THE Government moved yesterday to end the student union ''closed

shop'' and to take the sting out of the political campaigning role of

the National Union of Students.

Education Secretary John Patten outlined plans to give students the

freedom to choose which political activities they wanted to be involved

in, and to outlaw the use of public funds for political action.

He said: ''We have already abolished the closed shop in the trade

union sector. Our reforms will apply the voluntary principle to student

unions throughout Britain. We will give students the power to choose for

themselves what collective involvement they want.''

The Government's proposals, given a warm welcome by Tory back benchers

but angrily criticised by Opposition MPs, centre on two key changes.

First, Mr Patten said that he planned to limit the purposes for which

universities and colleges could pass money received from ''public

sources'' to their campus unions.

All students will retain access, if they wish, to a core of essential

campus services -- welfare, catering, sport -- but other campus union

activities will be placed on an ''opt-in, voluntary subscription

basis.''

Secondly, Mr Patten believes that student unions should be more

accountable and fully representative. The Government therefore wants a

code of practice governing the conduct and behaviour of campus unions.

Mr Patten will consult on the matter, and wants responses by October

1, but he said yesterday: ''In preparing these proposals we have taken

careful account of universities' and colleges' concerns about essential

student services.

''For other activities, it will be up to students themselves to decide

what collective involvement they want. Our intention is not to impede

students' activities. It is to limit the purposes for which student

unions can spend public money.''

The Education Secretary emphasised the importance the Government

attached to freedom of the individual and freedom of choice, and added

it was ''a matter of high principle for anyone to be forced to join an

organisation they did not wish to join and, through that membership, to

be forced to accede to a campaign of which they did not approve.''

For Labour, Education spokesman Jeff Rooker said that all student

unions would benefit from a clarification of legal status, but

''smashing up'' the wide range of services they provided was not the way

to go about it.

Mr Rooker claimed that the Government knew from its own surveys that

an average of less than 2% of student union incomes was spent on

political campaigns.

In the exchanges which followed, SNP leader Alex Salmond said it was

''sad and pathetic to see an Education Secretary reduced to pushing

around students because he is having so little success in pushing around

teachers.''

Mrs Maria Fyfe (Glasgow Maryhill -- Lab.) said that students -- and

parents of students -- up and down the country would take note of the

fact that the Government was ''so authoritarian it could not tolerate

students behaving like students.''

Mr John McFall, Labour's Front Bench spokesman on education in

Scotland, said that he had visited almost all the Scottish universities

in the past year, and on no occasion had the staff complained about

student bodies.

He said they had been more concerned about the ''pile

'em high, teach 'em cheap philosophy of the Government.''

In a statement issued last night, Scottish Secretary Ian Lang said

that he would listen carefully to the views of Scottish institutions on

the range of activities which may be considered ''core'' services for

students.

He added: ''These reforms reflect the principles of choice and

responsibility. The Government believes that individual students should

have the right to choose how far to involve themselves in the activities

of their student bodies.''