A furious outburst by the NUS President Gemma Tumelty left conference floor in uproar on the first day of the Annual NUS Conference, as the controversial NUS Governance review - supported both by Tumelty and President elect Wes Streeting - fell at the last hurdle by only 4% of the vote needed.

The President, whose outspoken support for the widely-criticised reform, angrily declared “I am sick of you. We will be back!” as the governance review fell a mere 25 votes short of the 717 needed for the revolution-leading motion to gain legitimacy.

According to NUS figures, up to 1,400 student delegates voted, representing almost five million students across the UK.

Last year at the NUS Annual Conference, delegates from students’ unions across the country voted upon a far-reaching reform of the way that they governed themselves, in order to revive the NUS structure that many felt was failing the students they represented.

From this resolution, the Governance Review was born and after a heavily criticised consultation process, was presented at the NUS Conference 2008.

The Reform would fundamentally change the way that the NUS currently operates and bring in a new way of presenting and discussing issues that were important to students.

The balance of support for Further and Higher Education institutions in the structure of the NUS has also come under criticism, with accusations of bias towards HE-related issues.

It has been claimed that the Governance review would redress this imbalance, providing more opportunities for the involvement of FE institutions.

It would have also introduced a full-time International Students Officer.

However opposers criticised the new constitutional changes, claiming that they would reduce or hinder the democratic right of students to influence the way that the NUS is run, citing examples such as the employment of non-elected non-student trustees in the decision making process.

Speaking for the motion, NUS Secretary Stephen Brown criticised the “useless democratic structure and meaningless policies” of the current structure, calling skepticism of the proposed reforms “dangerous nonsense” and calling for a “radical set of proposals that would bring better democracy and real focus on students”.

The current president Gemma Tumelty also voiced her support for changes.

Although debated at the recent NUS Extraordinary conference, held to discuss the motion, many felt that the review was rushed through, with limited consultation that did not allow adequate discussion of the implications that would occur if the motion was set in stone.

NUS Executive Council member Sofie Buckland spoke against the change, calling students to “reject the attack on Democracy,” adding that, by not passing the motion, it would be “extending, not attacking NUS Democracy”.

In the aftermath of the motion, particular unions, such as Sheffield College, were publicly criticised by Streeting on Conference floor for going against their mandate set out for them by their respective councils.

There was talk of disaffiliation by those who felt that the Governance Review would be the only way to save NUS as it stands.

UPSU was mandated to vote against the controversial motion, as discussed and passed through Union Council.

The highly debated Review needed a two-thirds majority to pass, however after a count due to a lack of distinction to which way the vote fell, the motion failed, not fulfilling its quota of 717 votes by a mere 25, leaving the result at 692.

On Monday, the NUS said in its Conference Newsletter that the vote’s simple majority (i.e. over 50%) meant that the Governance review was now a part of NUS policy.

Tumelty later appeared on the rostrum in front of the conference, making a reluctant apology for her earlier outburst.