CUSU President Amatey Doku has announced that he is running for the role of Vice-President for Higher Education of the NUS.

The role, one of five vice-presidential roles available on the NUS full-time team, will be elected by delegates at the NUS conference which will be held between the 25th and 27th April.

Speaking exclusively to Varsity, Doku said that he felt that the NUS had “struggled to really put the student voice at the national level”, and suffered from “unnecessary politicking” which was alienating for students. In his manifesto, he calls for “a strong NUS” to counter his perception that the NUS is becoming “less influential and less in tune with the real issues”.

Doku reiterated his commitment to free education, but suggested that the policy of the current government makes hopes of an end to tuition fees implausible. Instead, he has pledged to “launch an immediate campaign with student finance providers to give students more flexibility with their student maintenance income”.

The government’s Prevent strategy was singled out by Doku for particular criticism, as he believes that it “lacks the confidence of students” and fuels Islamophobia on campuses. If elected, Doku has indicated that he will work with liberation campaigns to “tackle Prevent effectively”, as well as support students’ unions as they push for curriculum liberation.

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Doku told Varsity that the government’s controversial higher education reforms, university lobbying and looming Brexit negotiations mean that the landscape of higher education in the UK is likely to “change dramatically” in the coming years, and he will hope to shape NUS policy towards higher education reform if elected.

He has also suggested that it should be a priority for the NUS to set out its “red lines” for Brexit negotiations, in particular focusing on the continuing rights for international students, and the rights of British students abroad. In an attempt to demonstrate international support for the rights of international students, Doku has said he would be “very keen” to organise a summit of European students’ unions.

Former CUSU president Priscilla Mensah ran unsuccessfully for the role last year, receiving 256 votes compared with 311 for Sorana Vieru, who won a second term in the role. So far, only one other candidate, UAL Campaigns Officer Ana Oppenheim, has declared their candidacy for the higher education role