Reading Town Takeover was RUSU's campaign on higher education funding, calling for the government to be clear about what changes are going to be made to how degrees are funded in the future. Here's what we got up to in Week 7:
On Monday, students voted to support the NUS' blueprint for an alternative higher education funding system in which students pay for their degree post-graduation as a percentage of their salary. View the RUSU policy on Higher Education here.
Tuesday was spent in town, raising the profile of the issue and getting members of the public; grannies, mums and toddlers alike to pledge their support for the review of the funding system to be fair towards students.
Wednesday saw RUSU's pile of debt reach huge heights as we asked students to throw their debt to the pile and see how much each student would be in debt by the end of their degree.
Then Thursday saw the climax of the campaign with the President and Vice-President of Higher Education coming down to Reading to chair and take part in a debate on the future of higher education funding with our very own MP Rob Wilson (Conservatives) and the three Prospective Parliamentary Candidates for Reading East, Anneliese Dodds (Labour), Gareth Epps, (Liberal Democrats) and Rob White (Green). This was an amazing event, with great media coverage afterwards in the local press. Read about the Town Takeover debate in the Reading Midweek paper here and the Reading Chronicle here.
But this campaign wasn't just about the week! Tommy (RUSU's Vice President of Education) and Sinead (President) will be going into schools and sixth form colleges to talk about higher education to the students who the review will inevitably affect. By going in and talking to these students, we hope not only to raise the profile of this issue with them, but their parents too - both of which should be holding their local MP to account to stand up for the rights of students who want to access higher education.
Talking about holding our MP's to account, Rob Wilson (Reading East MP) has organised a debate on the future of higher education funding at Westminster as a response to the pressure put on by the students engaging with this issue. Students from RUSU as well as some of the student officers are attending the debate in Westminster hall and will feedback in their blog, this Friday.
This campaign is far from over, but so far so good! What we need to make sure is that you are still talking about it - to your parents, siblings, friends. Write a letter to your MP (see below) asking them to sign the NUS pledge just keep ensuring that the people who will be making the decisions know that this isn't an issue that we're going to forget about!
