With less than a month to the local council elections UCU members in Southampton found a novel way of connecting voters with politicians on 12 April and making them work a bit harder for their vote.

UCU invited councillors from the four main parties to go speed dating with local UCU members, teachers, parents, students and community leaders at Southampton City College.

Council leader Royston Smith from the Conservatives, Labour Councillor Richard Williams, Liberal Democrats Councillor Adrian Vinson and Chris Bluemel from the Green Party all faced the voters.

The event, which was part of UCU’s Union Cities project, had very simple rules. Constituents spent five minutes with each of the politicians before the whistle blew and they moved on to the next.

Those taking part included Caryn Symons, a UCU member at Southampton City College, who works with some of the city’s most disadvantaged young people as part of the City Horizons scheme.

How did she find being able to question Southampton Council leader Royston Smith and others about services for young people?

‘I think the format is really fun and a good way of getting people together’, said Karen. ‘It was great having politicians from the main parties in the same room and seeing them quickly in succession.

‘Although five minutes is a short period of time you are face-to-face with them and can raise important issues, such as the impact of losing the EMA, directly with them.

‘I was especially pleased to see two of the college’s students participating. It is good to give them a taste of politics and for them to realise their vote is important.’

Joining Caryn on the people’s panel was Harriet Brooks, a business and administration apprentice. ‘I have never voted before’, said Harriet.

‘I was a bit nervous beforehand, but once I got into it I found it really useful. I was able to talk about why it is important to help apprentices like me and to help us find jobs. I will definitely be voting now.’

The event also proved popular with the media, featuring on the BBC lunchtime and evening television news, as well as being covered by the Southampton Daily Echo.

A highly successful lobby of the Scottish Parliament took place on 24 May with a large turnout from branches.  The lobby was organised by UCU and held jointly with EIS and supported by NUS Scotland.  Due to publicity stunts at the lobby outside the Scottish Parliament the event received extensive media coverage on STV, BBC [...]

Thousands of students, staff and supporters marched peacefully on Wednesday 6th April in protest at the education cuts in Northern Ireland.

The 2011 Budget included a few announements on UCU issues but focussed very much on business and tax changes. You can see the UCU members’ briefing by clicking here: Budget 2011

Lots of people have asked how they can find out how many young people in their area recieve EMA. The latest data available is form 2008/09 and can be found here: EMA recipents by institution

UCU members from across the country rallied to protect pubic services and lobbied their Members of Parliament ahead of the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR). Philippa Davey, UCU South West, reports back …

UCU took part in the ‘All Together for Public Services’ TUC rally against public sector cuts on October 19 – the day before the Comprehensive Spending Review.

The Question Time event was packed out again with over 80 people crammed onto a balcony at the ACC Liverpool. The panel for the event consisted of Sally Hunt, NUS President Aaron Porter, Julian Huppert MP (Cambridge) and Baroness Margaret Sharp. Jeevan Vasagar from The Guardian chaired.

The topic of higher education funding was a contentious issue at Liberal Democrat conference this year. Sally Hunt was joined on our platform with Secretary of State Vince Cable MP, Chair of Liberal Youth Martin Shapland and St Austell and Newquay MP Stephen Gilbert. Liberal Youth member and Councillor Tom Stubbs chaired the meeting.

A number of UCU members and staff attended the Save Our Schools rally which had been organised by NASUWT and the NUT to bring attention to cuts in education.