Our exhibitions are supported
   by:

As a student, it’s easy to feel that all too few people are concerned about you as an individual. It seems your university, potential employers and especially politicians see you as nothing more than just another small cog in the higher education machine.
However, the National Union of Students (NUS) has been fighting the corner for university goers for more than 83 years and faces an almost continual struggle to represent the best interests of students both locally and nationally.

It’s no easy task – the NUS is tasked with getting the best deal for students in all parts of their personal, work and academic lives while at the same time keeping public sympathy and support for students as buoyant as possible.

Gemma Tumelty is president of the NUS and has been at the forefront of tough talks with the Government over student grants and fees, and the future and provision of higher education for all. Perhaps not surprisingly, the argument over fees is not one that’s going to go away.

‘The NUS is really disappointed at the introduction of the new fee system,’ Gemma says. ‘Obviously we rallied hard against it because we believe it will be detrimental to university access but it will also have a huge impact on students whilst they're studying in terms of worrying about debt and taking on extra work.’

Burden of debt
The problem of the accumulation of debt while at university has always plagued students and graduates, but there are fears that it’s now reaching almost impossible proportions.

Gemma says: ‘This debt now is going to run into tens of thousands of pounds. It was £18,000 before the new system came in and now it's £30,000. That's £3,000 a year tuition fees and about £4,000 a year loan plus any commercial debt that students have taken on – everyone has overdrafts and credit cards just to make ends meet.

‘The average graduate salary is £19,000 so university leavers earning that will be instantly paying back their loans so they're not really getting a chance to get back on their feet financially.

‘For many people the hope of getting on the property ladder is nothing but a pipedream with rising house prices and so many outgoings on income. It's becoming the trend now that you finish university and then go back to live with your parents. That’s a huge burden for the parents who may need to work for longer to support their children.’

Gemma adds: ‘There’s the worry that people are going to see the levels of graduate debt and think that it's not worth going to university. There is a benefit to society of having a higher educated workforce but people are now going to have to balance that up with all this debt. ‘We got accused of scaremongering students by telling them the facts about debt and putting them off university. But actually we just told them what the cost was. Surely the cost was the deterrent and not the truth. It's an ongoing battle we're having with the Government.’

Working while studying
With tuition fees to pay and the increase in debts it’s perhaps no surprise that many students take on part time work – often in pubs and restaurants which attract relatively low wages along with poor conditions and little job security.

Recent research by the NUS with the Trades Union Congress (TUC) found that one in five students works more than 20 hours a week to fund their way through studies.
‘This amount of work is excessive,’ says Gemma. ‘We're concerned we're going to see an increase in this even more.’

‘We're doing a new project with the TUC to unionise students so they know their rights at work. Trade union membership among students is only four per cent. Students are constantly getting ripped off – whether it’s being sacked at a moment’s notice or having to work extra shifts. ‘We're doing a number of practical projects around the country in student unions and in cities trying to encourage students into trade union membership. ‘It's having huge mutual benefit and it's something that we really want to keep pushing as more and more students are going to work. There is discounted membership in a lot of unions for students – £5 a month is nothing to protect your rights at work.’

Graduate earnings
The Government has stated that it is still a ‘good time to be a student’ with the view that fees and student debt are necessary evils in order to reap the rewards of higher education.

Gemma however, isn’t so convinced. She says: ‘When the top up fee bill was going through Parliament we were all told that graduates earn more than £400,000 over their lifetime compared to non-graduates. That number has just gone down to just over £100,000 over a lifetime – and if you spread that over your working life and take into account the £30,000 of student debt, the remaining £70,000 isn’t really that much.
‘The Government forgets that many students don't go to university for the earning power. Not all of us want to go and work in the city and it's not all about money. We don't see education as a commodity that can be bought and sold.’

Gemma adds: ‘Going to university is a fantastic experience – you gain so many life skills, you meet people from different backgrounds and you study academically to a different level. I'm just worried about the people who will be missing out.
‘It is fair to say there's more support now than there was last year, but the messages aren't getting there and it's certainly not our job to sell a system that we were fundamentally against all along.’

The future of fees
While the NUS may have lost the battle against the new top up fees, Gemma warns that the fight is far from over, especially with even greater fees looming on the horizon.
‘In the next few years there’s going to be a review on whether the £3,000 cap on tuition fees should be lifted or removed altogether. Already you've got vice-chancellors and certain ministers saying it should be lifted because otherwise universities won't be able to become world-class.
‘There are reports that vice-chancellors want the cap to be lifted to £10,000 a year. If that happens it'll be absolutely detrimental to higher education, students, graduates and the whole of society. I don't think it's economically sustainable and I certainly don't think it'll be good for access to education.

Gemma admits it’s an uphill struggle. She says: ‘In 1997 we fought against tuition fees and in 2003 we fought against top up fees and you do feel you're not being listened to – that no matter what lobbying we do the Government have already made their minds up.

‘However we've really got to fight on this one – we've got to win the arguments in a different way. Clearly the principle arguments why education should be free are not resonating with certain ministers at the moment so we need to look at the economic case and prove that it's not viable or sustainable for this country.
‘We just hope the political parties get some policy on it very soon and the public listen to our arguments and realise the public good of education.’

Finding a job
Since students have to pay a bigger proportion of the higher education costs, they are demanding a high standard in university support and provision.
Gemma says: ‘At the end of the day students are now paying for their the education and are seeing themselves as customers. Universities have to be a lot more responsible to them in many ways, including careers services. We'd always call for university careers services to be accessed from year one to help students work out what they want to do and how they want to do it.

‘Any experience you can get in terms of extracurricular experience will stand you really well when you're looking for a job, be that volunteering at your union or volunteering in the community or going on work placement. This is a very competitive time with more graduates hitting the markets and students do need something that sets them above the rest.

‘However there needs to be more help if students are taking unpaid work experience placements. Universities need to be more proactive in helping students get placements that are paid for, or at least with expenses or a day allowance.

‘The people who can take unpaid work experience are the people whose parents can support them, and for the others who can’t afford it there's a need for maybe bursaries or student support services to help out financially.’

Two tier system
There’s no doubt among many that while all universities are equal, some are more equal than others, with direct consequences for graduates looking for work. Gemma warns that recruiters can sometimes be prejudiced against the new universities.
She says: ‘There is still a feeling that employers will sift through application forms and say 'yes they went to Bristol' and 'no they went to London South Bank'. If graduates have a 2.1 in the same subject, then the university itself will make a difference.

‘There's a feeling that employers need to wake up and realise that those people's educational experiences are just as valid and that people have different skills. Businesses need to diversify their graduate employment techniques to meet the changing face of student demographics.’

She adds: ‘The employment market and businesses need to change to fit the new number of graduates coming through. Having a degree, whether you do something in your subject or not, gives you a different skill set that you can use anywhere. There are a huge range of skills that you learn while at university.’

Mind the skills gap
Some employers are fond of pointing out the so-called ‘skills gap’ in graduates’ abilities to hit the ground running in the workplace. However, Gemma says much of the problem rests with businesses themselves and their failure to get involved with students.

‘The three groups who should be contributing to education are the Government, students themselves and business. The Government is contributing, students are contributing but business hasn't coughed up yet so we'll have to wait and see if that happens.

‘For businesses, just working with institutions and universities on courses they would want to see graduates from would be worthwhile. You can't just moan about people not having the skills you want if you're not willing to engage with what those skills are with the institutions who are teaching those students.’

Gemma adds that the Government target of getting 50 per cent of young people into higher education may not be enough. ‘We think our target is slightly under ambitious if we're going to compete in the global market that we have now - we should be aiming for 65 per cent. We're fast going to fall behind countries like China and India in terms of the number of graduates we’re churning out, which means economically we won't be growing as fast.’


Box
Gemma first got involved in the student movement whilst working towards her psychology degree at Liverpool John Moores University, when she was elected as Women's Officer for her student union in 2001. In 2002 she successfully stood in the election to be the sabbatical Welfare Officer for her union, taking a year out from her studies.

For the last two years of her degree Gemma was also elected as a part-time National Executive Committee member, leading on student housing and volunteering projects. While studying for her finals Gemma was elected as National Secretary 2005-06 and has lead on the reform of NUS. Gemma is the first NUS President from a post 1992 university to be elected and the seventh woman to be elected in NUS’s history. 
 

Companies Recruiting