NUS is pleased to announce a two-year project which will focus on improving the experiences of students of faith in Further and Higher Education. The main focus of the project will be to work with individual students’ unions in order to develop a bank of resources for them to use.
Over the last few years NUS has frequently been asked to provide students’ unions with guidance on both supporting students of faith on campus and resolving inter-faith tension on campuses.
There has also been an increase of reported dissatisfaction from students of faith with regards to both the structure of the academic timetable and the nature of pastoral and social support that is available on campuses across the UK.
Over the last eighteen months NUS has been exploring various ways of meeting these requests from our members. We have also been looking at ways of providing a space in which there can be meaningful inter-faith dialogue at a national level.
In spring 2008, we received a small amount of funding from the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) to bring together student faith leaders to discuss options for Student-led Interfaith Collaboration. Following these discussions, we produced a report outlining our recommendations for future work in this area.
Inter-faith project
We have now secured funding for a two-year project. With this funding, we will bring together student leaders from a wide range of faiths to consider Inter-faith collaboration.
The project aims to improve the experiences of students of faith in further and higher education by increasing students’ unions awareness of students of faith and provide support, training and resources with regards to students of faith.
It will also provide support, training resources and information for local student faith leaders to develop strong local inter-faith collaboration.