A Short History of the The National Union of Students (NUS)

A Short History of the The National Union of Students (NUS)

The National Union of Students was founded in 1922 by members of the University of Birmingham, Imperial College, Kings College, and the University of Bristol unions of the time. Since then the organisation has grown to mean something to nearly every UK university student, positive or negative. However, despite its criticisms, in recent years the NUS has struggled through some adversity and now boasts in excess of 700 member universities.
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nThe first president of the NUS was Ivison Macadam from Kings College London. Macadam was also director-general of the Royal Institute of International Affairs for a time and awarded an OBE at the age of just 25.
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nThe organisation grew for several decades on and into the sixties when it was considered increasingly radical. This culminated in the election of a new president, Jack Straw, whose liberal views had since caused controversy at Leeds University. After three attempts Straw was elected in 1969. Afterwards he became a political advisor (with further controversies), and he would move into politics properly himself in 1987 becoming Home Secretary in Tony Blair’s New Labour government in 1997.
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nIronically, it would be over the next decade that the union would come under its most high profile criticism. In 2002, Sen Ganesh, president of Imperial College Union (who, themselves, had fallen in and out of affiliation with the organisation several times over the last century) accused the NUS of being “dominated by Labour students…this diminishes the ability to address student issues in an impartial fashion”.
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nThis criticism was exemplified by other calls made to finally democratise the way in which presidents etc are elected, as the decisions of those in the highest positions of the organisation were not necessarily representing the majority opinion of national students, but instead were speaking for a select few. This structure is considered by many to be less fair than that of most individual university unions.
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nDespite this, the NUS has caused some significant ethical developments amongst its member universities. One example is the Fairtrade NUS Campaign, which called for 100 per cent of hot drinks sold to be sourced from sustainable fairly paid sources. However, countering this again are those who criticise the NUS focus on discount cards (which offer cheaper meals at McDonalds) instead of dealing with important issues. In recent years, financial problems have meant that the ‘NUS extra’ discount card now costs £10.
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nThe current president of the NUS is Wes Streeting, who The Guardian considers will “fight to modernise the union”.
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Posted Date: 2009-01-24 02:13:27