The National Union of Students, commonly known as NUS, is a confederate association of around 600 Students’ Unions, representing the interests of more than seven million students across higher education and further education. NUS was first founded in 1922 and has been campaigning on students’ views and social change and supporting Students’ Unions locally to do the same.

For Students’ Unions to be a member of NUS they need to ‘affiliate’, with new affiliations approved at the NUS National Conference that happens every year with representatives from all member Unions. The National Conference is also where delegates from member unions discuss campaigns, policy and elect the NUS Officer Team.

Your Students' Union is currently affiliated to NUS and pay a total of £37,500 in affiliation costs per year.

What was the referendum about?

Union Affairs, your Student Leadership, voted to hold a referendum to decide whether the Students' Union should be part of NUS-UK. The question was 'Should the Students' Union be a part of NUS-UK?' and cases were provided for both 'yes' and 'no. 

What were the results?

In order for a referendum to be quorate (a valid vote), 5% of the student population need to vote. At the time of the vote, quoaracy was 1,700.

Voting was open for 48 hours from midday on Monday 30th May to midday on Wednesday 1st June. A total of 127 individuals voted in the referendum meaning the vote was not quorate (valid). The breakdown of those 127 votes was:

• YES: 94 votes (74%)
• NO: 33 votes (26%)

What happens next?

As the vote was not quorate, the current relationship with NUS-UK shall remain. This means that your Students' Union will remain an affilate member of NUS-UK.

Should you have any questions about this result, or the topics covered, please email elections.su@coventry.ac.uk.