There’s two sets of very nervous young people in the UK at the moment. One set of young people are waiting anxiously for their A-level results, the other smaller group of young people are those who took part in the recent rioting and are probably fearing the Police appearing in their doorway. 

What I don’t think you will find is many who are waiting for both. That’s because the majority of the young people looting shops don’t have the same stake in society as their peers awaiting exam results. 

But what both groups have are the same adverts, the same temptations, the same consumerist culture engrained in their environment all day, every day. Whether they have the means to or not young people are told they should aspire to get the best trainers the high street can offer, get fashionable hair and drink specially brewed coffee in cool shops with your cool friends. 

This is consumerism and it’s indiscriminate because it doesn’t provide according to need. And yet commentators are surprised at the lack of a coherent message from the young rioters. Why? It’s indiscriminate looting and rioting as a result of an indiscriminate society. 

We have been raised in a society which says acquiring material wealth is paramount – some people can go out and use money to acquire them, the rioters are going out and using other means to acquire them. It’s not right but it can be seen as a natural reaction. 

What about the solution to the unrest?

Different people have different solutions to put right the causes of the riots. For some nothing short of the army on the streets will restore the society they want to see. For others investment and jobs into these communities is crucial. 

As president of a students’ union I am unashamedly an advocate of education, especially higher education. Unfortunately everywhere I turn higher education is being modelled on consumerism. It started when the government put a price tag on higher education, from 1k a year it has sky rocketed to 9k a year and now services at universities are talking about what their ‘consumers’ want.

People need a break from consumerism and higher education should be a means of feeding your mind and soul not just putting bread on the dinner table. Not just the elite but for all. 

The price of repairing the damage done by the riots will pale into insignificance compared to the cost of educating the people involved in the riots. 

Multi-coloured gowns, hats, those ceremonial stick things and latin – graduation can look more like a Harry Potter role-play than a degree awarding ceremony. 

There was a time when I was adamant I wouldn’t be attending graduation because the pomp and ceremony was out of touch. My nan talked me down. And I’m glad she did because I’ve enjoyed giving the alumni address at three graduation ceremonies in the last two days. 

Once upon a time graduation would have been regimented to the point of joylessness for those graduating and proud friends and parents watching on. Not to mention that only the wealthiest could ever dream of stepping through the doors of a university, never mind leaving one with a degree. 

But the ceremonies I’ve been representing the Students’ Union at this week have been full of people whooping, hollering and generally celebrating achievements in their own way. 

This time last year I reported that at one graduation ceremony in England a students brother had blown a vuvuzela (one of those plastic horns from the South Africa World Cup to you and me) as she graduated. 

I don’t think anything can compete with that for originality. My personal favourite celebrations from this year’s Swansea graduations is a girl and her mum who, just after shaking the pro-VC’s hand, shared a classic rock and roll hand gesture (left) whilst shouting ‘yeaaaaah’! 

Talking of celebrations, make sure you get yourself to our Graduation Ball tomorrow! Click here to buy tickets.

It’s been just eight days since the Students’ and Athletic Union welcomed six new officers, the team has got off to a flying start and hasn’t stopped since. 

Our first duty on the very first day, last Friday, was to meet all of our full-time members of staff, of which there are quite a few. Whether it was Big G talking us through the history of Sin Savers or Charlotte Britton hugging babies like any good politician in the Nursery it was great for everyone to know what every part of the Union delivers for Swansea students.

And it was a timely reminder of the wonderful work our Union does because I gave two talks to prospective students at Saturday’s open day. Like every open day the Sun was beating down on Swansea, illuminating the places best features and hiding the rest neatly in the shadows. It was a privilege to be able to tell bright eyed young people about the life changing time they could have in Swansea, but the university’s announcement of their plans to charge 9k fees was something of a ghost at that feast. 

Then we were reunited with former SU President and Societies and Services Officer, Luke Young and Raechel Mattey, at a fantastic two days at NUS Wales’ training event.

The event warmly referred to as ‘the big Welsh one’ was hosted at Glamorgan’s plush new buildings was a chance to learn about affecting change and meet student officers from across Wales. 

Between all of this every officer has been working to deliver their manifesto promises. I’ve been busy working on making democracy fun, Charlotte has started tackling rogue landlords by launching the union’s first Rate Your Landlord survey and the other officers have already managed to tick off some of their manifesto priorities – I’ll let them announce it in their own time. 

Who said Summer was for holidays?

by Charlotte Britton, Welfare Officer                                                                

‘Landlords from Hell’, a Channel 4 Dispatches special will tonight reveal the shocking truth about a minority of rogue landlords and the terrible impact they can have on the lives of their tenants.

The programme has been working in conjunction with Shelter, the housing and homelessness charity to highlight the rough deals some people suffer.

The Union and I welcome this push to reveal and take action on this small minority of landlords who are letting properties well below standard and who aren’t doing their job properly, if at all.

I have been working hard on this issue myself which is why tomorrow we will be launching the Rate Your Landlord Survey. If you’ve ever lived in private or university accommodation, on or off campus, you’ll get the chance to tell us about your experiences, good or bad. 

It’s a great way to ensure that I and the Advice Centre know how to help you – we can focus on tackling the issues that students face year in, year out.

As Community and Housing Officer last year I spent a lot of time helping people out with their accommodation, and helped put together a housing booklet and a checklist for students looking for housing for this coming year.

We also have an amazing Advice Centre that can help any student out with almost any problem – they have dealt with over 800 housing issues this year alone!

I’m glad that renting and rogue landlords are coming to the forefront in the media, as some problems are caused further up the chain that can’t be solved directly by us. The Welsh and English Governments could do much more to protect tenants.

I for one will definitely be there pressuring ministers, AMs and MPs to make the right decisions for students.  

I can’t say I’m awfully enthusiastic about Alan Sugar’s annual reality TV trawl through the UK’s most obnoxious know-it-alls to find his next free market monkey. Even so, when I heard the teams were taking on magazines I couldn’t resist watching.

This week’s task was to develop a new free magazine and sell advertising space.  Both teams started  brightly and managed to establish a gap in a saturated market, that is no easy feat. But media is something that everyone thinks they can do, because everyone consumes it, when the reality is very different and things soon went down hill. 

In something of a coincidence I was tidying up yesterday when I found a scrapbook of articles I’d written and amongst them, sellotaped to the brightly coloured sugar paper was my first ever for the Waterfront. Way back in 2007 then news editor Eleni Cashell had packed me off to a plush suite in the Digital Technium where I joined eager entrepreneurial students. They were suited and booted in readiness to meet Swansea Uni graduate turned media mogul Ed Pereira. 

If the wannabe apprentices could take a few lessons from this Swansea alumni Sugar would have been hard pushed to fire anyone. Pereira’s first business project was a free magazine for Swansea students called ‘RU Sorted’. His story goes: “I sat in the Potters Wheel with my brother to work out who goes out for free. We realised that it was celebrities and journalists who did.  The idea was very simple – we would start our own magazine.”

RU Sorted was a hit with students and advertisers and since then Pereira has gone on to become a millionaire from free magazines. What was Ed’s secret you ask? “It’s important to become your target market. People hate focus groups but believe me they work, run as many focus groups as you can,” he said.

I think the moral of this story is if you want something done – send a Swansea graduate.