If you were to ask a student at GCU what NUS is, the chances are they would reply that they didn’t know. Maybe, if you’re lucky, they might be able to quote a discount card available for purchase from the Students’ Association.
In reality, NUS (more formally known as the National Union of Students) is, in fact, a nationwide federation of around 600 student unions across the UK. This is a widespread movement that GCU pays a sizeable annual fee for the privilege of being a member union.
So what does GCU get in return for its sizeable membership fee?
For the past 10 months, the national UK head-branch has cast a dire shadow over student politics with more drama than your regular soap omnibus.
In April 2016, NUS UK elected Malia Bouattia as President, beating incumbent Megan Dunn in the vote. Ms Bouattia has been the source of widespread criticism ever since with allegations of anti-Semitism, one such instance that raised concern was when Ms Bouattia referred to Birmingham University as a “Zionist outpost”. This and other comments have sparked major condemnation from Jewish societies across the UK including the Union of Jewish Students.
In December 2016, Ms Bouattia even received mention in an official report published by the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee. The report states that states that Ms Bouattia “does not take sufficiently seriously the issue of anti-Semitism on campus, and has responded to Jewish students concerns about her previous language with defensiveness and an apparent unwillingness to listen to their concerns”, it went on to say that Ms Bouattia showed “a worrying disregard for her duty to represent all sections of the student population”.
The EDIT has reached out to NUS and Ms Bouattia for comment, but both have declined to respond.
Since the election of President Ms Bouattia, 16 student unions have held in/out NUS affiliation referendums, with 4 voting to leave NUS. In recent history, GCU has never held a student referendum over whether the university should be affiliated to NUS. Continued affiliation currently is ratified by Student Voice, the student democratic panel which only invites between 45-50 students for each meeting, only 19 voted on this during the affiliations paper in the October 2016 Student Voice meeting. That means that this academic year 19 out of potentially 16,000 students decided over NUS affiliation. When asked, the Students’ Association confirmed that in the past decade the question has never been put to the entire student body with this being during only the known history of the Students’ Association. In fact, this means it could have been even longer since students were truly asked over whether or not we should continue to be a member of the National Union of Students.
To make matters worse; in January 2017, a reporter for Al Jazeera caught one of Malia’s work colleagues and fellow elected Vice President of Union Development Richard Brooks, in an undercover sting offering to help oust the NUS UK President.
So I hear you asking, why should we as GCU students be concerned about the in-fighting and public battles between factions at the UK branch?
Put simply your student-lead organization is paying large fees to be a part of NUS and NUS is supposed to represent the views of all of its member unions. The GCU Students’ Association is the organization that exists to represent and enable GCU students to enhance all aspects of their student experience. Annually, the Students’ Association pays an affiliation fee to the NUS for continued membership, meaning that theoretically NUS is paid to represent GCU students as a collective with the 600 other student unions. Furthermore, in 2015/16 this affiliation fee stood at £32,121. This is over double the cost of NUS membership 7 years prior as in 2009 the Students’ Association paid £14,123 to be affiliated. The cost doesn’t stop there, as the Association also sets an annual conference budget of around £2,400 to get delegates to attend (albeit the UK conference in 2016 was a fair trek to Brighton).
The university last year launched their mantra and strategy slogan “for the common good”, an ethos to look to the social good within GCU alumni and students, surely then the university would condemn the antics of NUS UK? The EDIT asked the university for the common good as well as the GCU Students’ Association for a statement regarding the ongoing problems at NUS. The university declined to comment on the issue and referred it directly to the Students’ Association who declined to take a stance. Furthermore, we asked the Students’ Association for comment regarding the cost of NUS; the Association has not released a statement regarding this.
With no statement coming from either the university or the Students’ Association and no true consultation with students over membership, who truly answers the questions of whether NUS represents us as GCU students and whether we want to continue as a member union?
