It is really exciting to see the Portsmouth University Students Union trying to motivate students to vote in what is going to be a very exciting general election. Today, I gave an interview to the students’ union and they will be filming all the candidates and will put them on the union website. As I have two children who are at present at university and another two who are applying at the moment I feel I know the issues very well!
The university is no longer registering students in a block so every individual has to register. I am meeting a lot of students as I go round canvassing and many of them are voting at home which is great. However, there are around 16,000 students eligible to vote at the university and they could make a huge difference to the result in Portsmouth if they decide to vote here and if it is on May 6 they will all be in Portsmouth. If you are a student and want to vote here you need to register at the city council (you can do it online). If you want to vote at home, you need to apply for a postal vote or get your parents to be a proxy for you and fill out a form.
We have recently reactivated Conservative Future at the university, Matt Payne is the chairman and came with me to the interview. He is very keen to get everyone involved to come and help delivering and canvassing as well as meeting visiting MP’s. It is particularly useful for anyone studying politics as all that theory becomes real.
There are a lot of issues about the funding of universities and what they will have to offer if tuition fees go up. Students have now become consumers of education and will be expecting a high standard of teaching and more contact time with lecturers and tutors. One of my children has 4 hours of contact time a week, the other 25 hours, both pay the same tuition fees. This is going to be a big dilemma for universities and how we fund them. You can find out about Conservative policy on universities on our party website.
If you want to contact Portsmouth Conservative Future you can visit the website http://portsmouth.cfbranch.com
