By Joe Rukin
After it was originally shunned by NUS, the National Postgraduate Committee has announced the results of it survey of Postgraduate Funding and priorities at its National Conference at the University of St Andrews. Despite the fact that the survey was to be conducted by the then NUS Presidents' former union at the University of Warwick, Owain James could not be convinced to sponsor the ground breaking work, but eventually the Careers Service decided they would pick up the bill. NPC sources estimate NUS' entire spending on Post Graduate representation is less than £500 per year.
In terms of funding, the outlook for postgraduates is no less bleak than undergraduates, and the moral of the survey is get a job and get your employer to pay for you postgrad and if you can or can't do that, study it part-time. 75% of respondents cited financial obstacles as the biggest barrier they had to overcome to further their study, with full-time postgraduates having income just £87 over their expenditure each year on average. Contrasts this with part-timers, who reckon they will have £6,611 left over. Not surprisingly, over 50% said that their funding was insufficient, with full time postgraduates expecting to have an average increase in debt of almost £2,500. To read the key findings of the survey, Click here
On the Saturday of the conference, delegates were treated to a 'Student Politicians Question Time', with Rami Okasha (NUS Scotland President), Natasha Hirst (who has the PG portfolio for NUS Wales), Benson Osawe (Council for International Students) and Marco Biagi from CHESS, the Coalition of Higher Education Students in Scotland which is an umbrella group for the four 'Scottish Ancients', universities which are not in NUS (and one other Uni too).
There was an empty seat on the podium too though, as NUS Vice-President Education, Chris Weavers did not appear. Suspicions were high that Weavers had decided to avoid a clash with CIS representatives who claimed he had done nothing whilst their treasurer and after using them as a stepping stone to power would not even now meet them. Unfortunately, as far as a 'Question Time' was concerned the event didn't quite live up to expectations. Despite the event being moved up the agenda, theoretically giving it more time, there was no time for questions at the end as the introductory speeches took so long. This was largely due to Okasha who didn't seem to breathe for twenty minutes as he outlined the seven submissions that NUS Scotland made to the Lifelong Learning Committee.
The seven submissions were as follows;
-Funding Councils should be more strategic. Conditions should be attached to institutions receiving funding, e.g. better childcare provision.
-Cut competition for research funding by creating cross-institutional research bodies
-There should be a single post-16 funding body to eliminate waste
-Follow Andrew Cubies recommendation for 'Qualification Transfers'
-All places which offer degrees should offer lesser 'fall back' qualifications, i.e. if you drop out after two years of a degree, you can get a HND for your trouble
-Merge all the Quality Assurance mechanisms.
-Appoint a parliamentary ombudsman I line with the European declaration of Human Rights
Despite announcing seven recommendations, there came an eight, which, not wishing to appear cynical may well have been pandering to an audience of post-graduates; Strengthen representation in Student Unions, especially for postgraduates.
Despite the pre-conceptions there might have been about CHESS, with it being a body which exclusively represents students at 'elite' universities, St Andrews student Marco Biagi was a breath of fresh air. He started by thanking Okasha and welcoming most of what he said
"The one area where we totally disagree with NUS is the merger of the post-16 education system. This would lead us down a dangerous path of saying FE is just like HE, but not as good. We have our own vision. CHESS believes in Free Education, failing that education free at point of entry, failing that tinkering with the current system. Too often the societal value of Education is ignored and just the economic considerations are looked at."
"In the UK we have a target of 50% participation in Higher Education. In Scotland arguably this has been achieved, but not when dropout rates are considered. We should be measuring retention, the numbers of undergraduates and postgraduate qualifications. The main component to look at is the debt burden faced by students, and as we have a Scottish Parliament here to lobby, we lobby them. There is more debt in Scotland, created by our four-year degree system. You can have graduates whose debt exceeds their family's annual income, and clearly this will effect the number of postgraduate students."
"And finally we have to face and fight the nightmarish prospect of GATS. This is effectively the privatisation of the education system. We're against the privatisation of halls, we're against top-up fees and commercial loans. We're not afraid to disagree with NUS, but we also not afraid to agree and work together."
Related Articles
National Postgraduate Survey; Key Findings
National Postgraduate Conference Report
NPC Elections
National Postgraduate Committee Website
