Guild of Students add their voice to national debate | News

November 2025

University’s Guild of Students officers add their voice to national debate

By Claire Huggins

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Last month, the government announced its post-16 education and skills white paper, setting out its proposals for reforming the education landscape for young people aged 16-years-old and over.

The plans broadly seek to ensure that education aligns more closely with the needs of the labour market to support economic growth, and for young people, through stronger vocational pathways, it aims to break down barriers to opportunities and secure employment.

With such wide-ranging reforms to further and higher education in the pipeline, the National Union of Students (NUS) was quick to act in ensuring that students’ voices and experiences were central to policies stemming from the white paper proposals. Recently, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Students met to explore the white paper. It was chaired by Alex Sobel MP and welcomed Josh Dean MP, Alex Stanley Vice President Higher Education at NUS and Rose Stephenson from the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI), alongside representatives from UCB’s Guild of Students and other students’ unions.

Soham Chougale, Education Officer for the UCB Guild of Students, took part: “I was honoured to be a panellist alongside student leaders and sector experts,” he said.

“The discussions were productive and centred on how policy changes such as the new V-levels and fee structures might shape students’ futures, alongside concerns over the proposed levy on international student fees, and the risk that could pose to student choice and equity in the sector.”

Soham Chougale (front row, second from left) pictured with the APPG attendees

NUS representatives discuss the post-16 white paper

In another coup for the Guild of Students, they welcomed NUS representatives and elected students’ union officers from across England last week, as they hosted an event to discuss and coordinate responses to the same white paper.

This significant event was the first opportunity elected officers had had, to contribute the lived experiences of their own students, and the opportunities and challenges unique to their institutions to the debate, as well as working to consolidate an approach to the incoming changes.

“Comprising around 400 students’ unions representing the interests of seven million students, we’re delighted to have hosted the NUS here at UCB” said Alex Harden-Way, Guild of Students Director for UCB.

“As the region’s leading provider of skills-based further and higher education, it is of huge importance that we were able to host and facilitate this vital forum. The white paper proposals put real emphasis on social mobility, which has always been an integral part of UCB’s civic mission.”

Held at Baskerville House in Birmingham’s Centenary Square, the day started by discussing the white paper and its impact for students. The day was then broken up into a series of workshops, looking at how to communicate the changes across institutions and potential moments of influence before finally engaging with some of the open consultations.

“We want to ensure that all students’ experiences are captured in our national response, so with the range of highly courses on offer at UCB, as well as the central location, it was the ideal host for these discussions,” said Alex Stanley, Vice President Higher Education at NUS.