Arts Group at Parliament
Members of the Arts Group’s constituent Unions attended the NUS HE Funding Lobby of Parliament on Wednesday 18th March to call for an end to the Broke & Broken Funding system, and to highlight specific issues for students of the Arts.
Members of SUARTS met the following reception:
Kit Friend, Campaigns & Communications Officer, met Rudi Vis, Labour MP for Finchley & Golders Green who was shocked to be told about the small or even negative graduate premium currently expected for those studying the Arts and vowed to pass on our concerns to the Secretary of State – watch this space!
Laura Lenander, Byam Shaw Student Rep, met David Lidington, Member of Parliament for Aylesbury, Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister, who was well aware of the ‘gap’ in funding for the lower middle-class students, in fact he said he reguarly had parents contacting him concerned about this issue.He was also very aware of how the HE system in England is part of an international Market and we needed to up our game if we are to survive this global industry. He wasn’t keen on the marketization of HE. But also recognised that something needs to be done. He also said that he, and the conservative party as a whole were not going to be making any promises about how they will spend money, saying some unpopular decisions would need to be made to reduce the country’s debt… He was happy to take away the information on broke and broken and was keen that a wider debate should happen about HE when the review of funding takes place.
Helen Gimber, SU President, met with Meg Hillier MP’s researcher, she said that Meg was against different institutions being able to charge different amounts of fees, and agreed the fees going up would limiit the range of people that would go into higher education. Helen highlighted the acute issues that arts students face, and all the recent funding cuts that have affected arts institutions disproportionately, she felt that Meg was sympathetic of this.
For more information about the Lobby from NUS click here
For more information on our HE Funding Campaign click here
