Students elect Streeting as president

Students have chosen a new president to lead the National Union of Students in the run-up to next year's review of top-up fees.

Wes Streeting, former president of the University of Cambridge student union and NUS vice-president for education since 2006, won 496 of 962 votes, defeating his nearest rival Ciaran Norris by 120 votes.

Mr Streeting, a Labour Students candidate, campaigned for the NUS to shift its focus from campaigning for free education to a fairer funding system for students.

His manifesto says: "Where we can fight for - and win - free education, we should. However, in 2009 free education will not be on the table in Parliament, and our focus must be to secure a fairer funding system for all students."

Mr Streeting promises to publish alternative proposals to the Government's "elitist, market-driven" funding system, including an increase in public funding to match the average in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries and structured business contributions.

Other policies include campaigning for a rise in the basic student grant, a national student support scheme, and an end to upfront fees for part-time students.

Mr Streeting, who studied history at Selwyn College, Cambridge, is a non-executive director of the Higher Education Academy and the Office of the Independent Adjudicator, a member of the Delivery Partnership on higher education admissions, the Quality Assurance Framework review group, and the UK HE Sector High Level Policy Forum on Europe. He was part of the Burgess Steering Group.

His campaign was backed by the current NUS president and more than 200 student union officers.