UNIVERSITY: Party Politics vs. Party Time

The Labour and Conservative parties’ conferences recently dominated the news ahead of the general election. Meanwhile, a whole load of students decided against watching the BBC News at Six in favour of a F.R.I.E.N.D.S episode for the billionth time as they ate their dinner.

Nothing wrong with watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S of course - Chandler’s my fave. And one could argue that he would be more fun on a night out (or indeed a night in) than both David Cameron and Gordon Brown.

But does the tendency to watch old repeats instead of the news suggest that current affairs are not too high on the average student’s agenda?

There are of course those students who keep up-to-date with current affairs through the university societies that they join. Becoming a member of one of the uni’s political parties, presenting the news on the radio and protesting are the routes a number of students take to getting their dose of current affairs. Others might do a course like politics or economics that requires knowledge of current affairs. Some may read the news online from time to time.

Nevertheless, it is extremely easy to get caught up in a world of cramming for exams, boozing in preparation for big nights out and chilling with your friends the rest of the time while at university.

Fellow Nottingham University graduate Emma Petela, who now works in politics, agreed that current affairs are of secondary importance to many students, saying: 'If you ask a student about 50p top rate income tax or pension schemes they probably wouldn't have much of an idea what you were talking about. It is my experience that students live inside a bubble into which very few political issues or current affairs penetrate. Until they start to earn a wage and pay taxes the majority do not take that much of an interest in politics or the outcome of an election.'

Perhaps it is different at other universities. For example, Sussex University gained a reputation of liberalism in the 1960s and might draw more politically motivated people to study there.

There are two occasions where I do remember politics being talked about a great deal around Nottingham University. Students conducting a sit-in protest in one of the university’s lecture rooms over events in Gaza were forcibly removed from doing so. However this had the rest of the student body talking about the way in which the protest was quashed more than the political event itself.

The other occasion did concern a major political event - Barack Obama winning the American presidential election. Most of the students I know stayed up to watch the Democratic leader become the first black man to be voted in as American president. Just another excuse to drink of course.