Durham SU Officers call for NUS National Ballot
Monday 17-10-2016 - 10:11
National Ballot Motion: It’s time to risk assess and Equality impact assess the NSS Boycott/sabotage before we take action. NEC Believes
Overview from the President
Last week the other Student Officers and I unanimously supported the first successful submission for an NUS National Ballot. The National Ballot calls a vote to request an equality impact assessment and risk assessment be published on the proposed action to boycott the National Student Survey. Put simply, it’s a call to question the benefits and risks for our students of attempting to boycott the NSS. Last term, Durham students’ called for a referendum on NUS, and the resounding vote to remain shows that as Durham students’, we want our voices heard and interests represented at a national level. As Student Officers it’s our job to ensure this happens, and so we’re one of the leading 38 students’ unions around the country who are supporting this motion.
The goal of the NSS boycott proposal, which was successfully passed at last year’s NUS conference in Brighton, is to protest and hinder the implementation of the new Teaching Excellence Framework (which will allow high-scoring universities to raise fees). As a representative of Durham students I oppose TEF and the increasing cost of education for students, and know national cooperation is needed for the student voice on this issue to be heard. We also know this needs to be the right action for Durham students and for all students - and that we need to be clear about what the impacts of a boycott would be for Durham, and how successful it would be. We’re concerned that this action wouldn’t be in the interests of students at Durham, but the overall position of the Students’ Union will be decided by Assembly. I will bringing this to Assembly on October 28 - while only Assembly members can vote, all students are invited to attend.
Do you have an opinion on the boycott or other NUS policies? Run to be a delegate at NUS National Conference in Brighton. More information…
1. That policy was passed by National Conference on Boycott/Sabotage of NSS in spring 2017.
2. It did this in order to disrupt the implementation of the TEF and Higher Education Undergraduate Home fees in England.
3. On timetables published by HEFCE, that would only impact on Year Three of the TEF- and the Government would press ahead using other data anyway.
4. If we want to make meaningful change to the Government’s proposals, we should be focussed on lobbying MPs and the HE Bill now, not planning a strategy that might have an impact when it’s too late.
5. The NSS provides incredibly valuable data to drive change within student demographics, protected characteristics and departments in Universities.
6. Underfunded Sus – especially small and specialist ones – have successfully argued that improvements to their grant will make an impact on their NSS score.
7. HEFCE have announced a refocussing of the NSS next year on students’ academic experience. This will mean that students’ unions’ education and representative function gets recognition, focus and funding.
8. Many SUs have fed back that a boycott would directly harm their funding and representative capacity.
9. NUS should reaffirm its opposition to the use of NSS to justify raising fees.
10. The wave of disaffiliation attempts from SUs demonstrate that NUS needs to listen to SUs and their concerns now more than ever. NEC further believes
11. Students’ unions have told us that there are a number of risks connected with this action.
12. The negative impact on our key stakeholder influence could affect our campaigning and lobbying work on issues such as access, widening participation, retention and tuition fees.
13. Many students’ unions have also expressed a concern that this action could have an impact on specific groups of students, students’ union and institutions. Especially students from diverse WP backgrounds.
NEC Resolves
1. Carry out and publish a detailed risk assessment on the risks posed to students’ unions’ funding and representative capacity of implementing a Boycott/Sabotage policy of NSS.
2. In doing so to take particular account of the differential risks faced by smaller and specialist SUs and their funding.
3. To take into account in this risk assessment the risks faced by NUS in terms of the relationships it holds, on behalf of students and students’ unions across the UK, with the key national stakeholders on issues such as access, widening participation, retention and tuition fees.
4. To carry out and publish a detailed equality impact assessment on the impact of both the action itself, and of any fallout from the action identified in the Risk Assessment, especially the impact of such action on specific groups of students and different types of institutions,
5. To draw up a lobbying and campaigning strategy that can have a real impact on the Government’s HE proposals now, not when it’s too late.
6. To listen to SUs and postpone implementation of any NSS boycott or sabotage in light of the above.
The TEF involves linking tuition fees to the teaching performance of Universities, who will be assessed according to certain Government metrics (drop-out rates, graduate employment, contact hours the National Student Survey). Universities will be allowed to increase fees in line with inflation if they meet the basic standards set out in the TEF in 2017-2018 and 2018-2019, before differentiated caps are introduced in 2019-2020. TEF will create a system where Universities that are ‘meeting expectations’ will be able to impose an increase of 50% of inflation, while ‘excellent’ or ‘outstanding’ means an increase of 100% of inflation.
What does the Government say? The TEF will drive institutions to improve the quality of teaching and ensure they are producing employable graduates
What do the critics say? It is hard to see how the metrics proposed for the TEF will either measure teaching quality or improve it. The TEF could effectively lead to the measuring of financial success instead of teaching excellence.
