Monday 19-02-2024 - 14:04

 

Lancaster University Students’ Union President, Cerys Evans, spoke out on BBC Question Time about the lack of action to counter the catastrophic effect the cost of living crisis on students.

 

 

Cerys was in the audience for the recording of the show at Lancaster University this week and used the opportunity to raise the issue of support for students in the current economic crisis.

She said: "You talk about the economy and we are obviously feeling it incredibly much right now. But the future of the nation is on our young people, I'm the President of the Student's Union here in Lancaster, and I have students coming in telling me they can't study because they haven't eaten in three days."

Question Time host, Fiona Bruce, picked up on this asking: “People are telling you they haven't eaten in three days?"

Cerys replied: “Fiona I have hundreds of stories. We have a food bank on campus, tonight we have supper club where we give out free meals, we have at least a hundred, 150, 180, students every Thursday who are desperate for what is possibly the only hot meal they'll have that week. We have a food bank that we struggle to fund, we can only afford a certain amount of food portions on campus."

She added: "Students are the future of the economy. If we can't eat, we can't study, if we can't afford our rent we can't live here. The government does not prioritise students and it hasn't in the last decade."

Cerys’s comments were picked up by national media and she spoke on BBC radio the day afterwards to continue raising awareness.

Speaking today, Ms Evans said: “It was a privilege to speak on national television about an issue so close to my heart – students deserve better and it’s been great to see a wider conversation happening off the back of my comments.”

LUSU has been focused on helping students through the cost of living crisis in as many ways as it can with intiatives like those listed by Cerys in her Qustion Time comments.

LUSU CEO, Misbah Ashraf, said: “Cerys’ message was an enormously powerful one to a national audience and we really think this situation needs that level of awareness. We hope the points she made hit home and more people start paying attention to what is a very real crisis.”