On this page: why vote NO to NUS?, why vote YES to NUS?

How?

Every year during the student officer elections you have the chance to vote for the Union to opt out of NUS membership when filling in a ballot paper.

All you have to do is put a cross next to the "disaffiliate" option and if the majority of students do not want to be part of NUS, then we will terminate our membership from NUS.

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 has repeatedly made political decisions that have been of detriment to the students body. NUS are fantastic at telling students at 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 £51,000, which could be re-invested in the bars, sports & societies and welfare services to students at Portsmouth. I ask you to think about what could be done with that money, to better your student experience.

You as a student need to ask yourself, what real benefit does an NUS card have for you? Discounts at High Street shops? Entry into your Students' Union? A student representative body?

By disaffiliating, Portsmouth would not necessarily not lose any of these benefits as the Union could set up its own student discount scheme, and we can re-invest any revenue but into Union activities unlike NUS.

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 by disaffiliating we can lobby for a reduced fee and re-invest that money into what really matters, you the Portsmouth Student.

Vote Yes to NUS affiliation

It's free for you - the Union pays the NUS fee for you. Big or small, when students or Unions have a problem the strength of NUS helps.

We need NUS

Students need a national voice and lobbying and research on a national scale to ensure they are represented. Only NUS can provide this collective voice, fighting for the rights of all members across the UK. Nurses, teachers, farmers, the elderly all have national organisations to represent them, and students require the indispensable representation and support they obtain from membership of NUS.

People say NUS lost the fight against fees. But bursaries, the fees cap at £3,000, and campaigns on international student fees are all thanks to NUS. It actively campaigns on all the big issues- just type "NUS" into the guardian website or see nusonline.co.uk to see the huge work it does.

Can we do it on our own?

The truth is we can't do it on our own, sulking in a corner. Co-operating with students all around the UK is how we make UPSU and our own lives better. It would be daft to think that a group of people could run a students' union, with all the commercial elements, plus a developing welfare unit and a strong Skills and Volunteering programme, without support, training and information.

I'm talking about Portsmouth- so much of what you do is adapted from the copious amounts of training and support offered throughout the year for staff and sabbaticals.

NUS provides an infrastructure which helps individual students' unions to undertake their own work through the research it carries out, the training, advice and support it offers, the materials it produces and the documents it publishes. Effectively, it's like getting a team of over 50 staff and 25 elected officers assisting you and UPSU for the cost of just one (and even that's a cost that the Union pays for us).

Vote YES to NUS

We've Achieved...

• When you add up the benefits and discounts we get as part of NUS Ents and NUS Services, affiliation is virtually free
• Winning a National Ombudsperson for University Complaints
• Winning a National Tenancy Deposit scheme to stop rip off landlords
• Winning new Codes of Standards for Student Accommodation
• National representation for students on education, welfare and other issues
• Forcing the EU to abandon proposals which would have made it impossible for students' unions to run minibuses
• Securing the continued existence of the young persons railcard after the railways act threatened its existence
• Overturning government proposals to wreck students' unions with all but one of NUS' recommendations accepted in the final legislation
• Winning the fight for fair and accessible complaints procedures in Universities
• Campaigning successfully for increases in hardship funds
• Providing training, briefings, research, advice, publications, and legal support for your union's officers as they need it
• Your NUS card is proof of a reciprocal agreement allowing you and your mates to go to each others' Union clubs
• Provides advice and guidance on the law relating to student union and charitable law issues
• Thousands of discounts for students online and in many high street retailers and loads of other stuff we haven't got room to mention...

98% of Students' Unions can't be wrong: Stay Strong and vote YES to NUS