Blog

The most exciting being the start of my new Academic Diary from Monday 2nd August! jk…The month kicked off as I purchased my new season ticket for Reading FC in which we kicked off the season against Scunthorpe on the 7th August. Unfortunately..in true Reading FC fashion, we slipped to a 2-1 defeat at home and, therefore, left knowing i was in for another longgg season! However, I had no time to get too downbeat from the loss as I began to prepare myself and pack for Active Political Leadership NUS training at the University of the West of England (UWE) in Bristol. I was up early on the Tuesday morning and left on the train anticipating what the next 4 days would bring. I arrived at UWE campus at 10.30am and straight away met other sabbatical officers from other unions across the country! After registering, we were split into our own tutor groups who we were to spend our days with for the rest of the course. My group consisted of sabbs from Swansea, Nottingham, Roehampton, Wolves, Bournemouth, Westminster, Stirling and Aberdeen! They were an awesome bunch of people who I constantly keep in touch with. We all shared our aspirations for our Union and over the course of the next 3 days, we learnt so much such as Student Rights, Rationales, Leadership qualities and Public Speaking. Needless to say, with days lasting from 9am-9pm, the night ended getting a lil bit gazeeboed in the Student Union Bar and taking the party back to halls definately feeling like a fresher again! After limited sleep, the fry up in the morning was very much appreciated! The course concluded with a 6 hour role play scenario in which our group represented ‘Fibchester’ Student Union at Fibchester University. We were faced with many problems and faced continuos memos every 15 minutes from the NUS control booth! We had to do media interviews and attend meetings and was good preparation for what we could face in our own Student Unions! The last night consisted of some traditional NUS karaoke as i whacked out a classic rendition of Backstreet Boys I Want It That Way. It was truely special. :D The 4 days were an amazing experience and have given me such excitement in making change for the year ahead!

After saying our goodbyes, I arrived back in Winchester and had a long sunday session in the office to catch up with the many emails that I had missed during the past week. After a catch up with Joy, the Vice Chancellor on Monday, I had another early night before attending another NUS training event at the University of Warwick the next day! Me and Krissy made the 2 hour long train journey with other officers from our region and arrived just before 10.30am. Upon arriving at the campus, I was shocked to see how huge it actually was! It was like a city in itself and felt like i was in an airport or hotel! Similarly to Bristol, we were split into our own tutor groups and again learnt invaluable information such as driving membership participation and innovating change. There was also lots of networking with other Unions and lots of debate about a variety of different issues currently facing education.

A key issue right now is the £1.5 billion education cuts in both Further and Higher Education. This is going to affect every single one of you as well as younger brothers, sisters, friends e.t.c in which more and more people are going to miss out on university places and jobs. Moreover, if University fees were to increase to £7,000 then students are going to face a mass debt of £35,000. As a result, the NUS and UCU (University and College Union) have jointly organised a National Demo in London on Wednesday 10th November. The demo is going to be attended by 10,000’s of staff and students from around the country and we are going to be there. You will hear a lot from me and Krissy soon about this but I cant stress how important it is to get involved and how it will affect your future. I have a meeting with our UCU rep in October and will also hopefully be holding discussions with our local FE colleges to stress the importance to them too. Winchester students will not take this issue lightly! woopa!

After getting back into the office, we are getting very busy as September fast approaches! The deadline for Fresher’s Crew applications has now closed and I have lots and lots of applications to go over in the next week! Those who have applied will hear if they have been succesful next Tuesday (31st)! Interest was uber high though so please do not be too downbeat if you have not been chosen. There will be plenty more opportunities to get involved with the SU throughout the year! Your support is very very much appreciated!

Right I must carry on loving life and get back to the job! There are many many initiatives that are in the development at the moment. I have made so many notes from training and Winchester Student Union is primed to make your student experience change for the better! Lots more meetings are planned and we are also touring the new Queens Road Accomodation this week..something i am very excited about seeing!! Also..if you are reading this and you are attending Winchester in September, massive congratulations on getting the results you needed and I look forward to seeing you soon! You are in for the best 3/4 years of your life!!

Mucho Love

Seb xxx