I believe that higher education has

transformational potential, not just for students,

but also for communities, both local and global.

My fundamental belief in this transformational

quality makes me believe so passionately that

HE needs to be accessible to everyone. We

have to celebrate it, and show the huge benefits

that it brings to our lives, politics, cultures and

economies.

Higher education is too important to be left to

politicians and university management. Students

are equals; we need to be partners in all aspects

of creating knowledge and protecting future

generations’ access to transformational

experiences.

We have reached a seminal point in UK Higher

Education and our HE campaign. The decisions

that we make now will affect how students

engage in their education forever. There is a

danger that students have accepted the premise

of a marketised higher education – a private

luxury, not a societal necessity.

Our biggest challenge is the fight to rebuild our

public education system. Together we need to

ensure educational experiences that work for every

student. When we talk about quality, or innovation

in the classroom, or the student experience, we do

it as an equal in the creation of knowledge, not as

a consumer.

In order to achieve these objectives, I have

focused on six areas:

1. Universities are a Public Good;

Transformational, Inspirational Higher

Education

2. It’s a Partnership; Students are Partners in

Knowledge Creation

3. Widening Access to Education

4. Thriving at University; Retention

5. Through the Prism of a Postgrad

6. Mature and Part-time Students

Rachel x

RACHEl WEnSTonE for nUS Vice PresidentHigher EducationExTEndEd MAnIfESTo

voterachel.co.uk

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twitter.com/rachel_wenstone

rachel.wenstone@nus.org.uk

Education is a fundamental element in creating a better world.

The national Campaign - Public Value, Public funding

The public value of HE is under

attack. We’re experiencing a

continuous erosion, at force for years,

eating away at the core principle

of universal access to education.

I fear that in 5 years students and

society will have forgotten that

there was ever a debate to be had

about HE. It is already accepted that

arts and humanities are unworthy

of public funding. It is frightening

that government has decreed that

only courses they deem to have

commercial value get funding. If we

cannot convince society that higher

education is a public good, we can

forget about winning back public

funding, stopping the growth of

private provision, keeping a cap and

preventing upfront fees.

The student movement has always

known that education is a social

leveller. We know it creates growth

in the economy; society looks

to innovation for a better future.

But universities have failed to

understand, failed to evidence

and failed to tell a compelling story

about their own public value. So if

universities have failed to make the

case, we have start shouting louder.

I will create a UK-wide campaign on

the public good of HE – a pro-active

movement, to renew the passion

seen on the streets of our towns and

cities around the country last year,

and to create a new generation of

advocates for education. We need

to win guarantees from all political

parties to reinvest funding into higher

education.

The TUC ‘Pensions Justice’ action on

November 30th, was successful in

creating public understanding and

sympathy. Despite the Government

spin operation, their action received

huge public support, of the sort

we urgently need to build. Millions

of trade union members and the

public protested on a national issue,

locally, where it hit them hardest.

The TUC’s action was local, personal,

meaningful.

This is what we need to create – a

broad and unified movement,

articulating our vision for HE and

fighting for the return of public funding.

We need to empower students to

take action on their own campuses,

in their own cities -united across

the country. We need coordinated

action, where students take to the

streets to remind their communities,

local government and the UK as

whole how important education really

is. We need to create a movement

in which all tactics are an option,

where we can celebrate the width

of our movement and the power of

those who believe in our cause.

The local Campaign – owning the Education narrative

The new fees regime has changed

the way we are told to engage

in education – from partners to

consumers, from education as

a public good, to an individual

consumable. Students are

encouraged to take degrees they

can afford and once in university, to

demand value for money.

But what is it that really makes

a degree special, that makes a

university experience unique?

We have to redefine how we measure the value of higher education in the UK today

• We are often unable to articulate

the skills we have learnt at

university. We should highlight

life skills, such as tolerance and

diplomacy, showing that learning

is not just useful for an individual’s

financial benefit

• The relationship between students

and lecturers is the real measure

of quality on our campuses and

in our lecture theatres. We need

to celebrate the partnership

between students and staff,

the necessary and meaningful

relationships that create a real

academic community

• Academic collaborations

between students and staff are

essential for creating knowledge

in our society. We should highlight

where students are co-creators

of knowledge, research and

teaching, and put students as

producers back on the national

agenda

• Universities play a vital role in

creating communities, bringing

together people from a variety

of cultural backgrounds. The

attack on international student

visas undermines this. We

need to defend the values of

internationalisation, broadening

the horizons of British students

and our members from all over

the world

1. Universities are a Public Good

Students are partners in knowledge

creation. Students’ unions, therefore,

need to work in partnership, as

equals, alongside their institution to

ensure the best university experience

for their members. Students’ unions

need to be equipped to take the

opportunity to set the priorities of

their institution. I will support this work

through:

1. Celebrating good teaching - Student led Teaching AwardsStudents’ unions and NUS have done

some incredible work at developing

these awards, locally and nationally.

They are vital if we are to create

a sector based on the prospect of

partnership, creating co-ownership

over good teaching.

Student led Teaching Awards are

a powerful tool in empowering

students to define what quality feels

like in their institution. SlTAs should

be recognised as a key measure

of real quality in our institutions

– a qualitative measure of the

relationship between students and

their tutors.

STLAs will help us create evidence-

based minimum standards of

teaching. This will help us address

the deficit in teaching quality,

experienced by students across

the UK. Students deserve lecturers

who are given teacher training

throughout their careers, something

that the HE sector does not ensure.

Teaching should be a prominent

criterion for academic promotion.

In the past, career progression

focused on research excellence, but

teaching should also be an integral

part of this process. I will lobby the

mission groups nationally to ensure

this is applied and empower officers

to campaign on this locally, along

with institutional teaching staff.

2. Partnership Agreements (Student Charters)Partnership agreements bridge the

gap between students and staff,

between expectation and delivery of

the academic experience. I believe

that they should be at the heart of

every institution.

Learning is an active process, and

partnership agreements highlight

that students and staff are co-

producers of knowledge. They

reinforce the fundamental principle

that education cannot be bought.

They are vital tool at redressing

the power imbalance between

institutions and students, by creating

mutual expectations.

Student charters were never

intended to create contracts; a

legalistic, rights based framework

will create a consumerist approach

to education, and create the false

notion of student consumer power.

Quality is something created by

meaningful relationships between

students and staff, by mutual

expectation, not by demands in a

charter.

Partnership agreements place the

students’ union at the very heart of

ensuring quality for their members.

If partnership agreements are to be

effective, students’ unions need to

be at the centre of the negotiations,

ensuring their members are at the

very core of what the university

does. We must lobby government to

make them a compulsory element of

university life, and universities need

to evidence how they have worked

with the students’ union to develop

their agreement. If partnership

agreements are to live and breathe,

they should be voted on by a cross-

campus ballot of all students and

understood locally by course reps

and course staff.

Students’ unions have always known

that a university experience is more

than how we learn. Partnership

agreements should include not just

expectation on how our degrees

are delivered, but every element of

the university – from extra curricular

opportunities to administrative

support, and welfare services to

community relations.

2. It’s a Partnership; Students are Partners in Knowledge Creation

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Partnership is the key to quality

education, not just HE. I will work with

the FE campaign to bring partnership

work into colleges, so we’re able to

shape education as a partnership for

all.

3. Students where the decisions are madeStudent positions on university

councils or governing bodies offer a

unique opportunity for the students’

union to feed in and challenge the

University directly. When Universities

passed £9k fees through their

Councils last year, sabbs across

the country felt disempowered to

act in those meetings; institutions

had clearly decided the outcome.

But governors have a responsibility

towards the reputation of the

organisation, not just their finances

– universities are not for profit

institutions, and their behaviour

should reflect this.

We have to recognise that more and

more decisions are taking place in

University management executive

groups, away from the scrutiny of

students and staff. University senates

and academic boards are a vital

tool in scrutinising the decisions of

the senior management. We have to

challenge what those decisions are,

where those decisions are taken and

by whom. It is our duty to protect the

public money still left in Universities,

and protect the money students are

paying, and shape the future of our

institutions.

We need to challenge the

composition of university governing

bodies and courts. Currently, white

middle-class business men are

disproportionately represented. The

strength of our movement comes

from our diversity, and ensuring that

university-governing bodies become

more diverse will enhance the

scrutiny of management decisions.

I will ensure NUS provides the

necessary training on often-complex

issues, such as resource allocation,

so student governors understand

the implications of decisions being

made and are able to engage

meaningfully to the debate and to

all decisions. We need to redress

the power imbalance, ensuring

students are present at all important

decision making bodies – from senior

management team meetings, to

academic appointment panels. Our

higher education is too important to

be left to university management.

4. formalising relationships with UCU and other campus unionsNaturally, sometimes the interests of

our members, and the members of

campus unions can differ, impacting

on our relationships. However, we are

members of a wider coalition seeking

to reclaim higher education. It is

more important than ever to ensure

staff and student cohesion.

Consumerism can pit students

against lecturers and sets them in

an oppositional relationship, where

higher fees create impossible

expectations of academic staff. At

the same time as attacking how

education is delivered, government

is attacking the deliverer. The

pensions battle will forever affect the

quality and quantity of lectures in our

universities, and is an assault on the

very fabric of HE.

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Standing on the picket line at LSE on the November 30th ‘Pensions Justice’ strikes

Working together to defend

education nationally, we must

create real, meaningful relationship

between students and staff on

our campuses. Real solidarity is

evidenced not in empty words

alone, but in actions, students and

staff working together, translating

solidarity to political action.

5. Ensuring a space for education within our students’ unions - Course Reps Representation is vital to students’

unions. Academic representation

must remain central to our students’

unions, so that every student,

activist or not, understands that their

students’ union is the place that

enables and facilitates change in

their university experience. We need

to raise the status of course reps in

our SU’s so this can be mirrored in our

institutions.

We need to ensure that course reps

understand that they are change

makers, that they are part of a

wider collective, a wider higher

education campaign. They create an

environment that tips the narrative of

how HE is delivered on its head – by

reclaiming what is important to the

students they represent, rather than

what management demand. Course

reps are at the centre of creating the

good relationship between students

and staff that ensure a quality

experience.

Representation structures should fit

each specific campus, each student

community, and NUS should help

students’ union discover what works

best for them. It is vital to ensure that

every student has a voice in the

academic representation, so those

in liberation groups, WP students,

mature, part-time, student parents,

postgrads and international students

- all students - are represented

within the students’ union and the

university.

6. QAA My primary concern with the QAA

is that we rely on them as the

sole tactic to ensure academic

quality in our institutions. QAA

recommendations must stimulate

action, not just best practice and

complacency in institutions.

• The frequency of reviews and the

fast turn around of students does

not create the changes we need

to see, at the speed we need to

see them

• Student led initiatives, like

partnership agreements, course

reps and student led teaching

awards, together with QAA

pressure, will create real, long-

term change in our institutions

3. Widening Access to Education

City-wide Education Strategies; working with local councils No matter how hard we work to raise

the aspirations of young people in

our communities, time after time

University widening participation

work has fallen short. Universities,

concerned only with recruitment, do

not place the necessary importance

that widening access deserves.

With the cut to Aim Higher, access

agreements, weakened already by a

‘toothless’ OFFA, and a government

hell bent on creating a market, we

are reliant on our HE institutions taking

responsibility for leading the way on WP.

I will empower students’ unions to

create meaningful, lasting and

city-wide institutional change to

widening participation work.

Local city councils have previously

been underused by many students’

unions. Councils often have

strategies for tackling poverty, but

not for education.

Lobbying for education strategies at

a local government level will help:

1. Co-ordinate our WP activity across the city• Between schools, further

education colleges, higher

education institutions, and their

students’ unions, creating more

pressure on HEIs to fulfil their WP

promises

• Between SUs and their institution,

creating better WP work and

more volunteering opportunities

for their members

• Between SUs in the same city or

town, where there is more than

one institution, combining their

efforts and creating a shared

agenda for WP in their city

2. Hold HEIs to account• Ensuring students’ unions are

supported in the battle to hold

their institution’s management

to account for the assurances in

their access agreements

3. develop better WP work• Help students’ unions push

their HEI’s to focus WP at an

earlier age, taking the focus off

recruitment and on to access

• Support the creation of progress

agreements between FE and HE

institutions, allowing a focus on

apprenticeships and work-based

learners

• Demonstrate that bursaries, rather

than partial fee waivers, are an

integral part of creating access to

education

• Stop HEIs from ignoring their city’s

children. Some of our biggest

university cities have the most

impoverished communities on

their doorsteps

• Continue to create opportunities

for students to mentor and inspire

school children

foundation degreesNow, more than ever, we need

to focus attention on foundation

degrees, sometimes the key tool at

opening university up to those who

were let down by the school system.

It is vital that foundation courses are

free, and that students receive full

and tailored support to see them

through onto their degree.

degree attainment investigationsWe need to demand that equal

opportunities data is used throughout

the entire university process and

make the case for contextual

data – from applications, offer,

and acceptance, to retention and

degree classification. Where this

information doesn’t exist, it has to be

collected.

We need to convince our Universities

to carry out degree attainment

investigations in all courses across

the university, to ensure that WP

students, women, lGBT, disabled and

black and minority ethnic students

are performing as well as peers on

their course.

We need to move away from

measuring the number of WP

students on an institution by

institution basis; we know that

research intensive universities,

despite now charging the most, have

always failed miserably to attract

and retain WP students. Without

public funding for art and humanities

courses, and with fewer employment

opportunities, we have to ensure that

those courses remain accessible to

all students, not just those that can

afford to learn. We cannot allow arts

and humanities courses to become

the preserve of the richest students.

Supporting lecturers across Leeds, with former and current Leeds Metropilatan sabbs

Retention is about supporting every

student to make the most of their

experience at university.

It is never enough just to fight to

ensure students from the poorest

background have access to higher

education – we have to ensure those

students are supported in every way

throughout the entire course of their

degree and into further study or

employment.

A focus on retention though is

necessary not just for those students

from WP backgrounds. Working

closely with the nUS Welfare

Campaign, I promise to create

a focus on retention in nUS, and

a toolkit that students’ unions

can use to hold their institution to

account. nUS should be pressuring

government and mission groups to

recognise retention as serious issue

that need fixing in the sector.

We have to understand better the

experiences of different students –

those from a WP background, those

living at home, those in liberation

groups, distance learners, mature

students, international students,

and so on.

The retention campaign will focus on:

• The student life cycle (the student

journey), which will help students’

unions to create a better, more

understood focus, on different

cohorts of students and informs

the work of personal tutors.

• Induction, which should be a far

longer process that the first two-

weeks of term, which most HEIs

try to do. Its links very closely with

the student life cycle, as certain

cohorts of students need different

support, tailors specifically for

them, at different times of the

year. Money education and

advice should be available to

every student; no student should

ever have to turn to commercial

loans and credit cards.

• Hidden course costs, particularly

where these costs act as a barrier

to education. Short loan library

books, printing costs, material

costs for art and science degrees

and paying for years abroad/

industry, can stop someone

coming to university in the first,

and may be the cause of their

leaving. It is unacceptable that

these costs are not covered

under the new fee regime, or at

least understood by the student

before they start and supported

by the institution.

• Appeals procedures need to be

much clearer for all students and

there should real, understandable

education around issues such

as plagiarism, which can be

frightening and difficult to deal

with as a student.

• .Continuing the liberation, equality

and diversity in the curriculum

campaign, which does an

incredible job at highlighting the

difficulties that many students

have to overcome and ensuring

the university changes to ensure it

accessible to everyone.

• flexible provision - Over the

course of the next five years,

the way education is delivered

will change rapidly across the

sector. NUS needs to do more on

understanding the learning and

teaching experience of those

in flexible provision. We need to

carry a real investigation into

the impact of different degree

provision - whether that be part-

time, distance or condensed

learning – so we are ready for the

argument in the next few years.

4. Thriving at University; Retention

Speaking at NUS National Confernece 2011 in NewcastleGateshead

Postgraduate Taught Students

In three years time we’ll have a

cohort of students with over £27,000

debt for their undergraduate tuition

alone – considering postgraduate

study, with high-cost, upfront fees,

will be an even more difficult

decision that it currently is for many

people.

I will ensure nUS leads the

way, creating a proposal for a

progressive, well-funded system

of taught postgraduate study, a

regulated system that includes

a national bursary and scheme

and scholarships. This should be as

prominent as our discussions around

undergraduate fees and access.

NUS should never encourage

students to take any sort of

commercial bank or pay day loan. It

is dangerous to encourage students

to take a loan with soaring rates of

interest, and the lack of employment

opportunities may see them default

on their loan.

WP does not end at undergraduate

level; we need to be setting the

agenda for a fair funding system,

which protects both access to and

retention in postgraduate study.

No one – not the government, the

opposition, universities or the mission

groups – have proposed a better

funding system for postgraduate

taught education. We need to set

the agenda, now.

Postgraduate Research Students

PGR students are expected to mark

and teach without pay, support

or the training they deserve. This is

manipulative and unjust treatment

for PGR students, who both enjoy

and require this experience. This

is unacceptable. NUS has already

collected on this issue, and we need

this practice eradicated in all our

universities. PGR students deserve to

earn a respectful living for marking

and teaching.

We need to work harder to create

communities of PGR students,

enabling them to create their own

representation structures, facilitated

and empowered by their students’

union, UCU and their institution.

We need to celebrate the work

of our PGR students, create more

opportunities for PGR students to

display, discuss their work, and

network. I will make sure PGR

symposiums continue to attract and

inspire more students, both current

PGRs, and taught students interested

in further study.

5. Through the Prism of a Postgrad

6. Mature and Part-time StudentsMature and part-time students are

equal in number to ‘traditional’

undergraduate students, but as a

movement we have failed them. This

year, there has been a sharp drop

in the number of mature students

applying to university. In 08/09, 92%

of part-time students were mature.

I will ensure that mature and part-

time students are that heart of the HE

campaign.

Student loan Provision

Under the new regime, BIS estimates

that 30% of all part-time students

would be entitled to a loan. But

the Student Loans Company, and

Government, have no idea how this

will be delivered, and as yet, have

not even started to address this

issue. We need to be on forefront of

protecting current and future part-

time students. Now is the time for us

to lead and hold government and

the SLC to account and prevent a

huge failure in part-time provision.

Access for all Students

All students work to different

timetables, and those who work,

have external responsibilities or who

travel, need a students’ union they

can access. I will work with the Union

Development campaign to create

guidelines on how best to open our

unions to all students. This will include

the flexible provision of academic

advice, representation and welfare

provision. Once students’ unions

better understand the needs of

mature and part-time students, they

are better equipped to create this

change within their institutions.

Working Towards Better Trade Union Representation

Representation for part-time students

is integral within our Universities,

but it’s also integral in their places

of work, to ensure they can get

the best educational experience.

We need to ensure that part-time

students have good trade union

representation, and that those trade

unions recognise and understand

the extra challenges that part-time

students face. NUS should be training

those trade unions with high numbers

of part-time students to understand

the tensions and challenges of part-

time study, so those trade unions can

support their members fully.