USP College CPD day trip to Europe House

Pictured: USP College European Parliament Junior Ambassadors at Europe House on CPD day.

For USP College's first CPD day of the academic year on 24th October 2024, students from our Palmer's and Seevic campuses joined our ambassadors on an educational trip to Europe House in Westminster, hosted by EPAS UK co-ordinator Asher Jacobsberg, where students took part in fun, educational activities about the European Union, European Parliament and European democracy.

Our students and ambassadors participated in a mock European Parliament. They were randomly sorted into the official parliamentary groups of the European Parliament, with the number of students in each group determined on their actual number in the real life legislature. Students then proposed motions on the important issues of the day to the mock parliament for debate. These were voted on by a show of thumbs, like in the actual European Parliament.

Representing the Greens/European Free Alliance, Jayden O'Brien and Harrison Catchpole put forward a motion calling for the Europe-wide implementation of a Green New Deal, in order to drive economic growth, create new jobs for workers and lead the word in the green transition. Their motion was voted down by other students by a landslide.

The Left, represented by Fiyin Sanni, Reuben Folkes and Sophie Lamas, proposed a motion to make university education free for students across the EU by funding it through taxation, arguing that this was an investment into the future workforce and would make career paths more accessible for poorer students. This motion received a mixed-response and was voted down by a majority of 2.

The more moderate groups, Renew Europe, the S&D, and the European People's Party formed an alliance led by Sebastian Mende and represented by other students to put forward a motion to provide more financial aid to Ukraine and support its application to join the EU. This motion passed by a landslide.

The more right-wing groups, the Conservatives and Reformists, Sovereigntists, and Patriots for Europe proposed a motion to tackle illegal immigration into the EU. This was voted down by a landslide.

We would like to thank Asher and Europe House for hosting us. We thoroughly enjoyed the event and look forward to attending more in the future!