Cambridge University Labour Club
  • Home
    • Daniel Zeichner MP
  • Blog
  • Join
  • Committees
    • The Exec
    • College Reps
    • Speakers' Sub-Committee
    • The Constitution
  • Reading Lists
  • Campaigns
    • Living Wage Campaign
    • Mental Health Campaign
  • Contact Us
  • Anonymous Reporting

CULC BLOG

announcements and comment

Report from cost of uni meeting

26/10/2018

0 Comments

 

THE CULC TEAM

The message from our round table discussion was clear: students in Cambridge and across the country are not receiving the support they need and deserve to thrive at university. Some people find that their mental health is being impacted and differences are more and more stark between those who have the financial support they need and those who are struggling.
Students are now leaving university with an average debt of £57k and what is striking is that this debt is crippling exactly on those who from the start should be getting more support from our Government and our universities. Rakib Ehsan, Researcher at the Intergenerational Foundation, provided us with some insightful points on the issue of student debt and impacts on one’s future career satisfaction and sense of entrepreneurship. Those with the most debt are also less risk-averse. This affects students right from the university application process into their working lives, with those from lower income backgrounds particularly feeling locked out of degrees and careers in the arts. We don’t believe this is either a fair system or one that makes economic sense if we want to encourage people to take on all the opportunities available out there to contribute to our economy and our future.
CULC also would like to praise the hard work done by both Shadab and Laura on fighting to make our universities more accessible for people from different backgrounds. Schemes like CUSU’s shadowing scheme are a massive help in getting the word out about the support available in our university. However, both the University of Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin University’s students do still struggle with their finances when in uni.
Sheri-Ann, Labour Students’ General Secretary was also able to share with us stories of students from all over the country experiencing some real difficulties managing their finances and how we desperately need a Labour Government to radically change the current situation.
We now wants your help to take this campaign forward and make a real difference!
We will be focusing on the Hidden Costs of University and how every little thing does add up. Some are more serious than others, of course, and we will be addressing all of that.
Disabled students may often struggle to cover costs of medication, special equipment and so on.
We have heard of LGBT+ students going through the most upsetting process to ‘prove’ estrangement from their parents to be able to get that extra support they need which is not covered by a maintenance loan.
Students, however, also do struggle with rent, abuse from private landlords charging outrageous upfront costs, as it is the reality for ARU students and even with the cost of transport of going back home for the holidays if you don’t live close to your university.
The cost of moving in and out of university is also a burden and international students are faced with the extra costs of renting out private storage over the holidays.
While some of these examples may seem trivial on their own, CULC wishes to highlight that when we add all these up, our ‘cost of university’ is currently unaffordable as the marketisation of our universities continue to push up the price of education. Meanwhile, the support we receive, either in the forms of bursaries or loans is simply not enough when we take all of that into account and the ‘bank of mum and dad’ is not a viable source of support.
The focus of our campaign will be on awareness raising and starting a debate about the suitability of our university financial system.
We will be collaborating with other universities around the country to learn more about the reality of students in education today and will be sharing our findings.
Please do contribute to this by telling us about your experience with student finance and your most outrageous costs at uni. Is your laundry cost too high? Is your college restaurant too expensive? Was your gown a bit more than you had budgeted for? No issue is too small! Share all with is in here: https://goo.gl/forms/OpsGU3Gl7oswEQgD2 and we will be updating what we find regularly!
Let’s start a conversation and work together to challenge these costs and the poor support to cover them!


0 Comments

Finally, some reasons to be cheerful

26/10/2018

0 Comments

 

Matilda

Picture
​Need some Reasons to be Cheerful in an age of Trump, Brexit, and climate change? Tune into the weekly podcast of Ed Miliband, former Labour Party Leader and Geoff Lloyd, radio host and podcaster. From exploring the power of cooperatives in Preston to climate solutions to improving trans rights, there’s something for all of us to challenge our ideas about. These podcasts help introduce these difficult topics that are often misrepresented by the media. So, over your breakfast you can help uncover why these issues exist, discourses and discussions around them, and help find solutions. A few experts are usually brought in, from the Secret Barrister on the ‘Law and Disorder: fixing the justice crisis’ podcast, to Sadiq Khan on ‘A Breath of Fresh Air: tackling the air pollution emergency’.
 
The podcasts begin with Ed and Geoff’s reasons to be cheerful, something that we should all be thinking about on a daily basis as we are overwhelmed with negative media and news stories. It is important for us to understand our privilege and positive experiences, no matter how small and be grateful for what we have. As mental health problems are increasing, especially among the youth, this podcast sets a precedent for how we can help to deal with both personal and global anxieties. Examples include family to Ed seeing Geoff after he’s been away to positive changes in the law.
 
The podcast is mainly based on the listener’s choice, inserting democracy and people power into the ideas that are discussed. This is seen through the reading out of emails and discussing the responses to previous podcasts, as well as encouraging listeners to contribute ideas for future episodes by emailing in. In this way, we can extend discussion to those whose voices may usually be marginalised.
 
To conclude, a comedian is invited in to talk about their solutions for a better world. The adding of humour and comedy helps add to the positive attitude, showing how we all can make small changes to a better future. Overall, Ed and Geoff host an insightful way to explore new ideas in a varied and dynamic way, making politics accessible to so many of us.
 
You can listen to Reasons to be Cheerful on Acast, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts
Find them on
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/reasonstobecheerfulpodcast/posts/?ref=page_internal Twitter:
https://twitter.com/cheerfulpodcast
And you can email the podcast at reasons@cheerfulpodcast.com
 

0 Comments

    BLOG

    A place for left debate and thought from Cambridge University Labour Club. 

    Archives

    May 2020
    April 2020
    July 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
    • Daniel Zeichner MP
  • Blog
  • Join
  • Committees
    • The Exec
    • College Reps
    • Speakers' Sub-Committee
    • The Constitution
  • Reading Lists
  • Campaigns
    • Living Wage Campaign
    • Mental Health Campaign
  • Contact Us
  • Anonymous Reporting