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The National Union of Students (NUS) is the main confederation of students' unions that exist inside the United Kingdom. Although the NUS is the central organisation for all affiliated unions in the UK, there are also devolved national sub bodies NUS Scotland, NUS Wales/UCM Cymru and NUS-USI in Northern Ireland.

NUS is a member of ESU.

History

The NUS was formed in 1922 at a meeting held at the University of London. At this meeting, the Inter-Varsity Association and the International Students Bureau (which organised student travel and had been lobbying for a national body) agreed to merge. Founding members included the unions of University of Birmingham, Imperial College London (who first left in 1923 and have subsequently rejoined and left twice, being members again from 2006), King's College London (who supplied the first President (Sir Ivison Macadam)) and the University of Bristol.

Financial crisis

In recent years, the NUS has faced a prolonged financial crisis, caused by a coinciding of spiralling expenditure and decreasing income. A series of measures were proposed to address this, of which the most controversial included a series of changes to the constitutional and democratic processes. In 2004, two emergency conferences passed some of the changes proposed, albeit not without fierce dispute between those claiming the proposals were necessary reforms to maintain the existence of the organisation and those arguing that they were aimed at curbing democracy and involvement. The 2006 NUS Conference passed a policy enabling the NUS to launch a paid-for student discount card, in September, called 'NUS Extra', on sale to students at GB£10.

Membership

All UK students' unions are able to join the NUS (providing they are not controlled by their parent institution and their admission is approved by National Conference). To become a constituent member, unions must pay an affiliation fee to NUS, which is based upon the number of students in the union, and the money received by the union from its parent institution.

The NUS now has over 700 constituent members (the unions of either higher education or further education establishments) through which it represents approximately 5 million UK students, which equates to approximately 98% of all students and hence potential members. However, a small number of high profile educational institutions are not members. These include the University of Glasgow, University of St Andrews, University of Dundee and University of Southampton. In recent years NUS membership has become a controversial issue with some unions seeing general meeting motions and referendums on the membership issue.

The NUS have in the past received criticism for spending significant amounts of time and money in running pro-affiliation campaigns at universities to ensure that they win referendums.

Recent leavers of the NUS have included UMIST (which is now re-affiliated through its merger to form UMSU), the University of Sunderland, the University of Southampton and Aston University. However, these defections have been partly counterbalanced by the entry into membership of the University of Edinburgh and Imperial College London. The University of Northampton also re-affiliated itself with the NUS in October 2007, having disaffiliated in 2001.

Democracy

The NUS holds national conferences once a year. National Conference is the sovereign body of NUS, and is where NUS policy is decided. Other conferences, such as Regional Conferences, Women's Conference, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Trans Conference (changed as of 2004), Disabled Students Conference, Black Students' Conference and the International Students' Conference (created in 2004) are run to enhance the representation of the specific members they include.

Most of these conferences, and in particular the elections held at them, are hotly contested by factions including Conservative Future, Education Not for Sale, Labour Students, Liberal Democrat Youth and Students, the Organised Independents, Socialist Students, Student RESPECT, and Student Broad Left. In addition to these political factions, interest groups such as the Federation of Student Islamic Societies and the Union of Jewish Students are deeply involved in the internal democratic processes of NUS.

Services

NUS offer a number of services to their constituent members. NUS owns a 25% share in NUS Services. NUS Services started out as a purchasing consortium that allows its members to benefit from bulk purchasing discounts. NUS and NUS Services work closely with the Association for Managers in Students' Unions.

Criticisms

The NUS has come in for criticism from various quarters, particularly from those students' unions who are not affiliated. Sen Ganesh, then president of Imperial College Union, said in 2002: "NUS's claim to be representative of students is not borne out by their work".

The NUS has in particular come in for criticism for the way its democratic processes are structured. Unlike individual student unions and despite the rise of online voting in Universities, NUS officers are not directly elected by students, but instead selected by delegates. For extraordinary general meetings, there doesn't even need to be a cross-campus election of delegates . Some have argued that the NUS National Conference is unrepresentative of the opinions of students across the country and that in turn the National Executive Committee does not always reflect the wishes and priorities of students. The NUS have countered, arguing that many of the criticisms are inaccurate.

In 2005, the website Offcourse: The Silly Student Voice, a brutally critical parody of the UK student union establishment and the NUS, was published. The website became an underground hit in student Internet forums but is most well known for publishing a mashed up edit of a speech by former NUS President, Kat Fletcher.

Current issues

AUT/NATFHE (UCU) marking boycott controversy

In 2006 the Association of University Teachers (AUT) and the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE), announced a one-day strike, to be followed by ongoing "action short of a strike" in the form of an assessment boycott (with the AUT, though not NATFHE, including the setting of exams in the boycott) as part of their pay negotiations with the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA), with many lecturers and teachers not marking exam papers.

Initially the NUS leadership, headed by Kat Fletcher, gave support to the lecturers' union arguing that it was essential to secure an increase in lecturers' wages; The understanding was that the NUS was not supporting the AUT-only boycott of setting or marking exams. However this support was not reflected across all students' unions affiliated to NUS and some tabled an emergency motion to the 2006 NUS National Conference; however this was not debated. This has provoked strong criticism that the NUS stance on one of the major education issues of the day has been decided without consultation of the membership.

Subsequently a number of students' unions went public with their opposition to both the boycott and the NUS support for it. A member of the NUS National Executive-elect drafted a counter letter in support, signed by a number of students' unions, whilst direct online petitions of students opposed to the boycott attracted an ever growing number of signatures. . A petition completely in favour of the boycott has so far attracted rather fewer signatures.

An opinion poll jointly commission by London Student and Times Higher found that 77% of students are opposed to the boycott, although 67% support the general principle of increasing lecturers' pay.

Many have criticised the NUS as unrepresentative of its members, and have questioned to what extent the NUS actually represents students' interests. Some students' unions have gone so far as to threaten to withhold part of their affiliation fees. Many other students' unions have maintained support for the teaching unions, including some which have agreed to go beyond the NUS stance, backing the AUT/NATFHE action fully. (The poll was published after many students' unions had already adopted their pro-boycott stance, and it is not clear to what extent the student unions were already aware of student opposition).

The NUS have since advised AUT/NATFHE, following feedback from over 100 unions, that their partial support for action cannot be indefinite and is wholly dependent on seeking a fast resolution. This seems to have had an effect as a pay deal has now been reached by the newly merged lecturers union, the University and College Union (UCU).

Fairtrade

The Fairtrade NUS Campaign was started by students at the University of Edinburgh in autumn 2005. The campaign, which has now been joined by numerous other students' unions in the UK, is calling for 100% of the hot beverages (tea, coffee, hot chocolate etc.) sold by member unions of the NUS to be accredited with the Fairtrade Mark.

The campaign is supported by a number of NGOs and charities, including Oxfam, Trade Justice Movement, People & Planet and CAFOD.

While it is hotly contested amongst the Universities about who were the original Fairtrade University,the Fairtrade foundation gave this status first and worked with Oxford Brookes University who spearheaded the movement - with the University of Edinburgh a close second. It is of note that Oxfam and People & Planet are both located in Oxford

Presidents

Area organisation

National Union of Students Areas are support organisations, affiliation to which is open to individual students' unions which are usually (but not always) already affiliated members of the UK-wide National Union of Students of the United Kingdom ("NUS"). Membership of an Area organisation is optional (determined by the normal democratic process at each students' union) and is paid for by subscription in addition to the cost of affiliation to the national body.

Area organisations meet together to support each other through the Areas Political Convention (formerly the Areas National Convention), and are able to attend the National Union's annual conference as non-voting observers. Additionally Area Conveners have sometimes been members of the Executive Committees of the "special regions" (Scotland (NUS Scotland), Wales (NUS Wales/UCM Cymru), and Northern Ireland (NUS-USI).)

The position of "Areas" within the Constitution of the National Union has long been somewhat controversial. They do not feature in all printed editions of the Constitution, but have not been officially dissolved by the decision-making Annual Conference of the national body. They are nominally autonomous or semi-autonomous, but often use some of the same branding and certainly have access to the resources of their regional and national offices.

The current National Union of Students website has this to say about areas:

Area organisations, recognised by NUS, provide localised support to students’ unions through campaigns, development and training. They consist of students’ unions that choose to affiliate to the Area within a geographical boundary determined by NUS. Area organisations further the work of NUS within their boundary, and must do so in accordance with the aims, objects and policy of the national union.

At one time almost all NUS regions contained several Area organisations; Scotland for example was divided into "NUS North of Scotland Area", "NUS West of Scotland Area" and "NUS East of Scotland Area". In this example, the East of Scotland organisation tended to work very closely with the national (Scottish) organisation due to being based in the same city, Edinburgh. In more remote parts of the country, the Area organisations are intended to form a useful first point of contact and readily accessible person to assist the local student unions.

Areas normally have a "Convener" who is generally a current student or one who has just graduated, and will take a year, theoretically (but not always) paid, to work for the Area — known as a "sabbatical" in the case of current students, and in this sense following the model of the sabattical officers of students' unions at individual educational institutions. Occasionally the Convener would serve two or even more years in office. Those Areas able to afford the costs may send their Convener to a training session provided by the National Union. In any event, the regional organisation will normally provide training and support.

Because of their local perspective and autonomous nature, it is not uncommon for Areas to be involved in conflicts with the national organisation. Conversely, political groupings (and the fulfilling of obvious functions and shared goals) within the bodies sometimes draws them into very close co-operation.

Liberation Campaigns

LGBT Campaign

The first national officers were elected in 2000, after NUS Annual Conference voted to change the constitution in order for the positions to be created, despite some opposition. There are two officers for the NUS LGBT Campaign, one is open place and elected by LGBT student delegates to the NUS LGBT Conference, the other is a womans place and is elected only by women delegates.

Disabled Students' Campaign

Formerly the Students With Disabilities Campaign. Still the Students With Disabilities campaign throughout much of the country.

Black Students' Campaign

Black Students' Officer: Ruqayyah Collector 2006-08

Women's Campaign

• Women's Officer Kat Stark 2006-present

References

1. Adam Keating (2002). ""What have NUS ever done for us?"". Retrieved 2006-05-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
2. ^ ""NUS constitution"" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-10-31. Cite error: The named reference "no2nus" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
3. ""yes2nus"". Retrieved 2006-05-30.
4. ""Do the right thing"". EducationGuardian. 2006-03-22. Retrieved 2006-05-24. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
5. James Dixon (2006-03-31). ""A National Union of Students?"". Retrieved 2006-05-24. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
6. ""Students vent anger over lecturers' boycott"". EducationGuardian. 2006-04-13. Retrieved 2006-05-24. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
7. ""Students divided over lecturers' pay dispute"". EducationGuardian. 2006-04-24. Retrieved 2006-05-24. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
8. ""Petition against the AUT assessment boycott"". Retrieved 2006-05-24.
9. ""Give Us Our Marks .co.uk"". Retrieved 2006-05-24.
10. ""Support our lecturers: don't let the bosses divide us!"". Education Not for Sale. Retrieved 2006-05-28.
11. ""THE BOYCOTT BITES: Employers play games as exams postponed last-minute"". London Student. 2006-05-10. Retrieved 2006-05-24. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
12. ""Student unions threaten to withhold NUS fees"". EducationGuardian. 2006-05-17. Retrieved 2006-05-24. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
13. ""Lecturers' pay deal 'is in reach'"". BBC News Online. 2006-05-24. Retrieved 2006-05-29. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
14. ""University pay talks reach deal'"". BBC News Online. 2006-06-06. Retrieved 2006-06-10. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

• NUS Home
• NUS Website for Union Officers
• NUS Extra Card
• NUS Services Limited Website

• National Union of Students of the United Kingdom
• Groups of students' unions