Students have elected a new national president and vice-president for further education to represent them on the national stage.
Zamzam Ibrahim, former president of the students’ union at Salford University, was elected national president at the NUS national conference in Glasgow this evening.
In her election statement, Somali Ms Ibrahim said: “Our national union and our education sector are facing some of the biggest challenges it has had to confront in living memory and is in dire need of transformation.
“Universities across the UK are facing bankruptcy, college students are unable to afford their journeys to class and racism is running rampant on our campuses. There has never been a greater need to rebuild our national union as the fighting, unwavering force that is primed to brave the challenges that lie ahead.”
Meanwhile, City of Liverpool College president Juliana Mohamad-Noor was elected the NUS’ vice-president for further education.
In her election statement, she said: “I entered the movement and felt let down by the conversations on FE.
“That’s why I brought policy to conference and ran to sit on the NUS NEC. There’s so much for us in the fight for FE, and as NUS goes through turnaround I want to defend FE for future generations to come. FE changes lives, let’s make sure it stays that way.”
Read more: Post-16 education sector ‘profiting’ from class divide, says NUS
More news: Shakira Martin re-elected NUS president
Background: Meet the NUS president and FE vice-president contenders
End of a Shak-era
Outgoing NUS president Shakira Martin has been in post for two years, and prior to that the former Lewisham College student was the vice-president for further education.
Emily Chapman, the outgoing vice-president for FE, has served two terms and was previously the president of Leeds City College students’ union.
