“I Support You” - MP Louise Ellman for #CutTheCosts Campaign
Your elected officers and those from Liverpool Guild of Students and Liverpool Hope Students' Union met with MP Louise Ellman on 18th September to discuss the government’s plans to scrap the maintenance grants and gain Ellman’s support for the NUS ‘Cut the Costs’ campaign.
After tuition fees were raised to £9,000 per year for full-time students in 2010, there are now plans to scrap all maintenance grants under the new Conservative leadership. Instead of grants students will be offered a maitenence loan, adding to the increasing amount of student debt.
Aisling Davis, your VP Community Engagement officer, is leading on the Cut the Costs campaign for Liverpool Students’ Union. She and the other Student Officers at LiverpoolSU have written letters outlining their personal opinions and experiences regarding this proposed change in policy, and sent them to Louise Ellman in a bid to win her support. Read the letters here.
During the meeting Davis stated that she “wouldn’t have attended university if it wasn’t for the support of a maintenance grant.” She explained that by not having any source of support she felt the debt would have been too high and put her off even applying for university.
Louise Ellman, MP for Liverpool Riverside, agreed that to scrap the maintenance grants would be permanently damaging to students and it would be unjust to target students yet again with added debt. Ellman announced “I support you” during the meeting, and agreed to fight to save the maintenance grants.
LiverpoolSU President Lorraine Sebastian-Francois argued that “the scrapping of maintenance grants further promotes the ideology that attending university is just for the white middle class male.” She explained that the cuts will target those who are not white middle class males and deter them from attending university.
Your Vice President of Activities, James Stephenson explained that he felt if he never received a maintenance grant he “wouldn’t have joined any clubs or societies” due to membership fees and costs of sports and club uniforms, as he would have had no funds to do so. He highlighted that the cuts would affect student experiences and the social aspect of university life.
Jamie Bennett, Vice President of Academic Quality, stated that the cuts would affect the poor the most; he explained that no grant means less people will want to attend university to ensure they don’t end up with a mass amount of debt that they are unable to pay back.
Our campaign is far from over, however having gained support from MP Louise Ellman we are now on our way to achieving our goal of free maintenance grants for all students.
To show your support for the campaign tweet us @LiverpoolSU telling us why it’s necessary to keep the maintenance grants using the hashtag #CutTheCosts.
