I want Aber Guild of Students to be a successful, purposeful union, I really do. That’s why I get so mad when the Union handles things as badly as it has handled the supposed elections for Student Trustees and NUSW Winter Council Delegates.

Firstly, at a time when it is crucial that we engage students in the Union, the Union failed to adequately advertise the opening of nominations, or to clearly explain the election process or the roles of trustees prior to the closure of nominations.

Secondly, when voting was opened, it was observed that no elections were being held for NUSW Winter Council Delegate positions. The Guild says this is because 4 candidates stood for 4 seats, so all were elected. This is not how elections should work. In such a case, students should have been able to vote for these candidates, or RON, as in any other election. As of publication, it is still not known who the 4 “elected” delegates are, and it is insane that the Guild thinks students should just accept 4 people to represent them without knowing who they are or what they represent, and without giving student the opportunity to reject or approve those candidates.

Thirdly, it was observed by several students that RON was absent from the voting that did go ahead. In response to this, the Guild, without any announcement, added RON to the list of candidates, in the middle of the election: Without voiding prior results or rerunning the election. This alone undermines the integrity of these elections to the very core.

I find it hard enough to have confidence in individual staff and officers of the Guild as it is, but this year I’m increasingly finding it hard to have confidence in the institution as a whole. The Guild is rotten due to unaccountable staff, and people refusing to take the blame or responsibility when things don’t go how they should.  Without radical reform to introduce real accountability, real democracy, real transparency, the Union has no chance of surviving, regardless of any short term political or financial fix.

As an undergraduate, I can only refuse to acknowledge the result of these “elections” due to the entirely unsound manner in which they’ve been conducted. I call on those responsible for the running of these elections to declare them void and rerun them with proper regard to the democratic processes we expect, and require of a students union.

Update 21:14 10/11/11: I have received a response from Geraint Edwards, the responsible staff member:

“Having discussed the issue with the Returning Officer, Ann North of NUS Wales, she is content that the integrity of the student trustee elections have not been significantly affected by the ommission of the Re-Open Nominations options for the first part of voting. I have therefore informed the candidates of the elections result and will be updating the website accordingly tomorrow morning. “

Once again I find myself disappointed, yet entirely unsurprised at the actions of the Union that is supposed to represent me.

Update 13:52 11/11/11: Students have now been informed that contrary to  the above statement, the elections have now been declared void.

“The Elections Returning Officer, Ann North, has decided that due to Re-Open Nominations not being included from the outset in yesterday’s elections that the results are to be voided and the election re-run on Tuesday 15^th November 2011 between 8:00am and 7:00pm.”

I welcome this move from Ann North to declare the elections void as a vital win for accountability and for regard for democratic processes. In holding the Union to account as students have done in the past 24 hours, we can help ensure that in the future the Guild is operated to the high standards which we expect without incidents such as this.

I want Aber Guild of Students to be a successful, purposeful union, I really do. That’s why I get so mad when the Union handles things as badly as it...

Banner: Defend Education / Amyddiffyn Addysg

On the eve of the NCAFC’s National Demonstration against the marketisation of education, Aberystwyth University Guild of Students held its first General Meeting of the year, where a record number of people attended due to new rules in place regarding society attendance.

During the General Meeting, several motions were debated on a range of issues, including opposition to starbucks in the union (fell 97-102), the student accommodation crisis, and more.

At the General Meeting, students passed a vote of no confidence in the Minister for Universities & Science, David Willetts. The motion also condemns Leighton Andrews, the Minister for Education & Skills in the Welsh Assembly, who is responsible for Higher Education policy in Wales. In doing so students have sent a clear message to Westminster, and to Cardiff: You’re wrong on tuition fees, you’re wrong on funding cuts, and you’re wrong on mergers.

Students also passed a motion supporting a walk out on November 30th to join the local demonstration organised by trade unions and the local anti-cuts groups: Ceredigion Against The Cuts, and Aber Radical Forum.

[1] Full text of motion of no confidence in minister for universities & science

http://nov9.strikenow.org.uk/

On the eve of the NCAFC’s National Demonstration against the marketisation of education, Aberystwyth University Guild of Students held its first General Meeting of the year, where a record number...

On the day the Welsh Government published its draft budget, including a 12.2% cut to education, Youth Fight For Jobs Wales has issued a press release announcing an All Wales Demonstration and Student Assembly on 21st and 22nd October respectively.

Students and workers in Universities and Colleges from across Wales will converge on the Senedd at midday on October 21st to take a clear anti-cuts message to the Welsh Government.

Jaime Davies, Trinity-St David student and national organiser of Youth Fight for Jobs Wales, said “The National Assembly for Wales has, for the second year in a row, announced plans to cut Wales’s education budget. Welsh students face higher fees, ALG and an already-diminished EMA are under threat, and Universities and Colleges workers’ pay and pensions are under attack. If students in other countries can study without fees, then so can we.”

Andrew Tindall of Aber Students Against Cuts, a student at Aberystwyth University who played a role in the occupation there against education cuts, said “The planned reforms for Higher Education across the UK are a neo-liberal attack on society, on education, and on the poor. Cuts to funding, the trebling of tuition fees for rest-of-uk students, and mergers of univeristies almost a hundred miles apart means students will be paying more for less course quality, less course diversity, less institutional choice.”

Last year, student demonstrations in Cardiff pressured the Welsh Assembly into retaining EMA.

Activists organising the demonstration have prepared a list of realistic, easily-implementable demands including:
* No to tuition fees
* Restore EMA to its full value and maintain ALG
* No to minimum wage discrimination; fair wages for all workers
* Guaranteed jobs at the end of an apprenticeship
* Create jobs, not dole and business handouts.
* No to public sector cuts; invest and nationalise to end the recession

Edmund Schluessel, who helped organise the student demonstrations in Cardiff, noted, “each of these demands has already been achieved somewhere in Europe. Why should students and young people in Wales, or anywhere in Britain, be given a worse deal than students on the continent?”

Youth Fight for Jobs is supported by eight trade unions including UCU, Unite, TSSA, RMT, CWU, FBU and PCS, and is currently undertaking the New Jarrow March, which ends in London on November 5th with a mass demonstration against government cutbacks and for job creation.

The All-Wales Demonstration and All-Wales Student Assembly are initiated by Youth Fight for Jobs & Education Wales and supported by Campaign Against Fees & Cuts Cymru (provisional committee).

Contact:
Ross Saunders 07766 460366 floss.saunders@gmail.com
Jaime Davies 07506 218523 jaimecrimson@hotmail.co.uk
Edmund Schluessel 07947 214169 eschluessel@gmail.com
Andrew Tindall andrew@andrewtindall.com

Youth Fight for Jobs: http://www.youthfightforjobs.com
National Campaign Against Fees & Cuts: http://anticuts.com

On the day the Welsh Government published its draft budget, including a 12.2% cut to education, Youth Fight For Jobs Wales has issued a press release announcing an All Wales...

Students and Workers Marching For The Alternative

Today, HEFCW has accepted proposals from Welsh Universities to charge an average of £8,800 per year in tuition fees, with almost three quarters  of universities in Wales charging the full £9,000 from September 2012; Glyndŵr pulling the average down marginally by charging an average of £6,643.

Today’s announcement comes just weeks after the publication of the white paper for Higher Education in England which envisions further marketisation of the sector to make up for gross miscalculations on the part of the Universities and Sciences Minister, David Willetts. Here in Wales, similar negligence has occurred, with today’s announcement being £1,800 more than HEFCW’s expectations.

At an average of £8,800 per year, Wales is now one of the most expensive countries in the world in which to attend publicly funded Higher Education Institutions; despite the proposed halving of institutions in the country by 2013, and drastic cuts that will critically undermine the quality and diversity of courses, as well as hitting access and social mobility.

Yet again we face the prospect of worsening education whilst the governments in Cardiff and Westminster slash and burn as they try to find a way to make the numbers add up.

Fee rises and funding cuts are regressive, unnecessary, and hugely damaging. The reforms have no sound basis in reality. Far from being a drain on the economy, public education is a major contributor to the UK economy, with a return of almost £3 for every £1 invested, and with graduates earning on average £100,000 more than non-graduates. Additionally, according to a study by Universities UK, the HE Sector alone has generated over £45bn in UK output, whilst providing 2.5% of the jobs in the workforce. In 2003 the Welsh Assembly published a report showing that any level of fees is wrong, and that as the numbers increase, return to the individual, and to the public, diminish. The UK Government was also forced to admit earlier this year that the cost of raising fees will increase the deficit.

Students and lecturers must continue to stand together in opposition to these reforms – to protect social mobility, to protect the right to education. We must fight for public education funded through progressive taxation, the scrapping of fees, and restoration of funding. We must target the £140bn tax shortfall generated by tax dodging companies like Vodafone and Barclays.

Today, HEFCW has accepted proposals from Welsh Universities to charge an average of £8,800 per year in tuition fees, with almost three quarters  of universities in Wales charging the full...

On June 4th, the National Campaign Against Fees & Cuts held a ‘Reinvigoration Conference’ at Birmingham University. I was in attendance alongside around 90 other people. The aim of reigniting the group was sidelined swiftly as the day descended into a successful attempt to force through a steering committee proposal in such a hideously biased and directed way that makes Parliament’s wash-up period stand as a paragon of debate and accountability by comparison.

The major issue of the day was a vote on a proposal for a committee against a proposal for retaining open steering meetings. The fact that only the committee proposal was presented beforehand, with the opportunity for amendments, meant that conference was from the start directed towards the committee as the only acceptable option by those responsible for organising conference. Many took issue with the fact amendments could not be submitted from the floor at the time, presumably due to the imbalance and issues it caused.

At the time, I also voiced my concerns over the democratic integrity of elections to the committee itself. Firstly, the NCAFC has in place no democratic procedures or guidelines for carrying out independent electoral oversight, meaning the election was handled on an ad-hoc basis by non-independent persons, who only declared affiliations upon my request. This issue could have been avoided had proper democratic procedures been considered. We should not have elected at conference, simple as. We should have began an open nominations and campaigning period over the summer, allowing for valid elections by early autumn. This would have given the campaign time to set into place strong and acceptable rules with regards to procedure. It was on this basis that I ran for committee – the committee elected that day would have no legitimate mandate over the NCAFC and so should be transitional and serve only to set in place the ability for a real committee to exist.

Earlier this week it emerged that one of the persons elected to the new committee, Claire Locke (London Met SU President-Elect), was nominated and elected without her knowledge. That this could happen just goes to show the massive issue of democratic integrity with regards to the committee elections. Today she has announced her intention to resign from the committee, citing “deep concerns over what is going on here in terms of process, outcome and future implications.”, and a fear of sectarianism damaging the wider student movement as well as potentially destroying the NCAFC itself.

In an open letter, several key members of the NCAFC expressed their ‘grave concerns’ over what had occurred, branding the committee as “exclusive and a step backwards from the broad and united student movement that Ncafc has been at the forefront of trying to develop through initiatives like the Student and Education Assemblies.” This letter was twice published on the NCAFC website, only to be deleted both times; which raises further concerns about how the NCAFC is being manipulated and controlled by certain individuals who seek to stifle debate and discussion of real issues.

If the new committee does not act swiftly to address the democratic deficit and rectify the situation as soon as possible, it is likely we will see the group disintegrate and fragment, inflaming tensions between far-left parties, when we really need to be working together as we prepare for thousands to take the streets on June 30th in solidarity with striking unions. I call upon the committee to draw up a provisional constitution for the body of NCAFC, including proper democratic procedures including independently appointed persons to serve as a DPC of sorts, and to then hold a new conference in August to vote to ratify this constitution, as well as to hold proper and just elections to a new committee.

On June 4th, the National Campaign Against Fees & Cuts held a ‘Reinvigoration Conference’ at Birmingham University. I was in attendance alongside around 90 other people. The aim of reigniting...