Will Atkins (Vice President Barts and The London) and Carolina Mantzalos (Students' Union President) both met with our local MP
By Carolina Mantzalos, Student Union President
On Friday 16th October, Will Atkins (Vice President Barts and The London) and I both met with our local MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, Rushanara Ali, to discuss the NUS #CutTheCosts campaign.
The aim of the campaign is to stop the current government’s plans to scrap maintenance grants for full-time Higher Education students in England and replace them with a loans-based system.
The meeting was held at Rushanara’s local constituent office in Bethnal Green. It was exciting to have the opportunity to meet with a local MP who not only has very strong links with QMUL, but is also clearly concerned about the negative impact that maintenance grants being converted into loans could have on home students from lower income backgrounds.
Will and I spoke about how the Union is running the campaign at QMUL and is aiming to get lots of students involved, a few of whom have already contacted me. Rushanara Ali was supportive of the campaign and she also mentioned that she was going to write to Jo Johnson, Minister of State for Universities and Science, on our behalf, stressing the concerns we have over these proposals.
Rushanara shared our view that students and local constituents should stand against these proposals, and we even have a photograph to prove it!
We will be regularly updating the Union website on how we are progressing with the campaign and the many ways for you to get involved. If any of you want to get directly involved with the campaign, then please feel free to email me on su-president@qmul.ac.uk