The National Union of Students isn’t good for much beyond the occasional discount voucher which it sends to its members. But its latest campaign still proved a big hit. The NUS called on its members to boycott the National Student Survey, suggesting that it could be used to justify higher fees if universities scored highly. Students need little encouragement not to do something; unsurprisingly, the plan worked. Last week, it emerged that a dozen universities didn’t get enough responses for their surveys to be deemed valid. Top universities – including Cambridge, Oxford, UCL and Bristol – were among those affected.
The NUS is busy claiming success. Yet this characteristically petty protest has actually left students – and applicants – worse off. Rather than engaging the government on their policy, the NUS simply tried to obstruct the survey – and the Teaching Education Framework, of which it was a part. In doing so, the NUS may have thwarted the government’s plan but it has done its members a disservice by silencing the voices of students.
For all the bluster about the survey being a tool of the evil Tory government, it’s worth remembering that it was actually meant as a way of helping students. Studying
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