Last week we became aware of a group of students at Royal Holloway who are keen for a similar referendum on our campus. We understand this is an issue many students care passionately about, and indeed it would be disingenuous to suggest we ourselves do not hold strong opinions on the subject – on both sides of the debate. Read our position on this now.
Over the past month, a number of universities and students’ unions across the UK have been discussing the issue of their affiliation and membership of the National Union of Students (NUS). This has been covered in the national media, linked largely to the election of the new national president at conference in April.
Last week we became aware of a group of students at Royal Holloway who are keen for a similar referendum on our campus. We understand this is an issue many students care passionately about, and indeed it would be disingenuous to suggest we ourselves do not hold strong opinions on the subject – on both sides of the debate.
However, this debate is extremely complex. Not many students will be aware, but NUS membership also gives us access to something called a purchasing consortium – supporting us to run our bars, catering outlets and the campus shop. This consortium gives us access to products at lower prices than if we were buying just for ourselves. It also handles the administration of ordering and invoicing – which we would have to take on ourselves if we chose to disaffiliate. Students would also be unable to buy an NUS Extra card and get the discounts it provides.
We are currently doing some work regarding the financial implication of disaffiliating, which will take place over the summer, but some rough calculations show we’d be in the region of £70k worse off if we voted to leave. We would also have to hire a number of additional administrative staff in our venues/bar/shop – money that would have to come from somewhere.
NUS Affiliation Fee: -£40k
NUS Extra Income: + £12k
Purchasing Consortium: + £100k
To give you an idea, this equates to something like half of the total budget for clubs and societies, the entire budget of what we spend on our advice centre or five times the cost of running the website. The numbers really could have an impact on the services we are able to provide students.
As we say though, the debate is complex, and there are certainly other areas where a decision like this will impact on students – both positively and negatively. Given this, we think it’s incredibly important for the discussion on NUS membership to take place at a time where as many students as possible can get involved in the debate. The final week of term is not this time, where students are celebrating the end of exams, and indeed we are preparing for approximately 1/3rd of the Students’ Union membership to change.
It is also the case that any decision regarding affiliation/disaffiliation would not take effect until 31 December 2016, no matter when the vote is held.
Given this, as both outgoing and incoming sabbatical officers, we are committed to looking into the issue, and indeed to running a debate and referendum on the topic next term. This way a decision of this size can get the debate and time it requires, rather than rushing into something that will have such enormous consequences for our students.
Sabbatical Officer Team 2015/16
Sabbatical Officer Team 2016/17