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The National Union of Students (NUS) held their annual Education Conference (Edcon) at the National University of Australia in Canberra over the Winter break in late June.
This article will cover the broad themes and events that occurred each day as opposed to delving into individual topics that were covered in the workshops.
The goal of Edcon is to allow the attendees to meet and connect with fellow student representatives from across Australia and to see what campaigns are being run by other student unions, guilds or councils.
When a campaign succeeds at another university, it acts as a case study in the specific policy that has been implemented at the university. One key example of students at UQ being inspired by academic policy from another campus is QUT’s “automatic 48-hour extension” policy. It is an attractive alternative to students pulling out their credit cards and hitting up Updoc.
This year’s Edcon was held over four days, with education workshops running from 10:00 am to 6:30 pm every day.
How does Edcon run?
The workshops that operate throughout the week are typically run by students with an interest in sharing a particular topic with others. Each workshop runs for slightly under an hour.
The structure of each workshop follows a similar format, where the first half hour typically operates as a lecture, with information being presented to attendees. The second half of the workshop is where members of the workshop’s audience are free to ask questions and sometimes engage in debate regarding solutions to problems that have been identified.
Unlike the NUS National Conference, there technically isn’t supposed to be as big an emphasis on political factionalism. However, during the conference the various political factions with their own people and the political factions will engage in debate during workshops.
Vibes of the Conference
For an observer Edcon is an odd beast. It is neither in its entirely a political conference, however it is neither just a conference for the education and networking of students.
The various factions across Australian student politics explain a lot about how the workshops operate and if any hostilities break out throughout the conference.
The majority of the factions get along reasonably fine throughout Edcon, as there is no political fight, no requirement to try and form coalitions to ensure that the policy a faction may support is passed.
However, from my observations from attending all the workshops across the four-day event, one faction in particular had no interest of coming to a consensus and engaging in good-faith dialogue with other students from across Australia. This faction is Socialist Alternative (SAlt), do not let the name fool you, they are revolutionary Trotskyists.
In almost every workshop where SAlt senior members were present, they would try their best during the discussion section to antagonise and present themselves as oppositional to other members of the audience. It would generally create a toxic atmosphere that was unconducive to finding consensus and building solutions to the legitimate problems faced by student unions.
Monday (23rd June)
Edcon began in the freezing cold of Canberra, with evening temperatures reaching lows of -6 degrees.
Each hour, three workshops ran. One of the workshops in each hour would take place in a large auditorium with plenty of seating. The other two workshops took place upstairs in smaller breakout rooms with minimal seating.
In almost every workshop I attended in either of the two upstairs rooms, there were people crammed in, sitting on the floor, all the way up to the doors. This, unfortunately, continues the trend of NUS conferences being inaccessible for people with disabilities.
One of the most interesting events that took place on the first day was during the final session of the day, which was a plenary session. A plenary session is a gathering of the entire conference for a unified workshop. During the plenary session, members of SAlt broke out and demanded that the NUS executive hold a “press conference” regarding the bombing of Iran’s nuclear development sites.
A compromise was eventually reached with the executive members of the NUS promising that a press conference would be held with student media the following morning. For a moment, it seemed like there may be a vote on the workshop floor, which unexpectedly occurred during Edcon 2023 at UQ, where a vote on AUKUS occurred.
Tuesday (24th June)
The morning of the 2nd day of Edcon had members of the NUS executive, primarily featuring the president and education officer, fronting student media to release a statement on behalf of the NUS condemning the bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites.
One of the main plenary sessions for Tuesday was explaining the corporatisation of university boards and what is now wrong with the operation and incentives of universities. It was presented by Rod Lyall, a former secretary of the University of Western Australia Guild. It was legitimately one of the most engaging workshops throughout the entire conference and rarely devolved into the partisan political debates that had befallen so many other sessions.
Wednesday (25th June)
A key workshop held on Wednesday was titled “Faith, Culture, and Belonging: Safe Spaces for All.” It was a collaboration between Queenslanders, Western Australians, and Victorian attendees. The workshop was very well run, with respectful and engaging discussions surrounding what can be done in universities to better create spaces where all people can feel comfortable learning.
One of the highlights of Wednesday was the appearance of the failed federal Senate candidate Jordan van den Lamb also known as Purple Pingers. He was made famous through his deadpan tours of abysmal rental houses. The issues he highlights were genuinely important.
Thursday (26th June)
The final day of the conference generally ran rather smoothly with workshops delving into sustainable education and studies within universities providing useful insight on how to organise campaigns on campus.
A real knock out workshop was on graphic design. Attendees during the workshop “ooh’d” and “ahhh’d” at the presenter dragging layers around on Canva and sorting them. Ultimately, it was quite an engaging presentation with a lot of useful information.
During the final session of the conference titled “The NUS’ Role in Defending Trans Rights” the lecture section of the conference went smoothly. There was a panel of transgender Edcon attendees who were explaining their experiences as transgender people. However, during the second half, SAlt increasingly attempted to antagonise other factions within the room despite all factions generally agreeing with each other.
This chaos resulted in all other factions and the panel walking out of the room and heading upstairs, where the plenary session was concluded in a respectful and collaborative manner by the other remaining factions.
Concluding Remarks
Quite honestly, there is a lot more that could be reported about Edcon 2025. There were numerous engaging workshops, and the vast majority of attendees were actively engaged, helping out with various workshops and contributing to the discussions.
Written by Samuel Wong
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