NUS Conference 2013

It was an early start on Monday as Steve & Sileaf boarded the train to Sheffield heading for the NUS Conference 2013. As first time delegates we were a little unsure what to expect, but were looking forward to joining over 1000 delegates from FE & HE Student Unions for three days of debate, discussion, fringe meetings and elections.

 

The conference got off to a great start with opening speeches from the NUS President & local MP before quickly moving on to the debates. This is the part we really enjoyed getting involved in; passing policy motions on the future of education, welfare, student debt to name a few made us appreciate the value of our opinions, especially when some motions passed / fell with only a few votes in between. We also had a chance to attend fringe events on topics including student engagement and overviews of the Pound in your Pocket & No Free Lunch campaigns.

 On the second day it was time to vote for the new NUS President and Vice Presidents for areas such as HE, FE, welfare & citizenship. The candidates worked hard for our votes and have given us lots of inspiration for our upcoming elections – neon capes could well be on the way! After reading the manifestos and hearing their speeches, we made our mark on the ballot papers. Special congratulations to Toni Pearce who was voted as the new NUS President and Joe Vinson as the VP for Further Education. We look forward to contacting them & collaborating on future campaigns.
 

One of the great advantages of attending conference was the opportunity to meet delegates from other colleges & universities, make new friends and discuss campaigns they have worked on. A big thank you to the ladies from Grimsby College who gave us lots of helpful info on a campaign they’ve worked on at their college. We plan to do something similar at our college, so watch this space!

We also had a chance to take a look at the facilities at Sheffield Hallam Student Union -we were very impressed with their table tennis tables! Whilst there we managed to get a quick photo with the Toni Pearce, this one is defiantly going up on our SU photo wall.

Steve & Sileaf with new NUS President Toni Pearce

 

How about these for the Green Room?

The final day brought voting for the block of 15 before it was time to head back to Oldham. Conference was a great experience and we cannot wait to put some of the campaign ideas into practice, exciting times ahead!