SAUWS delegation for).

Zone 3: Welfare & Student Rights

Motion 1: The Government should meet National Insurance Contributions on behalf of full-time students (submitted by Perth College Students’ Association, Lews Castle College Students’ Association and UHI Millennium Institute Students’ Association)

This motion would mandate NUS Scotland, and NUS UK, to lobby the UK government to meet a pre-determined level of National Insurance contributions for all students whilst in full-time education in order that they can secure full job seekers’ allowance in the event of their struggling to secure employment upon completion of their course.

The motion passed (SAUWS delegation for).

Motion 2: HMO Housing costs (submitted by Aberdeen University Students’ Association)

This motion would ask the Scottish Government to undertake an inquiry into the costs of HMO licences and the effects of this on the local supply of affordable rented accommodation, as there seems to be a great deal of variation in cost across the country.

This motion passed (SAUWS delegation for).

Motion 3: Appropriate rents for Halls of Residence (submitted by Edinburgh College of Art Students’ Association)

This motion would mandate the Scottish Executive Committee to put pressure on private halls of residence providers, such as United and IQ, to lower their rents.

The motion passed (SAUWS delegation for).

Elections

President Election

After lunch there was a rather exciting election for President. Current NUS Scotland President Liam Burns was standing against competition in the form of Nathan Sparling from Edinburgh Napier Students’ Association. The elections took a new form this year, with the traditional 5 minute speech from each candidate still taking place, but more of a debate style round for the questions which were taken directly from conference floor. I personally felt that this worked better, however the downside was that there was no well of telling if the questions were going to be suitable until they had been asked!

After the debate everyone voted and ballot papers were collected. Later on in the day it was announced that current NUS Scotland President Liam Burns had been re-elected.

Depute President Election

Jennifer Cadiz was the only candidate standing for election for Depute President and was elected.

Scottish Executive Committee

There were eleven candidates standing for the six Scottish Executive positions, which are part time positions. Two of these positions are always held for Further Education (FE) students, to ensure that FE is always represented. The remaining four places are open to any delegates standing, whether they are FE or Higher Education (HE). The six people elected were ; Graeme Kirkpatrick (Aberdeen College); Becka Entwhistle (Shetland College); Claire Rackley (Edinburgh University); Robin Parker (Aberdeen University); Philip Whyte (Strathclyde University); Murray Hope (Heriott-Watt University).

Mature Student Officer

Mature Students Officer is a part time positions which is elected by a meeting of mature students at NUS Scotland Conference. Alana Johnston was elected for this position.

Workshops

Mental Health Campaigning: No, distributing leaflets is not the same thing

Attended by Susan Duncan

This workshop built on the existing NUS Scotland project called “Think Positive”. The campaign focuses on how to take steps for yourself for positive mental health, with booklets and Frisbees being given out at freshers fayres across Scotland and also at other events throughout this year. Students have been filling in questionnaires during this time. Once the results of the questionnaires have been finalised, NUS Scotland will run a campaign on the thing which students find the most stressful while at University.

Carbon reduction on your campus workshop

Attended by Scott Winchester

At NUS Scottish Conference 2010, Dunfermline, I attended a workshop on “Carbon reduction on your campus”.The aim of the workshop was to take a look at where Carbon emissions are generated on your campus and explore the role that students can play in reducing them. The workshop was led by Ruth Bush and is part of a pilot project called “Student Footprints - Tackling Carbon in the Community” and was launched in July 2009. It works with colleges and universities in Scotland, providing opportunities for students to gain valuable carbon auditing skills whilst empowering us to make positive changes to sustainability practices within our institutions and in our local communities.The workshop was more of a practical one, than of theory and was very interactive. We where each split up into small groups and the host(s) supplied each group with cards displaying different utilities that use Carbon, i.e. transport, food, education, etc. We were then freely allowed to discuss and decide the environmental issues of each sub-group and then had to arrange them in order of what utility used the most carbon, i.e. Transport: plane, car, train, bus, etc. The second part of the workshop was to assign percentages to each sub-group to ascertain which individual utility used the largest amount of carbon in that group. I really enjoyed this workshop as it got you thinking on the different areas of your own Carbon footprint and the impact that you make on your campus and within your local community.

Vote for Students

Attended by Samantha Phillips

Workshop sessions 1 as it was titled within our Conference information booklet had the choice between four different options. I attended number four titled “Vote for Students”. The workshop was delivered by Susan Nash, NUS Vice-President (society and citizenship). During the course advice was given on campaigning techniques and resources for the NUS Vote for Students campaign. The Vote for Students campaign aims to stop any increase in tuition fees by forcing prospective parliamentary candidates for the General Election to pledge not to. She stated that if fees were to rise in England, it would have a devastating effect in Scotland. So far the Liberal Democrats are the only whole party to sign the pledge, followed by Labour and finally Conservatives. Only ten out of all the Conservative PPC (prospective parliamentary candidates) have signed the pledge, deemed very disappointing. www.voteforstudents.co.uk Is a website set up by NUS and asks Students to use there vote in the forthcoming general election to support candidates that would vote against any increase in fees in the next Parliament, and would therefore pressure the government to introduce a fairer alternative.  By signing up to the pledge you will help NUS put pressure on candidates and make them outline their position on fees. Non students are also encouraged to sign up as well, this providing even more support for the campaign. Advice was given on how to get students on our campuses to enrol so they are able to vote in the up and coming General Election- www.aboutmyvote.com . Other ideas to inform students to enrol where given such as sending emails to student email accounts and having forms within Student Unions. I found this workshop very insightful as I had never really thought that any increase in fees within England would have any effect in Scotland. It also reiterated the importance of registering and actually voting.