In 2011 thousands of students made headline news when they took to the streets of London, in a peaceful protest against tuition fees. Organised by the Coalition Against Fees and Cuts, it was lending a voice to the campaign against further rises in university tuition fees, and was supported by the National Union of Students. Campaigning and protesting is one way student politics manifests itself on a national level, with students all over the country fighting for their rights.
The National Union Of Students is a well-known campaigning body, and often has projects running that students all over the country can become involved in. At the start of 2012 they were putting a call out for students to join their ‘Funding Our Future’ campaign, which is lobbying for an end to top up fees, and a fairer funding system that will decrease the fear of debt, and open up university study to a wider audience. Finance is just one issue the union gets involved in nationally, with student welfare, and the environment, two other subjects on the agenda.
The National Union of Students, and the local student unions on campus, often attracts aspiring politicians, who can join a committee, attend meetings, or be elected as an NUS Officer, representing students internally and externally.
For anyone interested in politics in a less formal way, then the clubs and societies at your chosen university are a great place to meet new people, and join in with some lively debate. Some clubs also offer workshops that will help you improve your public speaking skills. What’s on offer will vary from campus to campus, depending on demand, but many universities will have a debate society and a general politics society running. Other examples include socialist, labour, or conservative student clubs, a national network of People and Planet societies, campaigning on environment issues, and human rights, and clubs specifically for those studying for a politics degree.
One issue that hasn’t been mentioned so far is political apathy. There are many people that are not interested in voting, local or national government, or political issues effecting students. If you’d like to help counter this, why not write something for your student newspaper, or join one of the online forums, such as Politics Student, a platform for a variety of political opinions. If you’d also like to encourage a future generation of university students to show an interest in politics, then you could direct them to the UK Youth Parliament, or the Heads Up Forum online, both aimed at younger students.
Politics manifests itself in many ways in our day to day lives, and our lives as students. Whether you want to get actively involved or not, you can keep up with the latest educational issues, reforms, and student politics issues, via the education sections of many national newspapers, and via the National Union Of Students website.
