Monday 11-09-2017 - 12:01

 

Hey guys! Luke - your VP Academic Representation - here, with a quick update on what’s happening locally and nationally for the SU. We’ve been busy busy busy in the Union since we took office in July; you’ll probably be aware of all the changes to our building (cough, Subway, cough) and new branding – as part of this, us sabbs have a new office! We're still upstairs in the Hub, although we now have an office just for elected officers.

 

 

 

All our other services, including the Advice, Activities, and Policy Teams are over in the SU building opposite the Hub. It's all colourful and branded-up - you can't miss them!

Apart from that, we’ve been kick-starting all our campaigns – I’ve been working with Academic Registry to improve data support for Trans and Non-binary students, drafting proposals for more representation for postgrads, international students, and mature/part-time students, working on improvements to university-wide timetabling, implementing proposals for reviewing governance union-wide, and finding time to eat subs.

We’ve also been getting involved in representation and campaigns across the local region. Myself, your VP Welfare Rosie, Postgrad Officer Molly, and student campaigner Bex have been to Pride events throughout the summer, including marching in the student bloc in Belfast. In such a hostile political environment for LGBT+ people, with shocking news seemingly daily, it was fantastic to see students involved in such huge celebrations of love.

 

There’s been a lot happening nationally in higher education too. Back in June, I wrote a post about Edge Hill’s TEF rating[LM1]  that made tawdry reference to my shocking music taste; but there’s only one 70s classic that is relevant to the HE sector right now - ABBA banger Money, Money, Money.

Right now, the national debate over university vice-chancellor pay rages on. The average VC salary with benefits and pension contributions last year was £280,877, which former Universities Minister David Willetts described as ‘egregious’, and former Education Minister Andrew Adonis called ‘a genuine scandal’. Our own vice-chancellor, John Cater, earned a staggering £334,000 in 2015-16, a figure which has likely increased. So Thursday’s announcement by Jo Johnson[LM2]  that universities that pay VCs over £150,000 annually must justify it to the new Office for Students is certainly welcome - seeing figures such as these is difficult to stomach for students who are facing spiralling rent, hidden course costs, the pressure of lifetime debt, and some of some of the highest living costs in the world.

But it precisely because of these issues that perspective is needed – capping, fining, or justifying VC pay will not solve the funding crisis in higher education. It is a drop in the ocean compared to the wider debate over student finance, which cannot be ignored.

As of this September, Edge Hill students’ fees will hit £9,250 - linked to RPI with 6.1% interest. Over the last ten years, that’s an increase of over 210%; it is no surprise that the system has been described as ‘out of control’[LM3] . Students are set to be worse off than their parents; many current students will still be paying off their debt as they enter their 50s. Expected repayments from the lowest-earning graduates have increased by 30% since 2012, due to the freezing of the repayment threshold. The number of people unable to repay loans has increased, and the ideological commitment of successive Conservative-led governments to incentivising privatization has restricted them to burdening graduates with substantial interest rates to balance their own losses.

There are a number of things to do about this, but all of them boil down to this: get involved.

Two years ago, when the Government was scrapping maintenance grants and nursing bursaries, we sent a delegation of students down to Westminster to lobby MPs. Students met politicians in the Houses of Parliament and Portcullis House; our sabbs lobbied four MPs across the North West in a single day; Edge Hill received national recognition for it. And as a result, MPs signed an Early Day Motion and spoke up on our behalf.

If you care about the levels of debt you’ll be saddled with, and if you think that the funding system in higher education is broken, get involved with us. Right now, the national conversation is focused on this hot topic – stand for election on one of our committees, send us an email with your views, put it on the Your Ideas page, and we can make your voices heard.

(I’m sure the other officers would rather hear your voices than my music taste).

Luke