Last Week (Monday 30 January – Friday 3 February)

Monday 30 January

• Dinner with David Willetts, Nick Hillman and UUK Matt Hyde, CEO NUS Group, and Liam Burns, NUS President, met with David Willetts to discuss HE white paper and voice concerns. If you have any more questions please contact Liam, liam.burns@nus.org.uk

Tuesday 31 January

• Canadian High Commission/Haut-commissariat du Canada Christina Yan Zhang, NUS International Students Officer, met with the Canadian High Commission in London to discuss creating a national students network to better support Canadian students study in the UK, as well as build up links for UK students unions to create partnership between the students unions in Canada. For more information please contact Christina.zhang@nus.org.uk

Wednesday 1 February

• National Executive Council This meeting of the National Executive Council took place at Unison. Topics of discussion included the deputy returning officer for national elections and finance estimates. For more information you can follow NEC on twitter @NUSNEC or email democracy@nus.org.uk
• HEFCE widening access and participation strategic advisory committee. This cross-sector committee meets three times a year to advise HEFCE on its widening participation policy and strategy. Contact debbie.mcvitty@nus.org.uk for more information.
• National Economic Forum Robin Parker, NUS Scotland President, attended this meeting in Edinburgh. The meeting focused on youth unemployment. Robin argued against the cutting of college bursaries and for investing into human capital through education.

Thursday 2 February

• NUS Board meeting took place in London. If you have any questions please contact liam.burns@nus.org.uk.
• Thursday-Friday: There was a meeting in Vienna of national unions participating in the Financing the Students' Future project. They discussed developing European-wide training and a toolkit to support lobbying on student finance systems. Contact bethan.payne@nus.org.uk for more information.
• HE Public Information Steering Group Alex Bols attended the HE Public Information Steering Group meeting at CentrePoint, London. The meeting oversees the implementation of the KIS and looks at the information needs of postgraduates taught students and a possible PGT NSS. If you have any questions please contact Alex, alex.bols@nus.org.uk.
• Westminster Higher Education Forum Keynote Seminar, UK universities in a global Higher Education market Christina Yan Zhang, NUS International Students Officer, was invited to join Roberta Blackman-Woods MP, Chair; Baroness Maddock, Vice-Chair, All-Party Parliamentary University Group; Professor John Hearn, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (International), University of Sydney, Australia and Chief Executive, Worldwide Universities Network (WUN), Richard Yelland, Directorate for Education, OECD; Cabinet Members of European Commission to talk to UK universities Vice Chancellors about ‘The future for UK universities in a rapidly changing global market for Higher Education’ - including the development of overseas campuses, international competition for students and collaboration on student placements and research. For more information please contact Christina.zhang@nus.org.uk

Friday 3 February

Student Hubs Meeting Matt Hyde and Ed Marsh met with representatives from Student Hubs for a general catch up on where the two organisations are. If you have any questions please contact Ed, ed.marsh@nus.org.uk.

FE Leadership Wales Raechel Mattey, Luke Young, Stephanie Lloyd, Mary Prescott Roshni Joshi and Toni Pearce attended FE Leadership Wales at Crosskeys campus, Coleg Gwent. This was the first FE Leadership Event in Wales, training FE leaders from across the nation. If you have any questions, please contact Toni, toni.pearce@nus.org.uk or Luke, luke.young@nus-wales.org.uk.

British Youth Council Matt Hyde and Liam Burns met with the President and CEO of BYC at NUS HQ for a general catch up on where the two organisations are. If you have any questions please contact Liam, liam.burns@nus.org.uk.

Next Week (Monday 13 – Friday 17 February)

Saturday 11 February

• Unite Against Fascism Wales Conference Luke Young, NUS Wales President, will be speaking about his support for students fighting against rascist and fascist organisations. If you have any questions please contact Luke, luke.young@nus-wales.org.uk
• VARSITY: Aberystwyth vs Bangor Raechel Mattey, Stephanie Lloyd will be attending to support both fantastic teams. If you have any questions contact raechel.mattey@nus-wales.org.uk or Stephanie.lloyd@nus-wales.org.uk.

Tuesday 14 February

• Meeting with TUC, London Jamie Agombar will take part in the Playfair Steering group, to discuss how the campaign to engage suppliers in ethical procurement is going in the run up to the Olympic Games. If you have any questions please contact Jamie, jagombar@nussl.co.uk.

Wednesday 15 February

• SAB Miller, London Jamie Agombar will be meeting to engage with them over ActionAid's campaign on tax avoidance in Africa. If you have any questions please contact jagombar@nussl.co.uk.
• Viola, London Jamie Agombar will be meeting to engage with them over their involvement in the Jerusalem Light Rail Transit project. If you have any questions please contact Jamie, jagombar@nussl.co.uk.
• London Mayor's Office. Jamie Agombar will be meeting with representatives of the London Mayor’s Office to talk with them about their Student Carbon Prize, and also to gain their support in Green Impact community roll-out plans. If you have any questions please contact Jamie, jagombar@nussl.co.uk.
• We will be meeting with Janet Graham, Director of Supporting Professionalism in Admissions to discuss the recent UCAS admissions process review and how students' unions can support better use of contextual data in admissions. For more information contact: Debbie.McVitty@nus.org.uk
• Bethan Payne will be attending the Burgess Implementation Steering Group at Universities UK, discussing implementation of the Higher Education achievement Record. For more information: Bethan.Payne@nus.org.uk

Thursday 16 February

• We will be at the conference Widening Access to Postgraduate Education: Access after the White Paper. Debbie McVitty will be participating on a panel discussion on postgraduate access. For more information contact Debbie.McVitty@nus.org.uk   
• Residential Meeting of the Council for Education in the Commonwealth. Christina Yan Zhang, NUS International Students Officer will be joining leaders from across 54 Commonwealth Countries such as Steve Cutts, Assistant Secretary-General, Commonwealth Secretariat, Daisy Cooper, Director of the Commonwealth Advisory Bureau to discuss the future priority of education across Commonwealth countries. If you have any questions please contact Christina.zhang@nus.org.uk.