What did the campaign set out to achieve?
In May 2016, an election took place to elect the new members of the Welsh Assembly.
In May 2016, an election took place to elect the new members of the Welsh Assembly. Many of our students are attending Cardiff University from other parts of the UK or from other countries. The campaign sought to raise awareness of the election, but also of the devolved powers that the Assembly holds. Most importantly the campaign encouraged students to register to vote and to turn out on polling day.
Following the success of our General Election voter campaign in 2015, we were keen to build on this and get students involved in this very important election. The Welsh Assembly has devolved powers for things such as education, training, health services, housing, sport, and recreation. Our students live in Cardiff for nine months of the year, which means that the Welsh Assembly has a big impact on their lives.
The campaign aimed to ensure that the youth voice was heard in Wales and that student issues weren’t overlooked.
How was the campaign delivered and who was involved?
As a Students’ Union, we welcomed the opportunity to challenge an unfair and undemocratic action by a committee against thousands of students across the UK who rely on Student Finance England. Firstly, we contacted all student members via e-mail, encouraging them to contact their MPs and providing them with context on the Cut the Costs campaign in a Cardiff. Secondly, we campaigned on social media raising awareness on the debate engaging with over 80,000 individuals on various posts. Next, we worked with Students’ Unions across Wales to streamline an approach to ensure all MPs were personally spoken to by Students’ Unions detailing the significant impact of this legislation on students.
We were informed on the morning of the debate (19th January) that Welsh MPs were able to participate in the debate, however their vote would not be counted for the entirety of the decision, as education is a devolved power in Wales. As a Students’ Union, we were concerned that ruling out Welsh MPs from the vote, under the new English Votes for English Laws legislation, would have a detrimental effect on our students. Many undergraduate students at Cardiff University, many of whom rely on the Maintenance Grants provided by Student Finance England. These students are represented by Welsh MPs. We contacted the Speaker of the House of Commons, asserting that the decision to discount the votes of Welsh MPs should be withdrawn. In the end, we regret that these MPs were unable to contribute to the calculation of the final vote.
What did the campaign achieve and what change has been made to students and the community as a result of the campaign?
The campaign had three strands; getting students registered to vote, informing students about political parties and the importance of voting, and finally, ensuring students actually turned out to vote.
We were aware that students would have much less knowledge of the Welsh Assembly than they do of parliament, which made the challenge bigger than that faced in 2015 for the General Election. For maximum impact, we organised a high profile voter registration event at the heart of University campus. We offered free dodgems rides to students alongside the opportunity to find out more about the Assembly and to register to vote. The event was promoted under the strapline ‘Are politicians always dodging the student issues?’ which students really responded to. Each dodgem was branded with either the name of a polical party or a devolved power of the Assembly. The event was a great success with hundreds of students turning out and registering to vote. We even persuaded the Vice Chancellor to take a ride on our politically themed the dodgems!
We maintained the hype from the dodgems event by hosting a political debate on the final day of voter registration. The event was attended by politicians from the main political parties, giving students the opportunity to ask them about the important issues.
