We’re well aware of the plight of students – from a financial point of view anyway. We very often write articles about how best to save the pennies whilst studying away from home and are constantly on the lookout for tips and ideas that might make life a little financially healthier for those who are struggling to balance university life with a very low income.
Even we, however, were a little taken aback to realise just how bad things had got and were rather shocked to realise what the NUS planned to do about it.
The National Union of Students, after reading reports that female undergraduates were struggling to pay for even the most basic of essentials such as their sanitary products, have revealed that they are to step in and offer free tampons to all female students in all UK universities.
We can’t actually believe it. We’re all for helping students out wherever possible and we are well aware of the difficulties that many students face financially whilst studying – we write about these issues day in and day out – but even we are struggling to accept that it really is bad enough to warrant females not being able to afford something like this.
At the union’s annual conference, it was overwhelmingly voted that the union would use its funds to buy sanitary items such as towels and tampons in a bid to stop female students complaining that their bodily functions are affecting their already depleted bank accounts.
The union heard stories that some females were missing classes because they were too embarrassed to venture out of their house when it was the time of the month and the NUS believed this was not acceptable and decided that all females would be able to receive sanitary products through the union itself.
They believe it will help female students to attend more lectures and be happier and healthier on the whole.
The move has been welcomed by all and will hopefully be rolled out into most universities within the coming months.
We still can’t believe it has come to this though. We’re not for one minute disputing that students don’t have a hard time of it financially, but we just wonder whether or not students’ money could be spent a little more wisely by the students themselves. We wonder how many of those questioned had been out for a night out within the last month? We dare say the majority would’ve acknowledged that they would have had a night out, which them leaves us begging the question, ‘why didn’t you stay in and save the money spent on drink to put towards essential sanitary goods?’
Before people start lambasting us for being so rude, we completely understand that in this day and age we shouldn’t have to decide between a well-earned night out and protecting ourselves from sanitary mishaps – but we are where we are and while we should all protest and try to change the way our living standards are going with this government, for the time being we need to take responsibility too. It comes back to what we always talk about – budget.
Women know that nine times out of ten they will have a period once a month, so they need to make sure they have the money left over to protect themselves. In the grand scheme of things, they’re not that expensive – especially when you establish that some students blow £100 a night drinking cocktails and other drinks.
Everyone needs to take responsibility for this. The government for coming up with the hair brained scheme to stick tax on such a hotly disputed area in the first place, which consequently brought about allegations of sexism – and students themselves need to be aware that budgeting even for these things is essential.