Why should we disaffiliate from NUS UK?
Student Submission 1 - Molly Pemberton
Why should we disaffiliate from NUS UK?
3 reasons:
- It isn't value for money - we can better spend it elsewhere, directly on Hallam students.
- NUS UK is no longer a democratic organisation - it doesn't listen to its members.
- We don-t need to be part of NUS UK to make meaningful change relevant to Hallam students.
💰 Value for money?
Hallam Students' Union pays £30,000 EVERY YEAR to be a part of NUS UK. You might be wondering, what do Hallam students actually get for this money? The answer is... not a lot.
NUS UK claims national days of lobbying, regular check-ins with SUs, and help with regional campaigns. In my two years as a Hallam Students' Union Officer, I have seen a handful of disorganised and unproductive lobby days, one check-in with our team and zero support on our regional campaigns. £30,000 is a lot of money, and we aren't convinced we see the benefit.
🗳️ Democratic?
NUS UK is no longer a democratic organisation. It has refused to speak out about Palestine and has failed to acknowledge growing institutional islamophobia. Over the summer, our HSU Officers, along with over 70 Officers and 120 student groups across the country, signed an open letter calling for NUS to take a stance on the conflict in Gaza, which it failed to even acknowledge for more than 2 years. Our Officers were threatened with disciplinary action and a ban on attending all events if we did not remove our signatures from the letter.
In just the last 8 months, there has been student occupations at conference venues (which meant NUS had to deliver content from corridors) and walkouts from Officers and students at events (because they refused to say whether they were a Zionist or anti-Zionist organisation). All because their members (that's us!) feel like we are being ignored. We don-t think we should pay £30,000 to be silenced and ignored.
💪 Making change?
While the collective national student voice is extremely important, this can still be achieved without NUS UK. We have really good relationships with power holders, decision makers and other SUs in our region; and this is NOT thanks to NUS UK.
We can STILL be part of a national and regional voice. We can STILL advocate for larger student issues like maintenance loans and housing. We can STILL lobby the government via our MPs. We can STILL make meaningful change, change that is MORE relevant to Hallam students. We already do ALL of these WITHOUT the help of NUS UK.
‼️ Cambridge SU, LSE SU and Liverpool Guild have already voted to disaffiliate from NUS UK this year, Newcastle SU and, our neighbours, Sheffield SU are not far behind. 10 other SUs are joining us next week with their own NUS Disaffiliation Referenda - let's make sure Hallam is on the right side!
VOTE DISAFFILIATE!
📲 Check out our campaign on Instagram for more information at @hallam_disaffiliate.
Student Submission 2 - Megan Hastings
I believe the NUS has shown itself to be an undemocratic institution, where it has repressed the voices of many students attempting to stand in solidarity with Palestine and in its continued adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism, despite receiving an open letter from more than 190 student leaders from over 50 UK universities demanding that they rescind use of this definition, amongst other demands relating to Palestine. Instead of listening to these students, the NUS reportedly emailed the CEOs of many Student Unions threatening that if the signatures were not removed, the signatories would be banned from NUS events and face potential investigation.
These opinions are solely the views of individual Hallam students and should not be taken to represent the official position or views of Hallam Students' Union.