Warwick Sabbs lobby MPs in Parliament

Four of Warwick’s sabbatical officers spent a day lobbying MPs on the government’s higher education policy, as part of the National Union of Students’ (NUS) “Come Clean” campaign.

Matthew Rogers, Izzy John, Sean Ruston and Leo Boe were joined in Parliament by sabbatical officers and law students from various British Universities affiliated with the NUS on April 18th.

They questioned MPs on several issues affecting higher education such as postgraduate funding, rising tuition fees and student bursaries. They also called for a public debate to address such concerns.

Rogers said the campaign was necessary to draw attention to issues which the government were failing to address. “The NUS lobby was primarily aimed at getting more transparency with government on what’s happening with higher education.”

“With relation to post-graduate funding, students do not have access to student loans – they have to rely on commercial bank loans. There is concern from those in lower socio-economic backgrounds.”

“We also want to see more bursaries as opposed to fee waivers which don’t actually help students
much with the cost of their studies.”

He added that the SU is “very concerned that we haven’t heard enough on issues like this from the government.”

The sabbatical officers spoke with MPs from both the Labour and Conservative parties.

“It’s a shame no Liberal Democrats were available” said Rogers.

They asked MPs to sign an “Early Day Motion” (EDM) to highlight dissatisfaction with the development and incoherence of Higher Education Reform. The EDM also suggested a debate in Parliament.

Jeremy Wright MP (Kenilworth and Southam, Tory) refused to sign the EDM and argued that postgraduate students could not receive financial support.

Paul Blomfield MP (Sheffield Central, Labour) was the main sponsor of the EDM and suggested funding models for postgraduate courses.

Jim Cunningham MP (Coventry South, Labour) agreed to sign the EDM after speaking with the Sabbatical Officers and said, “It is always great to see young people getting involved in running a campaign on issues that affect students. Higher education funding is one of the most important of these issues and I wish Warwick’s students success.

“I will always be happy to meet with Warwick students in the future to appraise me of the campaign’s progress.”

First-year Philosophy, Politics and Economics student Patrick Mackenzie believes the campaign is important. “The whole point of Sabbatical Officers is to represent the student voice and so they should go to lobby MP’s more often” he said.