Every year we host a FEstival. It is the NUS students’ union’s further education flagship event for those across the FE student movement to come together and learn from each other.
It is particularly poignant this year as it falls within Colleges Week. All week, up and down the country, education unions, students and college staff will be hosting events to showcase the very best that further education has to offer and raise awareness of the financial challenges facing the sector.
I am immensely proud that we’re hosting FEstival during this inaugural week for colleges – it is a chance for our members to bring the hard work together in one place while our sister organisations are lobbying on a national platform.
To truly grasp how important this week is, we must look back over the past eight years. Report after report has shown how much funding has been slashed for post-16 education: the funding for apprenticeships and adult education alone has fallen by 45 per cent since 2009-10.
'Courses are being closed'
Historically, we use FEstival to explore issues and opportunities raised by the policy landscape that the sector finds itself in. We know that the government’s cuts are having a huge impact on our further education institutions.
Courses are being closed, entire campuses shut down, staff are dissatisfied and underpaid, and students struggle to make ends meet with dwindling financial support. Combined with the funding cuts, millions of people are denied the chances that FE offers.
Today’s gathering of representatives and staff from across the UK’s FE institutions is our chance to speak up for those that the government is currently ignoring. It is our responsibility to use our power to demand greater funding for our colleges and use our unique organising skills to change the landscape of education funding and wider policy.
As a student movement, FEstival is a space for student representatives and staff to gain skills and knowledge, and build relationships to tackle these issues. At a time when further education funding is on the brink, its essential that our voice is heard and that policymakers understand the disastrous consequences their decisions are having day to day.
'We can't do this on our own'
Everything that comes out of this week, including today’s event, will shape the campaign for fair funding moving forward. We are working to make education better for all students – the adult learner returning to college later in life, the apprentice who deserves a high-quality course as well as job, and the disadvantaged student looking for an alternative route to succeed outside of higher education.
It has never been more crucial to empower students’ unions to take action. NUS alone cannot make a change and persuade policymakers, it needs the voices of the millions of members that make our movement so powerful.
We will continue to work together and put students’ unions at the centre of the campaign. When we work together we show the government that further education isn’t just something on the side or an afterthought in wider education debates.
We will use today to take practical steps to make big changes locally and nationally, ensuring that FE doesn’t just survive but begins to thrive. Vital resources and funding are required immediately and joint initiatives throughout the Love Our Colleges campaign and NUS’ FEstival bring us one step closer.
Emily Chapman is the NUS students’ union vice-president for FE
