Vote Sorana #1 I #SupportSorana

FOR VP HIGHER EDUCATION

My experience

Full-time Postgraduate Education Officer Bristol Students’ Union (on

sabbatical from PhD) 2014 - present

NUS Higher Education Zone (NEC place) 2014 - present

NUS National Executive Council 2014 - present

HEFCE Quality Assessment Review Steering Group 2014 - present

Postgraduate Research Rep, Bristol Students’ Union, 2013 - 2014

Hi, I’m Sorana, the Postgraduate Education Full-time Officer at Bristol Students’ Union and I’m running to be your next NUS VP Higher Education because I believe education is a public good and it must serve all members of society. A system of fees forces universities to focus on marketing and shiny buildings rather than the needs of all students. We need to fight for a system with no tuition fees in order to remove the competition between universities, so they can invest in improving teaching and learning. However, free education means nothing if we don’t dismantle institutional structures of oppression. The government and universities are systematically shutting out those most marginalised from education: women, working class, disabled, LGBT+, Black students and those with caring responsibilities. I will lead an HE campaign that puts access and liberation at the heart of a fair and transformative education system.

#SupportSorana If you require this in a different format please contact me:

Sorana.Vieru@Gmail.com@SoranaBanana

facebook.com/Sorana4VPHE

FUNDING AND THE AFTERMATH OF THE GENERAL ELECTION

IF ELECTED I WILL:

- Develop guidance for SUs to lobby for more accessible hardship funds and campaign to reverse cuts to student support and bursaries.- Campaign to change the new PG Taught loan scheme - it excludes people over 30 and the £10k allowance could mean an increase in fees in an unregulated market. I’ll also work with the Nations so that measures translate across.

NUS has policy on Free Education. Regardless of the General Election outcome, I will continue to campaign for public fund-ing for HE. We need free education at all levels of study, and for all students, because graduates are burdened with debt and postgraduate study is purely a dream for most. We also need to fight for funding beyond fees. We need appropriate bursaries, maintenance and support packages that are also accessible to mature, part-time and international students.

OPERATION LIBERATION

SUPPORTING EDUCATION ACTIVISM

Universities rely on rigid curricula and assessment methods that privilege certain groups, mainly the privately educated. Academic posts are still overwhelmingly secured by Oxbridge graduates and only 17 professors in the UK are Black women. The students of today are the future academics and university senior managers. I want an HE Zone that works with the Liberation campaigns to dismantle the Eurocentric education system.

We need to build a generation of education activists on campuses. Students are still being arrested when they fight for education at their institutions and academic freedom is being shut down by initiatives like PREVENT and the Counter-terrorism Bill.

-Lobby to extend PG Research funding to more than just elite institutions and rework indicators of quality as the Research Excellence Framework is unfit for purpose. I’ll create a national benchmark policy so students registered at several institutions get a better deal. I’ll also lobby research councils to extend research scholarships to part-time study to widen access for student parents and carers and disabled students.- Work with VP Further Education to strengthen the Mature & Part-time Section as well as articulate the value of vocational education to national funding bodies.

IF ELECTED I WILL:

- Work with the NUS Liberation campaigns (Women, Black, LGBT and Disabled Students) and Sections (Mature & Part-time, International, Postgrad) to embed liberation and diversity initiatives in education and course rep training;-Run a campaign on student involvement in developing alternative assessments which test a wide range of skills; -Develop a framework for student and staff involvement in the co-design of curricula; -Support student-led alternative education spaces.

IF ELECTED I WILL:

- Develop rep frameworks that work for all students and work to change our SU structures so that everyone can participate- Support SUs in developing innovative models for representation (particularly postgraduate) so that students don’t need to choose between activism and their studies- Collaborate with trade unions (e.g. UCU) in our members’ efforts to protect academic freedom and the right to protest on local campuses

Dash Sekhar - VP Academic Affairs - Edinburgh University Students’ Association

Sorana gets that free education and fee structure reform is meaningless without properly embedding liberation into HE access. She prioritises our least supported and most disenfranchised students with her policies and that is why I am backing her for VP HE.

#SupportSorana

Harriet Pugh - Education Officer, Manchester SU and NUS Higher Education Zone

Sorana is the kind of officer who’s got expertise and an eye for detail when it comes to policy but would leave her desk and pick up the megaphone when needed. She’s shown this most effectively when mobilising actions for free education locally in Bristol and nationally.

Elliot Howells - President of Cardiff SU

I’m amazed at the work that Sorana has done for students as a sabb in Bristol and the knowledge she brought to Union partnership groups: from restructuring rep systems to widening access to extra-curricular activities in the union for postgraduates. With officer roles changing in our union I’m looking forward to seeing the achievements that a full-time Postgraduate Officer will make here.

Susuana Antubam - NUS National Women’s Officer, NECI’m supporting Sorana because she sees education as a public good and genuinely believes in the value of diversity in the curriculum. If elected I know she will work alongside liberation campaigns to empower students on campuses to develop transformative education spaces.