The National Student is a well established UK student paper that has 100,000 copies distributed around the nation’s campuses, bars and student places. We had a chat with editor James Thornhill about the paper’s growth and his take on some key issues affecting the UK’s undergrads.

How and why did you start The National Student?
I can’t really pin-point the exact moment we decided to start The National Student, it came out of quite a few discussions. In 2002/2003 with the growing number of higher education students in the UK we were surprised that they weren’t being serviced by a national publication.
Looking at student papers across the UK we felt the ones who were completely independent were, sometimes not always, in a position to do the job more effectively of giving students the information they need. We felt it was important that there was a peer-led publication for students that was able to operate without the interference of any political, student or university body – so we started one.

How was the publication received in the beginning?
It was well received by students, but students’ unions were in the main against the idea of what we were trying to do. There was this idea that we were trying to edge in on SU-run publications and steal their ad-sales revenue, which couldn’t have been further from the truth. We contacted SUs and student publications to try and work with them. In the beginning we were subjected to some pretty under-hand tactics and nastiness, but over the years we have become accepted and have a good relationship with students unions and the NUS – something we had always hoped for.

Under-hand tactics? Such as what?
Well not mentioning any names, but one rumour that surfaced on a popular student message board was that we were affiliated to the BNP. The only argument they had was that we had ‘National’ in our title – that one didn’t last long. Another student union president actually said ‘I like your paper, but it will never be on my campus’. One being asked why he said, ‘Cos I can’t control what goes in it, no one but me decides what information gets through to MY students’. We have come across lots of stuff like this, but I guess in many ways we must be quite threatening to people as no one can stop us asking difficult questions.

What’s the favourite story you have run?
There are so many – the ones that stand out in my mind are the student who, to impress a girl, tied a bungee rope to a bridge and threw himself off. Before doing so he set himself on fire, intending to cut himself loose with a pen-knife on a downward trajectory falling into the water and putting himself out. Unfortunately for him the knife snapped and he bounced up and down for 30 seconds, on fire, before wriggling free. He was charged with causing ‘distress to onlookers’. The story of the carnage of students throwing themselves off the Magdelen Bridge in Oxford was a good one. It is tradition but this one year the water level was so low, students were pretty much flinging themselves on to hard ground – much distress and injury was caused as numpty after numpty threw themselves off the bridge. We ran it under the headline ‘Mayday Lemmings’.
Also, the SU president head-butting one of his own students in the union bar, and the undercover investigation into a Chinese student who was selling essays to other students on campus. So, so many great stories.

How has student life changed?
Since we started the paper? Loads I think. Technology being one of the main things, the internet was not as prominent in life as now, not all uni halls had internet access in the rooms. Students were still taking boxes of CDs and records (and books etc) to uni with them now all they need is a laptop with all their music and the internet on them. Technology has changed the way students learn as well, even when we started if you missed a lecture, you missed those notes in most cases (unless you could convince someone to let you copy them!) Now most lecture notes are on-line quickly and with mobile phones you can record the whole thing anyway and go to sleep at the back of the room – not that anyone does that! Students have become more and more like consumers, especially with accommodation some of the rooms on offer are better than anything you’re likely to get when you graduate! Well at least not immediately, the ‘Young Ones’ stereotype is definitely not the correct view of students any more. University is as much a lifestyle choice as an education choice now.

What do you think of the state of higher education?
As much as I completely agree that everyone should have access to higher education, I think Labour got it wrong with their policies. Just because young people ‘can’ go to university doesn’t mean they ‘should’. Since the late nineties the target of 50% of young people going to uni has caused all sorts of issues in funding and courses – to get that amount of youngsters through uni loads of courses that don’t need degrees have been started. Many students are amassing huge debt learning gaining skills that don’t require a degree and three-years at university, things that in the past were done with on-the-job training etc. It’s almost unnecessary for them to be getting into debt for the skills they need.
Degrees have been, in some cases, reduced in worth amongst employers because of the amount of people who have them – the old situation where a degree denoted someone of elite talent in a certain field is no longer really the case. I would never discourage anyone who wants to go to uni from doing so as it is a life-changing experience and in many ways is the best thing you can ever do to gain skills and make long-lasting (and useful) friends.

The National Student website

What issues do students face?
The main issue is always debt, although with the current system this really hits you once you graduate which coupled with the poor state of the jobs market at the moment is not a nice situation. Obviously the issue of binge-drinking has been a big one for students, even resulting in some deaths and the use of illegal drugs on campus – mainly people not having the knowledge of the effects of what they are taking. Also safe sex, we have been astounded by how clueless some students are on some of these issues. We try to provide useful and practical information on all these things each year.

What advice would you give to aspiring student journalists?
Get involved! Simple really, just write for as many people as you can and get involved in your student media – publications, radio, TV whatever you have. Don’t wait for people to offer you opportunities, get yourself out there. Each year we get articles sent to us around April time saying ‘As part of my university course I need to submit a portfolio of published work, can you print the attached article?’. This is usually the first we have heard from these people. Why in three years of study is this the first time you are contacting us? I wrote for a lot of people during university and got involved in whatever I can. Write for The National Student, I hear they are always after student writers!

You do a lot on new music, what new music has interested you lately?
Oh that’s a hard one, there’s always so much. We cover so much on our new music blog and on the website and in print. In November we did a free MP3 compilation and that had some awesome new bands on – Funfun, The Little Hands of Asphalt, Cougar, Solvor Vermeer, Nodzzz loads.
The new album by a band called Nedry is amazing, the new Los Campesinos one is great- there’s really just so much! If you want new music, check out our website and Facebook page for articles and links.