Newcastle University confirmed as first in England to provide free sanitary care across campus

It has today been confirmed that free sanitary products will now be provided around Newcastle uni campus.

President of the Students' Union, Raff Marioni, met with the University Executive Board this afternoon where the final agreement was made.

This puts Newcastle at the top as it will become the first university in England to implement this change.

Marioni has been working to pass this since he began his term in office. He told The Newcastle Tab, "'I'm absolutely buzzing that my proposal for free sanitary items across campus has been accepted. This has been nearly a year in the making, and I'm excited to see when it will be implemented.

"As some may know, the SU have offered emergency packs on a very small scale, as do a lot of SUs in the country. But we're a separate organisation to the Uni and we wanted them to take what we've done and apply on a larger scale, where it could impact thousands of students on this campus.

"Newcastle will be the first Uni in England to do this, and I hope all will follow. This is an important issue to students and goes a long way in making our campus the best and fairest it can possibly be".

Newcastle uni shared in Raff's positive reaction and said, "The University is fully behind this proposal from the Students’ Union and our University Executive Board has today agreed to fund eight dispensing machines across campus which will be stocked with a variety of sanitary products.

"It is important to us that all of our students get the most out of their time here at Newcastle University and there should be no instances where a student is not able to reach their full potential due to any stigma around periods or the stress of not being able to afford proper sanitary products.

"The aim is for the machines to be smart card operated so they can be accessed discretely by any of our students who need them".

It is hoped that this will be a step in the right direction to allow all students to feel comfortable and safe on campus.

Students at the university feel passionate about this too. Last year, a combined honours student set up a petition for free menstrual products across campus which was signed by over 300.