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Shane Chowen – favourite in race to be new NUS president – would be the first non-graduate After months in which the battle over tuition fees has left Britain’s student movement battered and divided, the challenge of steering the NUS in a time of austerity could go to a candidate who has never been to university. Shane Chowen, 22, who has four science A-levels from City College Plymouth, is the frontrunner in the race to be the next NUS president, a contest which will be decided when student delegates gather for a national conference in Gateshead this week. The new president will take over from Aaron Porter, who decided against seeking re-election after facing fierce criticism that he had not done enough to stop the tripling of university tuition fees. If elected, Chowen would be the first NUS president without a degree. He argues that university students made common cause with further education colleges over fees. “I’m coming from the background of the majority of NUS members – two-thirds of NUS members are in FE,” said Chowen, who is currently vice-president for further education. His close relationship with Porter – the outgoing NUS president has endorsed him – may tarnish him in some eyes. The split in the student movement was laid bare after the NUS leadership took several days to show public support for direct action protest. Porter was also criticised for failing to attend the national day of action at which students were kettled for hours. Chowen said he was not “romantic” about university occupations. “I see them as a valid form of protest, a way of creating change, but only in certain circumstances.” He agrees that it is vital the NUS reaches out to the left of the student movement. At present, he says, there’s an “us and them culture”. If elected, he will campaign for the creation of an education system that “no longer has an academic, vocational divide”. He said: “It’s actually a class divide that starts at school, is reinforced at college and reinforced again at university. I want middle-class families to be OK with their young people coming home and saying, I want to do an apprenticeship.” His closest rival is Liam Burns, 26, a physics graduate from Heriot-Watt university and the current president of NUS Scotland. Both candidates oppose tuition fees, and argue that the rush by universities to charge the maximum fee will help to expose how a market in higher education is untenable. Burns said: “I don’t think they’re a done deal for very long. I don’t think I’ve ever seen legislation be so shaky in terms of implementation as fees.” He is critical of the NUS’s current leadership for allowing a rift to grow in the opposition to fees. “The NUS has retrenched back into the old narrative that there is a hard left and moderates, and that we have to do everything we can to marginalise them,” he said. “When we said we condemned everything that happened at Millbank, that was 30 or 40 people who were smashing windows. But there are far more people who have an affinity with direct action and we have to reach out to them.” Also standing in the election is Mark Bergfeld, a member of the Socialist Workers Party, and Thomas Byrne, a Conservative supporter who backs the tuition fees rise. The battle over fees is unlikely to be revisited in the lifetime of this parliament. A bigger challenge for the next NUS president will be the threat of diminished teaching hours at universities as government cuts bite. Student places could also be cut at institutions that ministers regard as over-priced. Wes Streeting, a former NUS president and now chief executive of the Helena Kennedy Foundation, said: “I think they’re going to be confronted with an immediate change which will shift the debate. There will be a university places crisis if [business secretary] Vince Cable follows through on the threat to cut places. “Much as they may want to challenge the fees model, the threat of cutting places is a serious threat to the widening participation agenda, and something I’m sure the NUS will have something to say about.” Students Tuition fees University funding Student politics Higher education Aaron Porter Jeevan Vasagar guardian.co.uk