Bill Rammell - Student Unions

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Good evening. It's a real honour to have been invited to give your annual students' union lecture and it's a pleasure to be here at Oxford Brooks.

When I was planning this lecture, I visited the Oxford Brookes Students' Union website in order to get some idea of what's going on here at the moment and which policy issues are attracting the most attention among students. From this, I discovered that the union currently has a policy in favour of - I quote - 'The equal share of coke and alternative products.'

At that point, I almost picked up the phone to cancel the engagement. There's enough alleged scandal in the air without a 'Government Minister in drugs shocker' story.

But I read on. And I hope I need not explain how relieved I was to find out that the policy in question is about soft drinks. And I'll come back to that issue later.

Having established this vital fact, I proceeded to think about the content of my lecture tonight. The union has asked me to speak about the changing role of students' unions in creating our future leaders and activists. Now I hope this is a subject about which I bring some experience to bear. I say that because I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever, that without my experience in students' unions and the student movement more widely, I would not today be a Member of Parliament or a government minister.

I was elected president of my students' union in Cardiff in 1982. I later worked as a regional officer for NUS and after a career in local government senior management; I ended up immediately before becoming an MP, as the general manager of VIV. Where incidentally Ricky Gervais was my entertainments manager - and no, I'm not David Brent, yes, I do know who is, but Ricky is a friend and I'm not letting on.

But the experience I gained in students' unions has stood me in enormously good stead as I have gone on in local and national politics and then government.

And it won't surprise you given that that is my background if I say that in general I believe that students' unions and NUS are an enormous force for good in our colleges, universities, our society and our country more generally.

And I would say this, wouldn't I, but I think this Labour government has demonstrated a commitment to that view in the last 10 years.

Now there are those who say that party politics doesn't matter, you're all the same and what's the point in voting? Well let's just take the Government/students' union relationship. After 10 years in power, this Government talks to students' unions and NUS, and we recently provided funding for the students' union evaluation initiative to help students' unions develop. After 10 years in power the last Tory government was trying to abolish students' unions through the introduction of voluntary membership.

The contrast could not be greater - politics does matter, I believe it matters a lot.

So I've got a belief in students' unions, but am I right? Does student politics matter?

I'd like to start this evening with a thought from a famous or infamous American politician, Dr Henry Kissinger. He wrote that 'University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small.'

He was probably thinking of academic politics when he wrote that, but it sums up too often the person in the street's view of student politics as well.

How right the Daily Mail was recently, our hypothetical person in the street might think, to describe the young people coming out of universities these days as 'lazy know-it-alls.' And how wrong was the students' union of the University of Sussex to ban that fine newspaper from campus a few years ago.

And why on earth, that individual might well ask, do a group of people who are supposed to be spending their time learning, waste their time drawing up a policy document on soft drinks?

Mind you, he'd probably have said the same about the progressive environmental policies that many students' unions in this country adopted before any government in the world outside Scandinavia had even thought of doing so.

And he'd certainly have said the same about the stand on apartheid that the National Union of Students took years before the government of the day and the business sector in this country and many others grasped that particular nettle.

And I don't want to overstate it, but without the role played by students' unions and NUS in the 'Boycott Barclays Campaign' in the 70s and 80s, I genuinely do not believe change in South Africa would have come as quickly as it did.

We can also look at social attitudes. I think generally in the last 23 to 30 years, Britain has become a more liberal, tolerant country. Attitudes to sexual equality, racism, lesbian and gay rights have generally changed for the better. Students and students' unions with their focus on diversity and equality have led and prompted many of these changes.

So, students' unions - a force for social and societal good - yes. But what about students' unions developing our future leaders and activists' Well certainly students' unions have historically been a training ground for people who've gone into frontline politics.

We could start with Jack Straw, who was President of NUS from 1969-71. He's held every top job in the government of this country except for prime minister.

Or with Charles Clarke, President from 1975-77, who rose to be education and skills secretary and then home secretary.

Or Stephen Twigg, President from 1990-92. He was a fine schools minister who was widely respected across party lines. Moreover, he'll always be remembered in the Labour Party and beyond for the night of the 1997 general election when he unseated Michael Portillo in Enfield.

The list of former presidents who have achieved prominence goes on. Sue Slipman, Trevor Philips and David Aaronovich have all become national names outside Parliament. And they're only the tip of the iceberg. The current home secretary, Jacqui Smith, was a sabbatical officer. My new colleague at the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, Baroness Delyth Morgan, is a former President of London University Students' Union. Phil Woolas and Jim Murphy - both former NUS presidents.

Look, I don't want to make NUS sound like training-school for political elites. That's a concept with which I have some difficulty at the best of times. Let's be thankful that it's neither the Ecole Nationale d'Administration, which has produced almost all top French politicians and administrators for decades, nor the Komosol; the old Soviet young communist league, which turned out apparatchiks by the million. Of course, at various times in the past NUS has looked more than a little like both.

But I don't want to make getting actively involved with students' unions and NUS sound like a career move, either. I knew some people see it as that. However, sooner or later they always get found out.

But there is nothing wrong - indeed I regard it as a positive good - if you have beliefs and you believe in politics, in developing your politics and political capability through involvement in you students' union.

But you know students' unions train a much wider group of people than future politicians. Scratch below the surface of many successful businesses, civic and voluntary sector leaders and there is often a background in students' unions. And I believe - based on experience - that if you have participated actively in your students' union, you are more likely to make a positive, healthy contribution to your community. And as an individual you make yourself more attractive to employers. But as well as the benefit to the individual, let's focus on the benefits to society at large.

Let's really highlight students' unions and their activities. I think I've made it clear already that I distrust organisations that aim to develop leaders of the future.

But what I don't distrust is any organisation that aims to promote activism. And students' unions certainly fall into that category. In any democracy, the more activism we have, the better. And in our age of falling participation in community groups, falling turn out for elections - that is more important than ever.

Activists care about the society they and their fellow citizens live in. Activists don't sit back and moan about it, they make an effort to make it better.

Margaret Mead was entirely correct when she wrote this; 'Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.'

What chance has any society got if no one cares about it, if no one believes and is willing to make the effort to translate belief into action? Almost no one would contest the proposition that life should offer an equal opportunity to everyone, irrespective of what job their parents did or where they came from. So what possible reason could any sane person have not to struggle to bring equality about? And surely no one would disagree that there should be solidarity in this country between people of every race, creed or colour. But who could possibly believe that this will just happen on its own?

That's why activism is important. And that's why what students' unions do to encourage it is important, too.

Once the bug of activism bites you, it doesn't go away no matter where life takes you and how disappointed or otherwise your hopes for the world may be.

And activism takes many forms. One often traditionally associated with students, at least since 1968, is the protest. The march, the demonstration, the occupation.

In my experience - whether today, 10, 20 or even 30 years ago very few students have engaged in such activities.

But of course, protesting isn't the only form of activism that students get involved in. Students' unions aren't just against things. They're for things as well. In every university up and down the country, in a process often sponsored by their unions, students are working in their spare time in a vast range of community projects.

I can't come to Oxford Brookes and talk about activism and not mention the STAX project. I know for a fact that, through this project, many of the students here are doing an awful lot of good in a part of Oxford that needs it very much. If I may, I'd like to welcome in particular the work that you're doing in supporting and mentoring young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

We all know that far too much of this country's talent goes to waste not through lack of opportunity for development, but for want of aspiration. STAX and other schemes like it are doing something about that, as indeed is my own Department's aim higher programme.

Over the years and decades, thousands of students have carried the habit of getting involved in politics or in social issues or both into life after university.

And society is all the better for people who care about it, whether they're politicians or not. Students' unions and the NUS have taught generations of students that much, And those former students today are making positive contributions to their families and their communities as a result. Students' unions also create platforms for people to come together, to interact, to socialise and to enjoy recreation. And through all these activities they mature and develop as individuals.

Clubs and societies - 70 at this university alone - do so much to develop non-academic interests that mark students for life and make them richer, more rounded human beings. Some are political, some are sporting, some are religious, some are cultural. All of them help mould and develop people so that they become better activists and potential leaders. So it's clear from all I've said that I believe students' unions play a very positive role in creating future leaders and activists. But has that role changed, has it declined, or has the way it's carried out improved?

You know, there is a view that there were in the past halcyon days, a time when students flocked to students' unions, union general meetings were packed and hundreds of thousands of students went on demonstrations. Well I'm 48, I don't quite remember back to the 60s - but looking back I don't ever quite recall those halcyon days. Student leaders have always worried about levels of formal student participation in decision-making. Union general meetings of SRC's have never been as packed as they should and turnout for executive elections have never got much above 10 per cent.

And even if there has been a decline in formal political activism don't beat yourself up by believing that's unique to students' unions. When I was growing up 80 per cent of people voted in general elections. In 2005 we were pleased when it crept back over 60 per cent. Formal participation in all membership organisations throughout society has declined. Am I happy about these things - no, I'm not.

And when I talk to student officers today - forgive me for saying this and I apologise if I offend anyone - I worry that their motivation is to run a trading service empire rather than to represent students and be political activists themselves. But these changes are not unique to students' unions.

And in other ways students' unions have improved immeasurably in the way they involve students and train them to be leaders and activists. Training for student officers is immeasurably more professional than when I was a sabbatical. Corporate governance of students' unions is now taken seriously.

When I was a student a handful of students worked behind the union bar. Today most unions employ hundreds of student staff and they train them which in my experience develops people as individuals and certainly enhances their employability skills.

All the things that I've been talking about and which virtually all students' unions organise are important. They all make a difference to something that I, and the government as a whole, are increasingly concerned about, and that's the quality of the student experience, how much students get out of their higher education not just as someone's future employees but as human beings.

But I want to conclude my talk with some brief remarks on a very serious issue, one where I think students' unions have an enormous contribution to make, not only to the wellbeing of students, but also to the wellbeing of this country as a whole. It draws together many of the themes I've been talking about this evening.

The issue is the tension between preserving and promoting free speech on campus and preventing the exploitation of young people by violent extremists. It's not a question on which I, or the government, see eye-to-eye with the current NUS executive. But that's no reason why we shouldn't discuss it tonight.

This is something where what I've said has had quite a lot of media coverage in recent months. And I think I can put the essence of my views on this very simply.

I believe that any university in which it's impossible to express minority views in public and in safety isn't a university but Gormenghast. It's only by challenging what everybody currently thinks that knowledge and culture move forward. And it's only by ensuring that we all, personally, take responsibility for ensuring that others can express views with which we disagree that we safeguard our own right to say what we think. Because there's nothing wrong with holding and expressing extreme or unpopular views within the law. Students in particular have done that since the pacifist movements of the 1930s, through the Aldermaston marches of the 1950s, the Vietnam demonstrations of the 1960s, the women's movement of the 1970s, the Trident protests of the 1980s, the environmental protests that we've seen in more recent years and much else besides.

In each of those instances, the people involved had a right to be heard. And so did those who held a different view. The right to express views entails the right for those who disagree to challenge them. And that's why I don't support no platform policies.

It's also why I don't like to hear anyone howled down in the House of Commons - which actually happens much less often than you might think. But I'm mindful that it happened to Winston Churchill twice in one year. On the first occasion, he was speaking against Britain allowing more self- rule for India. But on the second, he was speaking against the then-Government's policy of ignoring the rise of Nazism in Germany. Students should be radical. They should be activists. And they should be able to profess extreme views if they want to.

But there's a limit to how far free expression of radical or extreme views can go.

That's why, for example, incitement to racial hatred has been made illegal in this country. Civilised societies are built on tolerance of differing views. But they also depend on a set of core values shared by all civilised people. The values of a liberal democracy in the first quarter of the twenty-first century.

Germany in the 1930s showed what happens when a people's determination to uphold those values breaks down. Not when it condones extremism, but when it condones extremism that crosses the line into violence, intimidation and terror.

These are all things about which unions need to think when they're providing premises for meetings or organising meetings of their own. It's also something they need to be aware of when planning their welfare policies.

It's yet another good reason for them to forge links not just around campus, but with the wider community, including faith communities, of which all universities form part.

There are forces in our society today - and they have said as much openly - that are looking to exploit vulnerable young people, at this university and others. To persuade them to commit acts that run absolutely counter to what our shared values are. Acts that would prejudice the wellbeing of our whole society, including the communities from such students come. It's the shared responsibility of everyone involved in university life, including students' unions, to help prevent them doing that and to protect those who might potentially be vulnerable to them.

A couple of weeks ago, the government issued guidance to universities on preserving academic freedom and combating violent extremism on campus. The guidance was drawn up with the close involvement of many partners, including groups that represent Muslim students. It doesn't ask anyone to spy on anyone else. Its aim is simply to give practical advice on how to preserve universities as bastions of free speech, the rule of law and liberty to profess any faith or none in increasingly dangerous times, and to protect students from intimidation.

And I hope the students' union officers here, as well as the university authorities and others on campus, will take the time to read it and think about what it has to say, and give me your views.

We've covered a lot of territory in quite a short time this evening. I've enjoyed revisiting my own past in the students' union movement, catching up on some of the things that it's doing today, and thinking about some of the things that it could be doing tomorrow.

Earlier on, I quoted Henry Kissinger's rather jaundiced take on university politics. Before I take your questions I'd like to end with a more uplifting thought. It's from the great photographer, Sir Cecil Beaton.

For me, on the basis of my own experience, it sums up what NUS and student politics in general are about. It ought to sum up what our entire higher education system is about. And I sincerely hope that it's what each and every one of you is about.

Beaton wrote: 'Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safer, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.'

If you can't do that in your students' union when you're at university, I don't know when you'll do it.

Thank you for listening and I'll happily take questions.