The National Union of Students is one of the largest student movements in the world. It encompasses over 600 university and college student unions in the UK and campaigns for decolonising education, LGBTQ+ justice, improving student housing, and resolving the cost of living crisis.
It also needs a new leader.
When Brig sat down with Eliot Wooding-Sherwin (a fourth-year Law student here at Stirling) and asked him why he was running for NUS President, he focused on ‘rebuilding the Scottish student movement.’
As the founder of the University of Stirling’s own Solidarity Space in 2022, organising housing rallies, campaigning in solidarity with the UCU (University and College Union), and acting as an NUS delegate for Stirling over the past year, Eliot is extremely acquainted with the state of student activism.
‘In Scotland, we’re quite lucky, in the sense that we have quite active student unions,’ he tells Brig.
Image Credit: Student Cost Of Living
‘But with the marketization of education, students tend to just accept that they’re in education to get a degree, and not engage politically or with the decisions being made that affect them.
‘I believe I can bring that movement together, actually have students on the ground working with each other across Scotland.’
Experience
Eliot has experience here already. He has collaborated with groups like Global Justice Stirling, STAR (Student Action For Refugees), and the Scottish Socialist Youth, collaborating on projects to improve student housing, and recently organised a rally opposing a rent increase on student accommodation in Stirling.
And he’s not done yet.
‘I know how NUS campaigns work, how they run, and how to engage students in them.’
‘Connecting up student groups is absolutely something I can bring to the role. I want to be speaking to you as a movement, so we’re actually campaigning together.’
Plans
Eliot plans to run open campaign training workshops in collaboration with student unions across Scotland, and facilitate specific campaign training for sabbatical officers. Eliot even ran an Organising School workshop here on campus, and wants to expand.
‘I want to run events all over, all the way up to the Highlands and Islands, so you don’t have to travel,’ he explains animatedly. ‘I’ve learned a lot about campaigning. I want to extend that to everyone.’
‘A big part of it is having those really important conversations . We need to get students in the room making decisions about their campaigns. Otherwise a movement isn’t going to exist beyond people just making a decision.’
Image Credit: Stirling Solidarity Space
‘The current NUS Scotland president is fantastic, and we have a great foundation to work from.
‘If we are organised and strong as a student movement, if we have that, we will win.’
Find out more and access Eliot’s manifesto here.
Featured Image Credit: Jonathon Boomer
