Hola! 

This update is coming to you live from Venezuela, where I’m working remotely for a bit making the most of the Summer.  

As part of my ‘quiet period rumour’ series, I want to use this post to talk about one of the organisations we work with, that students carry around in their pockets without probably even knowing... The National Union of Students (NUS). 

The NUS is, as its name indicates, the national union that brings students together. It was founded in 1922 after the first world war to lobby for student rights in the post-war times. Over its history, it has been responsible for some major wins for the student movement. Some of my personal favourite highlights: the 1946 creation of the international union of students in Prague (though NUS then withdrew its membership in 1955), founding Endsleigh insurance in 1965, formal and legal recognition of SUs in 1970, the student discount card created in 2006, Fees capped at £9,250 in 2017 as a result of NUS’ campaign on boycotting the NSS (and other forms of pressure). The (history of the NUS) [https://nus100.nus.org.uk/our-history/] is much richer, and I’d encourage you to have a look on your own time if you’re interested. I also have the book Mike Day wrote for the NUS’ 90th anniversary, if you want to read its history in more detail, and you’re a politics and policy nerd like me.  

But what I’m trying to get across today, is that the NUS’ ability to achieve change for students is directly linked to our participation in their collective action initiatives. Similar to our own union, they have four full-time officers for the whole of the UK (who run for two-year terms), and a president for each of the devolved nations. These people are voted on by the NUS delegates (which for Bath are a combination of your full-time officer and students who run for this position on a cross-campus election), and also have manifestos, networks, and plans for the overall student movement.  

I knew very little about what the NUS did before becoming an officer. In the fourteen months I’ve been in post, I’ve learned about a lot of their wins over the years, as well as the campaigns and services they still offer us: for example, the turn-up to vote campaign helped register 1.6 million new voters for this general election; they organise lobby days for MPs and give us guidance to do it as well – so we can put more pressure on parliament with student facing issues; as well as personal support for our union whenever we need it.  

That said, there are downsides to NUS membership, which is why we’ve run referenda on it in the past. We pay £30,000 a year to be part of the NUS. People sometimes ask us if we see the direct benefit of that money, and the honest answer is I don’t know. I’m not sure how to quantify the benefits that we get from being part of it. The institution has also been accused of antisemitism in the past, especially linked to the former president. This person, however, was exempt of any legal action after further investigation. 

And I hope you’ll agree with me, that these things are always nuanced, and it’s not necessarily easy to make clean-cut decisions. The last referendum we did on this, at the beginning of this year just past, an overwhelming majority of votes were in favour of us staying members. As your student representatives, we take student feedback extremely seriously. This means that not only did we stay in the NUS, but we’ve taken every opportunity to engage with it when we’ve had it.  

I hope this overview has been helpful and please do reach out if anything isn’t clear! If not, stay tanned and be kind to one another, and I’ll see you in the next fortnight.  

Much love,  

Jiji x