NUS fiddles while cuts battles grow
This year’s National Union of Students conference (13-15 April) represented a new low in terms of political and organisational culture for the student movement. Massive cuts to delegation sizes meant that the conference was smaller than ever, and structural changes which have made NUS even less accessible than before guaranteed an absolute minimum of political controversy in the policy debates. Almost every mildly left-wing motion was heavily defeated and NUS’s policies in favour of fees and cuts were maintained. A small victory was won when a motion in support of future strike action by the...