Every year The Students' Union at UWE sends a delegation made up of the President and 10 elected students to the National Union of Students' (NUS) National Conference. The NUS is a national organisation that campaigns on issues that affect students across the UK. It is at conference that students from across the United Kingdom from a range of Higher Education and Further Education Colleges and Universities decide what issues the NUS will campaign for and who its leaders will be for the upcoming year. The NUS is a democratic membership led organisation, which means they are run by students for students. This means all the positions that students hold are elected, they elect students during conference so UWE delegates have a direct say in who is going to represent students nationally in the next academic year.
The Students’ Union is a member of the NUS and we pay an affiliation fee in order to do this. The affiliation free is dependent on the number of students you have as a University. In return The Students’ Union gains access to a number of services that the NUS provide including training and support services and access to better deals for our commercial services (the shop and bar). We also utilise NUS during our elections as the Returning Officer and send Student Officers to training and conferences. We also get to have a say in the running of the NUS by sending students to the democratic events that happen, such as NUS Conference and NUS Liberation Conferences.
Each year we elect students in October to attend the conference and represent UWE Bristol students nationally. (Please note all expenses are paid for by The Students' Union in regards to transport, accommodation and food for the conference)
Please note: Due to a National Union of Students Policy, the delegation that UWE sends to annual conference must be at least 50% self-defining women. Therefore, once nominations close we will be asking students to self-define and using this data to process the vote.
Read the motions that UWE Bristol sent to conference:
Campaigning for a better regulated rental sector
Support SU's that are campaigning to reverse NHS Bursary Cuts
Give SU's the tools to lobby local governments to improve local public transport provision
Photo by Mikael Kristenson on Unsplash