Toni Pearce

Toni Pearce
Pearce in 2013, when she was Vice President (Further Education) at the National Union of Students
56th President of the National Union of Students
Incumbent
Assumed office
1 July 2013
Preceded by Liam Burns
Majority 301 (41.8%)
Personal details
Born 13 April 1990
Nationality British
Alma mater Cornwall College
Website Toni Pearce for National President

Toni Pearce is the President of the National Union of Students in the United Kingdom, a position she took up on 1 July 2013. Pearce was elected at the 2013 NUS National Conference in April 2013 and re-elected by a large majority in April 2014.

From 2011 to 2013, Pearce held the position of NUS Vice President (Further Education).[1] Before that, she was President at the Students' Union of Cornwall College, an institution of Further Education. Pearce is the first ever NUS President not to have attended university.[2][3][4]

Early life

Pearce attended Cornwall College from the age of 16, however she was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Type III, which meant that she missed a large amount of lessons as she was in hospital recovering from operations.[5] As such, Pearce failed two of her AS levels at the first attempt.

Political Affiliation

During the elections for NUS President (2013, 2014) Toni Pearce stood as a candidate with no official affiliation to a political party. However, Toni has been a member of the Labour Party since 2010, joining after the 2010 General Election where she had voted for the Liberal Democrats.[6] Despite being a member of the Labour Party, her involvement is small and has described herself as “one of the least active members”.[4]

References

  1. "Toni Pearce #1 for NUS VP Further Education". Facebook. Retrieved 14 June 2014.
  2. "Toni Pearce elected next NUS president". Times Higher Education. Retrieved 14 June 2014.
  3. "Students elect first union president who hasn't been to university 'because taking three years out wasn't attractive to her'". Daily Mail. Retrieved 14 June 2014.
  4. 4.0 4.1 "Toni Pearce: she flunked her exams – but fought her way to the top to become President of the NUS". Independent. Retrieved 15 April 2014.
  5. "Beating the odds to become president of the National Union of Students". BBC News. 27 March 2014. Retrieved 27 March 2014.
  6. "Twitter / toni_pearce: So because Wikipedia says I ...". Twitter. Retrieved 14 June 2014.

External links

Political offices
Preceded by
Liam Burns
President of the
National Union of Students

2013-present
Succeeded by
incumbent