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2 Presidents 3 External links |
General information
The NUS was formed in 1922 from the merging of the Inter-Varsity Association and the International Students Bureau. Founding members included the unions of Imperial College (who first left in 1923 and have subsequently rejoined and left again twice - the last time being in the 1970s) and Bristol University (whose AGM voted to leave in 2004). The NUS now has over 700 constinuent members (the unions of either higher education or further education establishments) and through which it represents approximately 5 million UK students. However, a number of high profile educational institutions are not members.
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 Conference, Students With Disabilities Conference, Black Students' Conference and the International Students' Conference (created in 2003) 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 Labour Students, the Campaign for Free Education, the Organised Independents, Student Broad Left, SWSS, the Union of Jewish Students and Conservative Future.
All UK students' unions are able to join the NUS (providing they are not controlled by their parent institution and they 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.
Most UK university unions are members of the NUS, although a number (primarily Imperial College and the University of St Andrews) have historically chosen for political or economic reasons not to be members. In recent years NUS membership has become a controversial issue with some unions seeing AGM motions and referendums on the membership issue.
The NUS have in the past recieved criticism for spending significant amounts of time and money in running pro-affiliation campaigns at universities to ensure that they win referendums. The NUS hasn't lost a disaffiliation referendum in over a decade, but on February 5, 2004 the University of Bristol decided to leave following a AGM motion on dissaffiliation. Other recent leavers of the NUS have included UMIST and University of Southampton. See also Results of referendums on NUS membership
Presidents
External links