NUS (National Union of Students) Affiliation

In addition to the candidates, there is one more box for you to tick on your ballot form - NUS affiliation.

The debate as to whether to remain part of NUS or break away (dis-affiliate) has been going on for some years, and we are obliged to give you the opportunity to have your say on whether to stay part of NUS or not.

You can see the pros and cons of the arguments summarised below, then use the ballot form to indicate you choice.

Vote YES to NUS affiliation

NUS may be one of the largest and most respected student organisations in the world, but students often ask me what NUS actually does apart from offering a discount card.

NUS has a big impact on students’ lives. For example, over the last two years, they have successfully campaigned to secure council tax exemption for students, double the disabled students allowance, and rein in unscrupulous landlords with a new national tenancy deposit scheme. They also ran a successful campaign to convince HSBC to back down over their plans to end interest-free graduate overdrafts. This last campaign alone saved students an estimated £22million. The reality is that unless students have a place in their national union they are, in effect, voiceless. Students must stand together in order to overcome the major challenges we face.

This year, we will have a huge fight on our hands: to rescue our higher education system from being corrupted by market forces and to prevent a future where the most esteemed universities are only accessible to the very rich. The forthcoming review of higher education funding will be our first chance since 2004 to fight the unfair and unsustainable top-up fees system, and we must be prepared for the battle that lies ahead. Make no mistake; this battle cannot be fought by students’ unions in isolation. The only way that students’ voices can be heard in this debate is by campaigning together through NUS.

Of course, the work of students’ unions is not just about national issues and national campaigns. That’s why NUS provides tailor-made training and support to your union so that it can make its own local campaigns more effective, and so that it can run more effectively and efficiently.

So please remember that being a member of NUS does matter. Make sure Portsmouth students remain among the 5.2 million students in our membership: vote YES to NUS.

Richard Budden
NUS National Secretary

Vote NO to NUS affiliation

NUS is unable to cope with the commercial pressures that Students’ Unions face today. The organisation is divided, fails to represent students and is merely factionalised fighting amongst itself. This year we have seen changes but not enough! In a day and age when finances are of key importance Students’ Unions cannot throw away money, which is sadly what they are doing by affiliating to NUS.

• How can Union justify giving substantial sums of money to an organisation that cannot even manage what it receives in affiliation fees? NUS are fantastic at telling students what they have achieved but they have consistently failed on student funding.
• NUS failed to stop tuition fees being implemented in 1998 and in 2004 and this quite frankly isn’t good enough!
• Tuition fees have been successfully reviewed in Scotland and Wales but not England. Why?
• NUS are a closed organisation that do not communicate enough with their members on key issues. They exploit the members they have by signing national marketing deals but do not return the income to the membership. Examples of this abuse of students are numerous, student mobiles, ITM etc, The Mirror...
• By disaffiliating from NUS Portsmouth would initially save £46,000 (£2.25 per student), which could be re-invested in the Union and to students at Portsmouth. What could be done with that money, to better your student experience?
• You as a student need to ask yourself, what real benefit does being part of a National Union have for you? Discounts at High Street shops? A student representative body?
• By disaffiliating, Portsmouth would not necessarily lose any of these benefits as the Union could work on our own training programmes and conferences for welfare and national issues. You don’t need an NUS card to get into the Students’ Union; identification of being a student at Portsmouth would be enough. The Students’ Union elected officers would still continue to represent you as a student of Portsmouth.
• Being in NUS does not realistically benefit students, and by disaffiliating we can spend that money on what really matters, you the Portsmouth Student.