Student Services Charge - what is it funding??

Today was an interesting day, lots on my plate, SHAG week stuff to finalise, and Officerboard dinner, Quality documents, reaffiliation documents, mid year interm reports, grant queries, media enquiries re the esri reports, contacting politicians, reviewing the nus-usi bilateral agreement - just your general day as USI president!

But today the University heads, the IUA heand and the head of the HEA were up in front of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education. I will post the transcript of this presentation once it is ready but it was a very interesting event!

From what transpired today it was very evident that the reg fee is being used to supplement the core grant - it has become a tuition fee.

I'm sure more will be said about this over the coming days and it will be interesting to see what the response of the Minister will be to what transpired today.

Tomorrow I am off to an event in Aras an Uachtarain so I am looking forward to that!

Another brief update!

It was a busy week last week and looks like being a busy week again this week (and next week too!). With the launch of the ESRI reports tomorrow we have been busy in the office formulating a response and also the University presidents are in front of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education on Thursday so we await what will be said at that. I will also be meeting more members of the Oireachtas on Wednesday and on Friday the day will centre around a visit to Aras an Uachtaran!

The Activist Academy held in Athlone last week was a big success. I hope that USI is able to grow the event over the coming years as it is a very useful tool for student unions and students alike.

http://gplay.ipowow.com/player?v=mwhsrVfS3ec&w=480&h=390

Please visit this link and vote and have your say. This is a new departure for us here at USI. This is the first time we have used online interactice polling/voting technology and it is a great tool for us and allows us instant access to opinion.

Dublin as an International Student City

Today I was on at panel discussing Dublin as an International Student City help by the Dublin Mayor. It was a good event and I was impressed with Shelia Power, the head of ICOS, who it would appear think along the same lines as myself! While my background knowledge on international students I was very fortunate to have some excellent documents, available from the USI website (www.usi.ie) created by the USI Equality Officer, Linda Kelly, as part of that campaign.

I really do hope that some 'outside the box thinking' is done before any decisions or plans are made on creating Dublin as an international student city. These international students should not be solely there as a 'cash cow' for the educational institutions as these students will need integration and will ultimately require the educational institutions to provide services for them.

Also much needed discussion needs to happen before a long term view and plan is made about the role of international students in both education and wider society. We must recognise that events like this may happen http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/we-will-not-tolerate-attack-on-indian-students-australian-minister_100284439.html and it is imperative that we focus on proper integration and ask both international students and Irish students how to achieve this. We must also ask the wider community for their views.

For every 100 international students in Dublin about 17 jobs are created as a direct result according to a panellist today and this is an impressive figure that should be noted given we are in the depths of a recession. It is also imperative that the Quality Mark is realised immediately to ensure that rouge educational institutes, in particular some English language Schools, which do not have the students at the centre and provide shoddy service and education should be closed down.

Looking forward to reading the report when its finished and here's hoping that all involved in the educational sector gets this right.

Busy times ahead!

January is always a busy month for the USI officers and we certainly are very busy this month. Just sent our affiliation document to the designers there and hope to have our interm mid year report 'and impact report' finished by the end of the week. We will be publishing them online so keep an eye out on www.usi.ie for these from next week.

Next week will be a busy week for myself. On Monday I am a panelist at the 'Dublin as an International Student City' workshop and in the afternoon I will be meeting with Senator Mullen regarding Quality issues within Third level, in fact I will also be meeting with Brian Hayes, Ulick Burke and senator Fidelma Healey Eames and Cecilia Keaveney also to discuss Quality issues in the run up to the amalgamation of the Qulaity Agences.

On Tuesday I will be heading up to NUS-USI in Belfast and on Thursday and Friday we will be in Athlone for the Activist Academy, where I will also host a Presidents Working Group to discuss the upcoming congress!

So the next couple of weeks will be fairly busy but do keep an eye out on usi.ie for all the stuff that we will be doing.

Activist Academy

Date For Your Diary

What is the USI Activist Academy?
This 1 day event is aimed at part time officers, class reps, society committee members and other interested students. Training will be provided on issues such as campaigning, media and public relations. Sessions on specific campaigns (equality, welfare, education, fees etc) will also be run. The aim of the event is to empower student to lead campaigns at a local level.

Important Information
Start: 3pm, 21st January
Finish: 3pm, 22nd January
Where: Athlone

There are a limited amount of places available. To provisionally book a place please email deputypresident@usi.ie

A small deposit is expected and will be returned to delegates who attend. More details and a full programme to follow.

New Year - New Aims

Back in HQ - everyone survived the snow! Well we are back into the full swing of things and had a refocusing exercise on Monday and I think it was beneficial to sit down and see what needs doing!

Anyways, January looks as though it will be a crazy month in terms of campaigns. The 'What's your attitude' Campaign is going out to the colleges over the next day or so. The SHAG campaign is coming along too - Ciaran and Hugh have done a great job on it so far. Also a new drinks / antisocial campaign is something which we hope to roll out very soon and it looks like a decent campaign already so I am quiet pleased with it so far. Quality is a term that we are focusing on and with the amalgamation of the quality and awarding bodies we must ensure that student representation and student involvement in the new body is a central mantra.

The Activist Academy is on in Athlone on the 21st and 22nd of January. I am very excited about this and Dan has done a smashing job in getting it together. We already have good numbers for the event and I am looking forward to it!

The presidents will also be meeting at a special President Working Group to have a discussion on Congress. The dates for congress are March 29th to April 1st and the timelines for motions and elections can be found on the USI website. We are updating the website regularly so if you get a chance do have a look.

I will be heading to Belfast next week and am looking forward to visiting NUS-USI and perhaps the SU’s of QUB and UU should time allow. On Monday I will be at a workshop in the Dublin Civic Offices on the theme of ‘Dublin as an international students’ city’.

I had a good rest over the Christmas and New Year periods and am rearing to go again for what will be my last few months in the student movement!