The Edinburgh University Student’s Association (EUSA) Council held its first meeting of 2024 on 25 January, seeing discussion on the 93% Club’s #StateSchoolProud campaign, the implementation of the new student support framework, and the enhancement of financial support assistance.
Several students shared their experience of financial hardship and expressed worries about the difficulties of finding relevant scholarships and bursaries amid the housing crisis.
Robyn Woof, the Trans and Non-binary Student’s Liberation Officer, raised concerns about the Hardship Funding not being accessible enough and that students should not have to work part-time jobs during their degrees.
Sharan Atwal, President, has been committed to working with the University of Edinburgh to ensure that the money for funding is enough and that its distribution is effective and efficient, especially for international and Widening Participation (WP) students.
The 93% Club, which requested funding for their #StateSchoolProud campaign, represents state-educated students from the United Kingdom who may experience prejudice given their background.
Read more: The state school experience at the University of Edinburgh
The 93% Club has set up training for staff on addressing classism, with particular emphasis on accent discrimination.
Lauren Byrne, Vice President of Welfare, led the discussion on the new student support system, which resulted in mixed feedback.
In general, students do not always know and understand everyone’s role within the new support system, and how this is dealt with may differ by school.
Sam Marks, Undergraduate Representative for the School of History, Classics and Archaeology (HCA), criticised EUSA’s presence at the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) held in Dubai.
Marks called COP28 a “white-washing event of oil barons” and suggested that EUSA could have boycotted the summit by not taking part in it.
However, Alma Kalina Rießler, Vice President of Community, emphasised the impact of having youth voices present at the summit and being able to connect with fellow student activists.
Furthermore, Atwal mentioned that progress is being made with regards to the vote of no confidence which was passed regarding Peter Mathieson’s resignation last semester.
Read more: BREAKING: EUSA passes motion calling for Peter Mathieson’s resignation
The nominations for both the Student Elections 2024 and a new University Rector are open now.
Nominations will close on 14 February and on 5 February, respectively.
The next Student Council will convene Thursday 29 February at 6 pm.
“Potterrow Dome by night” by johnomason is licensed under CC BY 2.0.