Conservative Future » Student Life

Young leaders debate – Wed 28th April

Michael Rock — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 16:09:44 +0000

In two weeks time I will be taking part in a youth leaders debate:

It’s the final episode of Uni-Q Series 2 and with the election coming up, we’ve decided to make it a special one.

For the first time in British election history, the three leaders of the main parties will be taking part in televised debates. But will these debates cover the issues that matter to students and young people across the UK??

We’re not entirely convinced they will, so Uni-Q will be hosting the first ever YOUNG LEADERS DEBATE – your chance to find out which party best addresses the needs of young people across the country.

On Wednesday, April 28th, the show will be filmed at The Venue in University of London Union (with the bar open!)

Our hosts Gavin and Sofia will be joined by a panel of the Leaders of the three student wings of Labour, Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, and we need your questions to put to them

I will be on the panel with:

WES STREETING
NUS President & Labour Students National Committee Member

ALAN BELMORE
Chair of Liberal Youth

For more information, and to register click here.

Debating youth issues on LBC

A Year for Change on the NUS

guest author — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:35:30 +0000

From the Blue Blog: Conservative Future are standing for elections to the student body.

By Kit Friend

For a number of years, NUS elections have been contested by open Labour Students, and “Independents” who are often Labour Party Members (or at a push Liberal or Green).

But this year, I’m going to be contesting as an official Conservative candidate. I believe standing for office carries with it a responsibility to be open about affiliations, and that if the NUS claims to be a truly representative body, this should be reflected in the politics of its leadership.

As a keen supporter of equality of access to HE and opportunity for all, it’s been great to see the fantastic policies rolling out over the months from the Conservative leadership. We are the best party to lead this country out of recession and into a new golden age for Britain, and I look forward to proving that the NUS could really benefit from a centre-right approach to its leadership too.

Getting involved with your local Students’ Union, and the NUS both offer fantastic opportunities for making change. Few other channels will give you so much potential to positively improve the experience of others, and ultimately to support social mobility and empowerment that education can bring.

There is lots of misunderstanding within the Student movement about what conservatism stand for, and we cannot afford for Labour Students and other political movements to have a monopoly that implies they are the only ones who care about this section of our society. So get involved, stand for office and prove our left-wing critics wrong!

Join the campaign team on MyConservatives.

Want to stand for NUS elections?

Helen Roberts — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:59:37 +0000

Student Life’s new target it to expand our remit from focusing primarily on setting up new CF branches, to engaging directly with Student Unions across the country.

Up until recently I was working at CCHQ and loving the buzz and excitement at the prospect of a Conservative government. But, the general election is not the only election just around the corner where the Conservatives have the chance to make gains. The National Union of Students is well known as a Labour Students strong hold. It seems the opportune time to start the fight for Conservative students to be representative’s at the most powerful and influential Students’ Union in the country.

As a former Students’ Union hack I can vouch for the hard work of so many sabbatical and executive officers who work tirelessly to help improve students’ experiences at university. Whether it be helping keep down costs at the university bars or in your halls, or whether it be campaigns to keep libraries open for longer or campaigns to improve teaching standards, the chances are, when real change happens at your university, the Students’ Union has had a lot to do with it.

This is why I urge you all to consider standing in the upcoming NUS elections; it is a worthwhile organisation with considerable influence and Conservatives should get stuck in.

We already have a candidate standing for Sabbatical (clear here to join his Facebook fan page) but we are looking for Conservatives to stand for Block of 15. Deadlines for standing is the end of March so time is ticking as you need to have lots of endorsements and a manifesto sorted by then.

If you are interested in standing for Block of 15 or as a delegate at your university then please contact me on helen.roberts@conservativefuture.com

50% of Students will not vote

Owen Meredith — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:08:29 +0000

Despite this election being the most important for a generation, nearly half of all university students will not vote in May. That is the story revealed in yesterday’s survey conducted by student accommodation provider Unite, which questioned more than 1,500 students.

This is despite the fact that nearly all students currently at university have been educated largely or exclusively under a Labour Government, since those who started university last year began primary education in 1997.

The survey showed that while only 12% said they had “no interest in politics”, almost half said they did not plan to vote in the coming general election. The apathy among young voters is shockingly high, especially given the current economic situation is arguably having the biggest affect on young people.

Political parties of all colours have a huge challenge to mobilise the student vote. I can’t find a reference for this right now, but I can recall a statistic from the 2005 election, which showed that the result in something like 20-25 marginal constituencies would have been altered had the student vote come out in a similar proportion to the rest of the voters in the UK, potentially changing the government of the day.

In 2010, the student vote could almost certainly determine whether it is Gordon Brown or David Cameron who walks through the door of Number 10 on May 7th.

The general election in May will decide the national government for the next 5 years. That government will in turn make hundreds of decisions that directly impact young people, students and (soon to be) graduates. From the most direct policies about the level of university tuition fees or the payback rate for student loans; to the more aspirational policies about the stamp duty rate and assistance for first time home buyers; income tax rates for high earners and tax rates for small business and the self employed.

Although many may not truly realise it now, in the life of the next parliament nearly all of those who are students today will graduate and begin the real-life struggle to pay back debts; save for a house deposit; pay for childcare and find a job.

The policies of the government after May 6th will set the framework in which these students and young people will begin their adult lives.

Why leave it to others to decide that framework? Get out and vote!

Emma Watret encourages young people in Loughborough to get involved in politics

guest author — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:51:11 +0000

Emma is 22 and graduated from Keel University last May. She has now returned home to Shepshed and is working hard to save up enough money to go back to university and study to become a Lawyer. ‘I did go along to a few events that the Conservative Society put on while I was at university and I really enjoyed them; I wish I had got more involved now though’ said Emma.

Emma recently got involved with Nicky Morgan’s campaign to become the next MP for Loughborough, and she is now convinced that ‘young people just don’t realise how enjoyable it can be to get involved in politics or how many other young people are involved in politics’. Loughborough Conservative Future, which is the Conservative movement for people who are aged under 30 and living in Loughborough; holds its own set of events and campaigning days which are often entirely separate from Loughborough Conservatives’. ‘Some members of Loughborough CF are at Loughborough University, some are studying at local schools and colleges and some are living and working in the area. You are never too young to get involved with politics and we are proof of this’, said Emma.

‘A friend of mine was involved before me, she took me along to a social Loughborough Conservative Future held at Reel Cinemas in Loughborough one night and I just enjoyed myself so much that I got involved straight away. I have made so many new friends through my involvement with Loughborough CF and have picked up lots of new skills which will look great on my CV. I would encourage anyone interested to get in touch, it is totally worth it’, said Emma.

‘Getting involved with Loughborough Conservative Future is a great way to learn more about politics, make new friends and have a great time in the process’ said Nicky Morgan. I am always pleased to hear from people wishing to help out with my campaign’. If you would like get involved with Loughborough Conservative Future please do contact the LCCA office by email: office@loughboroughconservatives.com or telephone: 01509 219 370.

Helping to lower unemployment in Loughborough

Make a Call For Change!

Michael Rock — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:40:37 +0000

The CCHQ Call centre (GenEVA), situated on the 5th Floor of Millbank Tower, is the Party’s state-of-the art automated telephone contact centre designed to support Conservative Party Campaigning across our battleground seats.

London CF has been leading the way for weeks now holding regular events and packing out the centre! From next Monday (19th October) these will become a regular fixed official event with London CF taking over GenEVA EVERY Monday night from now until the election is called.

We need CF members & friends to volunteer their time as the Party moves towards the General Election. Although doing your bit will be rewarding in itself, there will also be the opportunity to mingle with PPC’s and hear first hand public opinions on the Party. Of course food and drink is provided!

Upcoming events:

The full list of sessions can be found here – next Monday Eric Pickles will be hosting an evening to say thank you to CFers who have already taken part, and to welcome new people who want to get involved.

Spaces are limited – details on how to RSVP can be found on the event page:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=182273880019

Peter Cuthbertson is the CF GenEVA co-ordinator (and has been doing a stirling job so far – well done Peter!) and can be contacted at team@londonconservativefuture.com

These GenEVA sessions are part of a national plan to get CFers calling more in the runup to the election – further developments at the regional phone centres & MyConservatives.com to follow.

So come and help make a Call For Change!

Student Life update from Clare Hilley

Student Life — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:34:40 +0000

Clare currently has three main roles in the Conservative Party; working as a Councillor in Croydon, as Chair of London Conservative Future and serving as Vice Chair of Student Life:

2009 has been a year of numerous campaign days, meetings and social action projects and 2010 is going to be busier!

London CF is campaigning every week across London, providing strong support in crucial target seats in the run up to the general election. We also plan and coordinate weekly telephone canvassing sessions at CCHQ’s state of the art GenEVA canvassing studio, securing hundreds of new pledges for Conservative candidates. The demand for these sessions has been huge, and the activist turnout is always very high which shows how committed our hardworking activists are. For the last three sessions we have had too many people attending and there was a queue to get onto a phone!

The GenEVA sessions demonstrate London CF’s commitment to good quality professional campaigning. At each session we begin by a short briefing given by the candidate discussing their constituency and local issues and then hit the phones after pizza and drinks, which provide an attractive incentive for activists to get involved.

With freshers’ week just around the corner for many young people, it’s essential that our activists dedicate their efforts to making the on-campus recruitment drive a huge success.

This year’s freshers’ packs have been excellent and a lot of new members really like the new retro ‘Party for Change’ logo. So far we’ve attended dozens of freshers’ fairs across the UK but two in London really stand out to me.

Firstly we had a presence at the fair, for first time ever in Birbeck, which is a major London University offering older people a part time degree course. We had lots of teachers, lawyers and engineers that were over the age of 30 telling us that they were going to vote Conservative for the first time due to the state of the country. We managed to weed out the under 30s and had about a dozen new members sign up which we were very pleased with.

The second freshers’ fair that stands out is one that happened this week at the London Art College – an institution that we have not recruited at before. Our stand was next to the Socialist Workers and Communist ones and at first we thought that we might not attract any new members. The first flood of students headed straight to the communist stands but after the first burst the second and third wave of students came over to us and signed up to Conservative Future.

My first experience of managing a freshers’ recruitment drive was over eight years ago and since then I have helped out year after year as a National Executive member and Area Chairman in different regions. This year has been the most positive ever as young students want to get involved like never before.

I am very excited about the future for Student Life as we’ve got some student life tours coming up, training weekends and we’ve also got some general election briefings with the main party! We’re currently setting up some branches in schools from the outcome of the mock elections where a Conservative Candidate in a school in Croydon came first with 70% of the vote!

It is vital that we offer young students the chance to join us and make a difference, as history shows that these people go on to be some of our brightest stars. I am pleased with the progress that Conservative Future is doing nationally but we need to do more. We all need to work together as one in order to win as many seats as we can in the local and general elections.

A big thank you to the Student Life and the London CF Committees, who have helped, worked and campaigned tirelessly for change. Let’s keep continuing to work hard and together that will make this year the most positive and successful recruitment drive in the history of Conservative Future.

Nottingham University Students Fight for Change

Student Life — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:54:25 +0000

Showing that politics has never been more relevant to young people, The Nottingham University Conservative Association (NUCA) have recorded a massive uptake in membership at this year’s Freshers’ Fayre, exceeding the numbers for the same time last year despite a £2 increase in membership fee.

The President of the Conservative Association at Nottingham, Nick Allsopp said “Response has been overwhelmingly positive; a lot of people who have never been involved with the Conservatives before are coming up and joining; seeking to find out more about the party, to get involved and keen to help elect more Nottingham Candidates than ever before and to return a Conservative Government.”

Wednesday saw visit of Dr Rowena Holland, Nottingham South parliamentary candidate and a team from the East Midlands Conservatives. Dr Holland said “It’s really exciting to see so many students engaged with modern politics. University is a place where ideas and principles are formed and it’s vitally important that we involve young people at every stage.”

Nick added, “With a general election inevitable during the next academic year, we are finding students are excited to be taking part in the upcoming campaigns and this year will potentially be the most important for the society in 30 years.”

The students are also ambitious for their own political campaigns now and in the future and James Spencer, 20, Deputy President of NUCA was recently elected as a Parish Councillor in his home town.

Drive boosted by army of young volunteers who feel it is cool to be Conservative again

Student Life update from Paul Wells

Student Life — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 07:00:22 +0000

During the summer holidays the student life committee has been gearing up for the up-coming year. Elections and Schools Officer Cllr. Paul Wells reports on what he will be up to the in next few months :

The summer has been a busy few months. Tempting though it would have been to rest on my laurels after Chloe Smith’s triumph in Norwich North, a lot of work has been needed to order to lay the groundstones for a successful general election year.

This has not just involve problem solving and troubleshooting individual issues which are brought to my attention, but also pro-actively searching out opportunities to strengthen CF, and has certainly ensured that I have filled my diary!

Every University branch in the county is soon going to face their single biggest test; that of recruiting enough members to be a viable force. During the Freshers period, I will be helping out several branches across the country at their Society Fairs.

In my role as Schools Officer, I have arranged to visit several schools, (as of writing 5 have been confirmed) in Essex and Norfolk, to discuss with their Citizenship/Politics classes the importance of democracy and where it is appropriate to explain more about the Conservative Party.

Even more encouragingly I am currently helping several students to form new CF branches at their Schools.

Fundamentally an organisation like ourselves exists to win elections. This is especially true in this up-coming year with the impending General Election. All other elections are secondary to the vital objective of securing a Conservative majority at that election. This does not mean however that CF should not be actively involved in their campus politics contesting union elections and pushing for improvements in student’s lives and being seen to do so. Indeed those two aims are firmly interlinked! I am currently therefore helping several branches with coming up with ideas for campus/student based campaigns. It is intended that these will compliment the current national NO2ID Cards campaign.

I am a great believer in getting out and seeing what different CF branches are up to and then spreading best practice. So I will be visiting a large number of groups large and small over year. These include locations as remote as West Cornwall!

Throughout this time I have been working closely with Patrick Sullivan-the chair of Student Life- and the rest of the committee. We have a lot planned for this year, and it is safe to say that at times my masters degree may suffer.

(Paul Wells is the CF Student Life Elections and Schools Officer. He was recently the CF coordinator for the Norwich North by-election. A Masters student at UEA, he is one of the youngest County Councillors in the Country)

The Student Life Tours are back

The Student Life Tours are back

Patrick Sullivan — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:17:01 +0000

The Student Life Tours are back – and this term they’re going to even more of our branches!

These events start again in October and will be visiting branches in Manchester, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Norwich, Leeds, Durham, London, Nottingham and Cambridge.

The purpose of these events is to introduce students to the organisations and ideas that make up the wider conservative movement. This will illustrate that CF is indeed a political youth organisation which is willing to deal with big ideas and cares deeply about the message of freedom.

All the events will have speakers from the Taxpayers’ Alliance, NO2ID and the Freedom Association, amongst others.

These tours give us the opportunity to engage Students with the wider conservative movement and show them that all the exciting thinking is coming from the centre-right. Furthermore, I expect the message of freedom which is the common amongst all our panellists will resonate with our audiences.

The 4 events in October:

University of Cambridge – Friday 16th October

London Universities - Wednesday 21st October

Keele University – Friday 23rd October

University of East Anglia – Friday 30th October

For more information on the Student Life Tours click here.