Our Students are not for Profit
Category: Policy Topic Idea
Voting closed
What’s the problem?
The true costs of living, studying and simply existing as part of a further and higher education space is too high, from the course costs to living costs, too many students are being priced out of their education and experience. We need to fight to stop universities and institutions from endlessly profiting from students' life; whether it be eating, drinking, sleeping, studying, there are hidden profit margins that institutions are taking advantage of.
NUS has made clear their commitment to fighting for a “free, liberated, and truly accessible education for all.” NUS’ poverty commission research found that there is a worrying ‘poverty premium endemic’ for students in further and higher education, “which means students from working-class backgrounds often pay higher costs in order to access post-16 education as a consequence of class and poverty”.
On-campus catering outlets, shops selling groceries, book shops selling core texts, on-campus laundry facilities, university housing, transport – all of these services, often run or managed by further and higher education institutions are turning a profit from fundamental parts of a students’ life in an education institution. These are services students cannot do without.
When students cannot afford the catering outlets and shop prices, they don’t eat. When students cannot afford the core texts, they are priced out of success. When students cannot afford university housing, they become homeless. When students cannot afford the bus services, they become isolated. These costs, especially when run by educational institutions, should not be used to turn a profit. Keeping these costs down is a fundamental part of the fight for a truly free, liberated and accessible education.
What could be the solution?
Campaign against the additional costs of student life beyond simply the costs surrounding the course itself; continuing the work and research behind the poverty commission report.
Universities are making a profit, either directly or via franchising the provision to external providers, from the fundamentals of a students’ life at their institution. We should be campaigning to put an end to these money-making avenues and ensure Universities are no longer looking to make money from, or franchising out the provisions, for food, transport, laundry, accommodation and course materials.
Corporate franchises, whose primary focus is profit and not the quality of experience, should be turned away from our campuses. For example, organisations such as food providers 'Chartwells', laundry providers 'Circuit laundry' and accommodation providers 'Unite Students'.
Ideas for Implementation
NUS should continue to develop a proposal for the Living Income for Students, a Real Living Student Wage that takes into account things that the Real Living Wage does not, and a Real Living Rent outlining what affordable accommodation looks like for our students. Universities should be lobbied to make clear the real costs of being a student and the additional activities they promote as being part of the student experience, such as engaging in sports and societies, eating on campus and accommodation beyond first-year university managed provisions.
Comments
Amendment 1: Submitted by Oxford Brookes Students' Union. What is the problem? That Unite Students paid £0 in corporation tax despite making a profit of over £240m in 2018. Companies which make large profits have a responsibility to pay their fair share in tax. That Unite Students provides accommodation to thousands of students across the United Kingdom and that it has a responsibility to keep residents safe. That Unite Students placed cladding on more than one student halls of residence which failed a government safety test after the Grenfell Fire. That Unite Students’ research on students’ behaviour and welfare must influence their pricing strategy - a principle which cannot reasonably be observed today. Unite Students has been set up to turn a profit from housing students, and that this principle is a form of exploitation and therefore a barrier to a free and wholesome education. That the large profits that Unite Students accumulate do not justify their extortionate rent prices and that this can only be seen a corporate cash-grab, damaging the lives of students. What could the solutions be? That the NUS should not tolerate any form of exploitation, and that Unite Students is unaffordable DPC Explanation DPC is currently seeking clarification regarding several points from the proposers of the following policy proposal relating to student housing: “Increase Affordable Housing Accommodation Percentage” Until clarification is received that policy proposal is inadmissible. DPC is working hard to ensure the it can still be submitted. For the other two policy proposals, DPC made some small grammatical changes and all sections that were prescriptive to NUS, or other organisations, regarding tactics have been deleted or rephrased. However, the original text has been drawn out of the main body of the policy proposal into a 'ideas for implementation' section for consideration of the future officer team. DPC decided that “Unite Against Unite Students” should become an amendment to another policy proposal – “Our Student Are Not For Profit”.
Amendment 2: NUS should campaign for Apprentices to be paid the Real Living Wage. The Apprentice minimum wage is too low, is frequently ignored and should be abolished. Apprentices bring economic value to their employers and this is recognised in their wage. If apprentices are not paid the living wage they are, by definition, not being paid enough to live. Apprentices are both learners and both workers. The idea that apprentices should have a lower minimum wage than other workers to signify the contribution to the cost of their education is regressive and unfair.
As mature student rep at Sheffield Hallam university , ammendment 3 : universal credit and it's impact upon student parents, carers and disabled students needs to be a cause for consideration, and something we use our collective voice to lobby against
I agree with above amendments that apprentices should be paid a real living wage and that the Universal credit rules around students need to be addressed as they impact massively on students and more recently have caused students to leave their courses due to personal circumstances changing and universal credits rules.