A turning point for the NUS?

“She’s in charge of something she never attended and doesn’t have a clue about. She will surely become a Labour politician one day,” said Bobbo from London, a commentator on the Daily Mail’s website after Toni Pearce was elected NUS President earlier this month.

Yes, it’s the Mail and yes, it’s a silly dig at lefty politics, but hasn’t Bobbo got a point?

Pearce is the first NUS President who has not been to university. She doesn’t even believe in it. “Neither of my parents went to university and they are two of the most inspirational people I have ever met,” she has said. “The idea of taking three years out of your life, full-time, when you can’t earn much money, just to get yourself into debt? It’s just not attractive to me.”

Well, what a statement that is. The overwhelming majority of students “represented” by the NUS (not particularly the preferred choice of terminology) are in Further Education and more than 95 percent of all HE and FE unions are members. And in her NUS role as vice-president for further education she claimed Britain is “run by Oxbridge.” Isn’t it just a bit ridiculous that someone who has never experienced life as a university student takes on the task of representing hundreds of thousands of them nationwide? It is a step back by the NUS at a time when students are beginning to realise how undemocratic and unrepresentative it truly is.

Pearce may well bring a breath of fresh air to student politics, but I just can’t seem to grasp what she actually intends to do in her new role. “Between now and 2015 we need to hold a full and frank debate about what education means to society and to properly articulate the public value of education in communities up and down the country,” she announced after being elected President. So what does she actually mean?

It is one thing to make speeches but it takes more to make substantial changes. We must see a major shift in style by the NUS this year; whether it is making a considerable effort to become more representative of its students, or cutting back on their utterly pointless and expensive demonstrations (it was even admitted last week that as a result of #demo2012 the NUS “appeared less credible as an effective campaigning organisation”).

And that news comes after Cardiff University held a referendum on their NUS membership earlier this month. Other institutions, perhaps even York, may well follow suit.

The NUS should be at the forefront of practical, truthful and rational debate about how it can approach student concerns. Instead, over the past year it has prevented any meaningful input into decision-making from the student community and has applauded news of a former Prime Minister’s death.

I just hope Bobbo, myself and every other student who has lost confidence in the NUS as a representative body are proved wrong over the next twelve months. Good luck Toni, you’re going to need it.