FROM NUS UK: https://www.ucsu.org/your-union/nusreferendum/nusproposal/nus/
FROM ANDREW LEE: https://www.ucsu.org/pageassets/your-union/nusreferendum/nusproposal/al/Response-to-Gemma-Hopwoods-Sabbatical-Officer-Supporting-Document.pdf
NUS UK:
NUS is your national union representing university and college students across the UK.
Together we achieve national change for students.
Our movement exists to make education and our world better through the collective power of students. Today’s challenges won’t be solved without students, students’ unions, and our national union.
Over the last 2 years, with students’ unions and students working together we have had some BIG WINS for students:
- Put £800m back into students’ pockets via rent wins and student support funds.
- U-turn on A-Level and BTEC grades
- Made the government and authorities concede that students not receiving adequate education are eligible for refunds or re-dos.
- Widespread no detriment policies during covid.
- 50 SUs support Student Strike mobilising 2000 students in London and 6 regional events.
- End use of NDAs pledge signed by 54 institutions
- Student loan threshold frozen
- 800 supporters/40 SUs sign divest to decolonise open letter
In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland:
- £350 increase in student support package in Scotland.
- Student Mental Health Strategy wins in NI & Wales
- Access to Erasmus for NI students and Taith scheme in Wales.
- £500 covid disruption payments for students in NI.
- £4.5m for Student Unions/ Associations in Scotland and Wales.
We make noise on student issues
- Over 100,000 campaign actions engaging 350,000 supporters
- 27,000 media articles with a reach of 255 million (2020-22)
- We tripled our media reach speaking out for students during covid.
- #StudentDeservesBetter trending
You can read our full Impact Report 20-22 and Campaigns Plan 22-23 here
The Referendum
NUS is led by students and we fully support your having a vote on this. As your President, Gemma, has said it’s important this is conducted fairly. Please do read up on the reasonings not to stay affiliated.
With that said, we really hope UCSU stay part of NUS so please do cast a vote against disaffiliation between 24 October and 3 November. Don’t go, vote no!
Fast facts
- NUS has 430 members across the UK. Our job is to achieve things collectively that SUs couldn’t do alone.
- As we understand, the motion going to Union Council is about disaffiliating from NUS.
- Chichester Students’ Union contributes £6,300 towards its membership of NUS.
- This contribution is 2.5% of the block grant received from your institution, this is reduced from 4% in 2020/21
Right side of history
Proudly radical since 1922 - 100 years of students making change – in education and society. From healthcare rights to opposing apartheid, LGBTQ+ and women’s rights, students have been leading the way. Together we will rebuild education for the better over the next 100 years.
Some of the highlights:
- NUS secured healthcare on campuses a decade before the NHS (1937)
- International Student Identity Card (ISIC) came from NUS.
- We established Endsleigh Insurance in 1965 to provide services to students
- As part of the international student movement we named 17th November as International Students Day.
- NUS-USI was established in 1972 Northern Ireland to promote student unity across the sectarian divide.?An idea which seemed radical at the time, a full 26 years before the Good Friday Agreement.
- We were the first organisation in the UK to pass policy in?favour?of gay rights (1973)
- NUS was the first UK organization to have a policy on Welsh language.
- Student railcards exist because of NUS.
- We called for Abortion rights and continue to fight for them in NI.
- NUS why student’s don’t pay council tax?
- We proved in court that the government wrongly deported 48,000 international students?
- NUS Scotland was instrumental in getting tuition fees abolished for undergraduates in Scotland.
- Ending the blanket ban on gay men donating blood (2012)
- We secured postgraduate loans & had the age caps removed?
- We had the first elected Trans Officer in Europe.
- We champion student discounts with TOTUM (previously NUS Extra card)
- Scotland was the first government in the world to provide free menstrual products in every school, college and university.
Working together today!
The pandemic has shown us how powerful we can be when we work together. Let’s keep winning for students.
(Note: NUS UK is separate from NUS Charity so you will still have access to the Charity’s services including: Union Development, Trading, SU.Careers; Election service etc.) More on the Charity’s work can be found here
FROM ANDREW LEE:
Chichester Students for Remaining Affiliated with the NUS
By Andrew Lee
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INTRODUCTION
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The following is a response to the points made by the SU President, who raised a motion to disaffiliate from the National Union of Students. Myself and many others at The University of Chichester are against this motion, and below are our reasons to remain.
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RESPONSE TO THE SU PRESIDENT’S REASONS & RATIONAL FOR LEAVING
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Continued association with NUS UK is no longer desirable due to the antisemitic allegations and ongoing investigations.
As an academic in an academic institution, I was worried by the evidence supplied for the above point being a single article having been written by an anti-NUS student reporter at Cambridge university in 2016, during their own NUS referendum, where they ended up voting to stay. Malia Bouattia, the former leader of the NUS from July 2016 - July 2017, has come under ciritsism for anti-semitism for her comments based around Zionist politics. Her statement being ‘that for me to take issue with Zionist politics is not me taking issue with being Jewish’ (Guardian, 2016).
The NUS in collaboration with the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) began an investigation into alleged anti-semitisim in July of this year; an external QC, Rebbeca Tuck, is leading this investigation. One the NUS setup itself. The report on this investigation is due for release on the 28th of October this year. Two days before the NUS Referendum begins. This does not give time for the student body to engage with the report.
The phrasing of the original point makes it seem as if the investigation (note the singular investigation and not plural as implied by the point above) is external to the NUS rather than a self imposed, independently reviewed exercise.
Returning to our own SU’s support for Jewish student’s, on the calendar given to all those who visited the freshers fair, all christian holidays are documented, with the islamic holidays of Rhammadam and one of the two Eid’s, yet the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret, Simchat Torah, Hanukkah, Purim, Passover (Pesach), and Shavuot are not included.
TL:DR: The SU President’s evidence for anti-semitism is weak at best. The NUS started the independent investigation with the Union of Jewish Students. The phrasing of SU president’s point implies the investigation is being forced on the NUS rather than coming from within. All Jewish holidays are missing from the SU calendar, whilst Christian and some Islamic holidays are not.
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Much of NUS UKs work does not align with the vision and values of UCSU.
For the SU president to assert that due to the political nature of the NUS’s activity does not reflect the SU, is troubling indeed. What is ensuring that all students can find housing, promoting wellbeing services to cater for the needs of the student body, supporting our lecturers if they strike, if not political activities. It is a union’s job to effectively petition those in power, be it the Government of the UK or the Vice Chancellor’s Group (VCG) of Chichester university.
The SU’s current close relationship with the VCG is, “Current”. What will happen when the current SU President leaves their post, or when the next Vice Chancellor takes over the role. What if they are not as inclined to listen to the student body as our current VC, we will have given up any and all power we have for no valid reason. I will refer to documentation released by the NUS to explain what their “extreme” measures have achieved for students at the University of Chichester.
As of 13:00 on 24/10/22 the University and Colleges Union received a ballot of 81% in favor of strike action. We should be in a union that supports our
TL:DR: The remain movement asserts that the SU’s role is political, as well as social. We support our lectures if they undergo strike action. What if the current VCG stops listening if we leave the NUS, what happens when our current SU president leaves, or the next Vice Chancellor takes on the role? This is a very “current” decision that does not look into the future.
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Remaining affiliated to NUS UK is not considered to add value to UCSU, particularly in recent years.
Here the SU president makes clear that it is her opinion that is driving this decision rather than a call from the student body. It is the role of the SU president to listen to, and react to requests of the student body, not to create an autocracy. In the small time I have had to prepare for this Vote to Stay campaign, I have had no problem reaching the NUS, who have been forthcoming discussing my own criticisms of the organization, of which there are some.
I would ask the student body to research what has happened to other Unions that have disaffiliated from the NUS, and see how far they get petitioning their Vice Chancellor’s, and indeed how much impact they have in parliament. Where many of the decisions that directly affect students are debated.
TL:DR: We believe this motion is part of the SU President’s agenda rather than something mandated by the student body. And that other Student Unions, who have left the NUS have less impact on their campus than before.
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The cost of being affiliated to NUS UK is 2% of our Block Grant funding from the University. Based on our 2022/23 this amounts to £6,440, which does not represent value for money.
I would strongly argue that for £6,440 a year, having a voice in an organization that pushes key student agendas through parliament is value for money. During the ongoing cost of living crisis, which is deeply hurting not only student’s but our academic team within the university, it is imperative that we engage at a national level on a national problem and we cannot do that outside of the NUS.
In response to the crisis multiple unions are either going on strike, or looking at striking including; the National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport Workers; the Communication Workers Union, and our own academic staff within the University and College’s Union. I would rather stand side by side, not only in personal solidarity, but as part of a powerful organization that can bring about change.
TL:DR: We argue that having power to change things on a national level is important and we would lose that by leaving the NUS. As other unions are striking or preparing to strike because of the cost of living crisis, which also affects students, it is imperative that we belong to a national union to support our interests at a national level.
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Government support and recognition of the work of NUS UK has diminished in recent years.
Conservative governments not supporting unions has been one of their core operating decisions since the 1980’s and is a profoundly problematic reason to disaffiliate. As British support and recognition of the conservative government in recent years we are in a position to gain even greater leverage from a potential Labor government that has been in open support for unions, and crucial in establishing the union movement.
TL:DR: The SU Presidents means ‘Conservative governments don’t like unions, therefore we a union, should leave a wider union’. With a very possible labor government we should belong to a union that is supported by the labor party.
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NUS haven’t been on campus for an extremely long time. We are very out of touch with them and do not feel valued as a union.
If the NUS have not been on campus for “an extremely long time”, then it's about time we changed that. In my conversations with the NUS they were more than willing to visit our campuses when asked. The move to facebook workplace and email threads was a deliberate result of the ongoing pandemic and a desire to cut unnecessary costs. Just as the university has adopted more Teams Meetings between lecturers and students since I have attended in 2014. Would I prefer an in person meeting, yes. Is it a valuable use of my already stretched time, no. Online is the most reasonable and responsible way to communicate in the current times. The pending visit from the NUS will be an excellent opportunity for the SU president to get the answers to the questions she has been unable to gain on her own.
TL:DR: The NUS have jumped at the opportunity to visit campus when I invited them to. Perhaps our current SU President should have extended an invitation to them rather than expecting them to visit during a time when online meetings have become the new norm.
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Other FAQs
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Why is this the chosen timing of the referendum?
The date of the investigation report, once decided, has always been the 28th of October, rather than having been pushed back several times as the SU president’s statement implies. The referendum has indeed been organized inline with the SU’s by-laws, but tabling the motion so close to the release date is a disingenuous move. If the SU president and previous SU officials have been in discussion about disaffiliation from the NUS since 2018 then why, so close to the release of the report, was now the correct time to raise the motion?
TL:DR: The timing of the referendum means voting commences 2 days after the release of the NUS report on anti-semitism, meaning that students won’t have enough time to read and digest it’s contents.
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ANDREW LEE: LEAD CAMPAIGNER FOR REMAIN
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I have been a student at Chichester University since 2014, as an Undergraduate, Postgraduate, and currently as a PhD candidate, and over that time I have always been unimpressed with the political campaigning of the UCSU. It has always seemed to me to be a glorified bar rather than an organization that is supposed to look out for and campaign on the issues concerning students. The very nature of a union is to use its collective bargaining power to create political change, alone we cannot do this, together with other universities through the wider NUS, we can.
Andrew Lee
PhD
Department of Theater