Thursday 6 March 2008

NUS Wales Conference- old pals beanfeast.

Please note - i didn't write that title, but i've stuck with it as this is a report from the Socialist Party Wales website of a report from NUS Wales Conference which was last weekend.

Having been to NUS UK Conference a few years back, NUS Wales Conference was completely different experience.
For a start, there were only about 30 delegates, with no-one from Cardiff and Swansea Universities. Ten of these were the Welsh national executive, and many of the others were Student Union sabbatical officers. It was more like a friendly meet up to pat each other on the back for doing such a ‘great’ job.
Much was made of NUS being able to win certain reforms in areas with devolved government, for example fees scrapped in Scotland and free prescriptions for students in Wales. Policies were passed arguing for the vote at sixteen and against a graduate tax with reference to the real fight being to abolish fees altogether. However, the conference also voted for NUS Wales having its own 'governance review' We were bombarded with propaganda favouring the NUS UK Governance review.
Despite this, several FE delegates were interested in building the Campaign to Defeat Fees at their colleges across Wales. Three copies of the Socialist were sold, one student magazine and one copy of Socialism Today.

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