First college student elected to lead NUS

Toni Pearce, who is currently the union’s vice president for further education, studied at Cornwall College.

She was elected to serve as the NUS’s new president at the union’s annual conference in Sheffield yesterday, winning the election in the first round with 424 of 732 valid votes.

She said: “I’m really proud to have been given the opportunity to build the student movement around a vision for public education, and to be leading NUS as we build towards the next general election.

“Between now and 2015 we need to hold a full and frank debate about what education means to society and to properly articulate the public value of education in communities up and down the country.”

More than 450 of NUS’s affiliated students’ unions are in further education (FE) institutions and the majority of the students NUS represents are in FE.

In her manifesto, she said her priorities for her presidency would include linking college and university students’ unions together to fight for local wins in the next general election and to campaign for a single central admissions system for all colleges and universities.

She also wants to increase efforts to organise and support students to run and win campaigns in their local areas. She was first elected as vice president of the NUS in 2011 and re-elected for a second term last year.