STUDENT UNIONS: Let’s question our role in widening participation.

“The future belongs to those who see the possibilities before they become obvious” – John Sculley.
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Our lives are built up of the choices, experiences and decisions we make. It is our learning experiences that define us as people and it’s those experiences – those opportunities – that should be open and accessible to all.
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The education you receive outside the classroom is just as vital as what you receive in it. The informal learning from the friends you make from different cultures and different backgrounds; the people you meet and the impact that has on your life choices, experiences and decisions. Remove these opportunities and you take away a person’s chances.
For example, you might take away the chance for someone to join the debate society – and therefore, perhaps, to eventually become a respected politician, holding on to their values and where they have come from, whilst at the same time learning new things about the world.
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The role of students’ unions in delivering on this is now more important than it has ever been before. To give back to the community – to raise the ambitions and aspirations of those around us – is a responsibility for us all.  Your elected officers’ journey has been driven by their educational and social experiences. But many have not even reached the doors of university, or come close to getting any form of an education. And they are missing out on huge life-changing moments, moments that could define them as a person.
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The government’s strategies, on paper, place considerable weight on the role of higher education institutions in getting working-class students into higher education. But whilst widening participation may be the avenue to upward social mobility it does not automatically create it. Simply put, the student movement now needs to deliver to the communities that have been hit the hardest by the changes in the higher education landscape.
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We need to question our role as students’ unions in the context of the time we are in and the challenges we face. Aim higher research shows us that what potential students remember the most is not the campus visit, or the buildings. It’s the interaction with real students. I honestly believe that we all have positive stories to tell, stories that might inspire people to go to university or a college. Our sports teams, our societies, our volunteers should all be out in the local community, displaying through our actions the value of higher education.
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But it’s not just about our outreach work; it’s also about our in-reach work. One of the key reasons why extra-curricular activities are so important is that they develop and enhance people’s cultural capital. Someone’s lifestyle choices develop through experiences as I mentioned earlier. Getting involved in the students’ union and its activities is not background-neutral. In fact, as well as economic and social factors, a large part of why students get involved is their previous cultural experiences.
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Studies show that students from working-class backgrounds choose a university based on the knowledge or cultural and social capital they have. I have always argued that if twenty percent of the students at a given institution are from “widening participation” backgrounds, but only two to three percent of those students are involved in the union, is that not more socially exclusive than the institution itself?
I would argue that, unfortunately, it is. When we discuss institutional bursaries, should we not also discuss our own bursary packages, to enable a student from a disadvantaged background to participate? Maybe a fee waiver would actually work in this instance.
These experiences will impact not only on students’ time at university, but into the work place and wider society.
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For too long the debate on widening participation has been towards getting ‘them’ in, going to a certain type of uni, grades and so on. But this is only part of the story. Ensuring that the students who get in, regardless of social class, have the same opportunities is where we now have to deliver.
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To finish, let me return to the quote with which I began. I genuinely, deeply believe that students’ unions can help people. People who have never engaged with us – as we have not engaged with them – can see the possibilities before they become obvious. That is where the unions’ future belongs.
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The future belongs to those who see the possibilities before they become obvious.
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