Thread by @ZamzamMCR

NUS COVID19 Update🧵:

These past few weeks have been unprecedented in the history of the student movement. The Covid-19 pandemic shutting down our institutions & indeed our entire country has made more confusion, uncertainty and fear endemic to the lives of every student.

Tomorrow I will be presenting an emergency motion to #nusconference / #nusnc2020 that sets out @nusuk’s guiding principles as we respond to this crisis. So I felt I should update you on the number of actions we’ve taken since the start of this crisis.

On the 16th of March I wrote to the Chancellor of the Exchequer to request the lowering of the Statutory Sick Pay threshold and other support for student workers, as well as support for FE and HE providers who may encounter funding.

We met the Home Office on 17 March to discuss visas and immigration issues and seek assurances as to how international students can be supported while there is significant disruption to travel and to courses in the UK.

We have been in contact with healthcare unions over proposals to fast-track final year healthcare students into the NHS and have worked with them to ensure students are supported properly.

We met with the Department for Education on the 20th of March and was pleased to welcome the Student Loans Company confirmation that third term payments will be made as normal and pledged to continue working with them to ensure students are treated fairly.

I and NUS Wales President @RobSimkins1 met with the Chief Exec of the Student Loans Company to discuss how they are working on business contingency at Student Finance England & Wales, while they are unable to run their contact & processing centres at full strength.

Our Vice President Welfare @EvaCrossanJory has been leading on some incredible work on housing. She wrote an article on the student renters crisis in Wonkhe, demanding action from the Government and HE sector. You read that article here: wonkhe.com/blogs/we-can-a…

We have subsequently wrote to Universities UK and landlords’ representatives to ask for them to work to support student renters. We had a meeting with the Department for Education and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

We've written to Financial Secretary to the Treasury asking for greater financial support for SUs to deal with Covid-19 and to reverse decisions regarding retroactive VAT payments.

Today our VP Higher Education @CLAIRESOS called on universities to cancel or postpone this summer’s exams to avoid further stress and disruption to students’ lives during the coronavirus pandemic. You can read more here: theguardian.com/education/2020…

And finally, I hosted the first of our weekly Skype sessions with student officers last week. I updated them on what’s happening nationally and heard what they’ve been doing locally to bring students together. Here’s just some of the things SUs have been doing:

At @UCLanSU, they procured 400 laptops and 4G dongles from their university for students who do not have internet access or laptops at home. @LeedsUniUnion have worked with their institution to secure the release of students from residences contracts if they need it.

And at @subath the officers are hosting live yoga session workouts and have setup a community group to share positive news 🧘‍♀️

To end, I hope all students are staying safe, staying at home and following the Government’s advice to give our NHS best chance to manage this pandemic. Thank you to NHS and all emergency workers, especially those who are students.

I will be using this platform, as well as my weekly emails to members to keep you fully updated on our work to support students during this pandemic, but please email me if you have any questions [e-mail]