Monday 07-11-2016 - 17:16

Higher education policy is changing at the rate of knots. The Higher Education Bill currently moving through parliament envisages far-reaching changes to the way universities will be organised. The Bill will:

1. Establish a Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) – an assessment exercise based heavily on a number of metrics that will link tuition fees to quality;
2. Increase competition by lowering the threshold that providers must meet to become degree awarding higher education providers;
3. Create an Office for Students (OfS), without any student representation; and
4. Create a super research council, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), to oversee publicly funded in research in the UK

As Student Officers, and particularly for me as Academic Affairs Officer, getting our heads around the Higher Education (HE) Bill and is a big undertaking. To develop our thinking on representing Durham students in local and national policy discussions, on Friday 21 October we hosted a mini conference on higher education policy. ‘What the hell is going on with HE policy’ which brought together our Officers, Roberta Blackman Woods MP, Sorana (NUS Vice President for Higher Education), Northumbria SU staff and Officers, Faculty and Union Reps and the Vice President of the Durham University College Union (UCU). We discussed:

1. The implications of boycotting the National Student Survey (NSS) – which is survey aimed at gathering opinions from students about their experience of their courses in their final year of their undergraduate course;
2. How the Students’ Union should define and represent student academic interests; and
3. The Higher Education Bill currently going through Parliament

We recognise that to achieve substantial educational change – the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of teaching and learning – we need to become experts in complex higher education policy. This is where the idea for the HE policy mini-conference came from and it was an extremely successful step in the right direction. I found it great to have our local MP and NUS represented at the conference – both Roberta and Sorana brought vital insight on higher education reforms and ideas for challenging universities and the Government. I came away feeling much more confident about my thoughts on higher education policy and how I and the other officers will represent Durham students, both within the University and nationally.

The week before last I was away at the NUS Higher Education Zones conference contributing to the development of NUS policy and calling for powerful, accessible and practical guidance from NUS on widening participation, barriers to education and postgraduate representation. I know we need to find diverse ways of challenging higher education reforms and I’m committed to making changes that are right for Durham students.     

I’d encourage all students to get informed, have and share their opinions on the HE Bill. Come along to our Academic Affairs Forum at 18:30 Tuesday November 8 to learn more and voice your ideas to help the Union form its position.