NUS Delegates Report

From the 17th to the 18th of April, the National Union of Students (NUS) held their annual National Conference in Blackpool, in which four elected delegates from the university attended, Roselle Silveira, myself, the current Community and Wellbeing Officer and the previous Students’ Union President, Archie Robinson, and the Liberation Officer, Jade Thomas. This report will walk you through what happened before the conference, what took place during it, and what the role of an NUS delegate is. 

What happens before conference?

While the University of Leicester Students’ Union represents all students at the university, the NUS represents all students nationally. Each year, NUS holds a National Conference, in which all their affiliated students’ unions send delegates to vote on policy to decide NUS’s direction. Policy is chosen via a priority ballot, where delegates vote to decide the top priorities to debate. Each student's union is allowed to put forward one motion into the priority ballot.  

For the conference, I decided to write a policy titled ‘Campaign for International Student Equality’ that called for an end to the hostile environment facing international students in the UK, such as the commercialisation of visas and new restrictions on family visas. The policy was agreed on by all University of Leicester delegates, put forward by the Students’ Union, and then made into a proper policy proposal by the NUS. The policy passed the priority ballot, securing its debate at conference.

In full, three policies were passed on the priority ballot, and two others were passed by the NUS themselves as reserved policies that they decided to bring to conference.

You can find the policies brought to the conference below: 

· For our Future: Reform to NUS Democracy and organising (reserved) 

· Increased FE representation in NUS so that challenges faced are better recognised and   addressed(reserved) 

· Solidarity with the people of Palestine and preserving the student movement

 · Funding, Food & Shelter: Defending Students’ Right to Basic Human Rights

· Campaign for International Student Equality  

NUS is run primarily by its elected officer team and if you are an elected delegate when their two-year terms are ending, you are given a vote in deciding the next team of officers. As a university delegate, such as the National President or the Vice-President of Higher Education. With NUS running a series of hustings and having statements for each written candidate to help delegates decide who would be best to represent students nationally for the next two years. The results are then announced in the week leading to conference. 

What happened during conference?

NUS Conference serves a variety of functions. Educating new delegates on how NUS works, updating the student movement on the progress and achievements of NUS throughout the year, providing training for delegates, such as how to begin a voter registration campaign and allowing NUS to be held accountable by delegates. However, the primary purpose of conference is to pass policy for NUS to adopt. 

Throughout NUS Conference, each motion is debated, with the opportunity for amendments from delegates. Amendments are proposed during the policy discussions on the first day and are then collected by NUS’s democratic procedures committee and written into a final policy to be discussed and voted on the second day. I personally attended as many policy sessions as I could to contribute to discussions and propose amendments. The sessions I attended were: Reforming the NUS, Solidarity with Palestine, and International Student Equality. Overall, I voted in favour of every motion and almost all amendments. After conference ended, it was announced that each motion and amendment were passed by a majority of delegates.

After each policy is passed by NUS, it then becomes the duty of NUS to enact it as best they can. However, it has only been a couple of months since the last conference, so I have little idea how much NUS has done so far in enacting each policy. However, the fact that delegates get so much say in NUS shows the importance of being a delegate in ensuring that NUS stays laser-focused on student priorities. Some areas of policy should be easy to implement, such as the Palestine motion, which requires NUS to release a public statement, while the Funding and Food motion is much harder, as it requires changes in the law, which NUS has to lobby for. 

Additionally, at conference each delegate is allowed to vote for NUS’s democratic procedures committee and national scrutiny committee. Although scrutiny is soon to be abolished, being replaced with something else with the passing of the NUS reform motion. Being a delegate gives you the opportunity to propose NUS policy. So, if you have an idea that you think is important for NUS to support, you can make it into a policy to pass at conference.

The role of an NUS delegate

At conference itself, the main thing a delegate does is discuss policy, student issues, and network with other students as well as fulfilling any promises they made during their election. As to become an NUS delegate, you need to be elected by students. In my case, when I was elected, I was elected on a series of pledges, which I can say I fully achieved.

1) Tackling antisemitism at the NUS: Ensuring the full recommendations of the NUS report on antisemitism are implemented.

Although there were issues of individual antisemitism at conference, broadly as an organisation, the NUS appears to be making good progress on implementing many of the actions recommended in its antisemitism action plan, such as improving the training for staff, or the vetting process for officers. There is more work that needs to be done, but the NUS looks to be moving in the right direction. This is why I voted to approve of the NUS’ annual reports, which included its actions against antisemitism.

2) Ensure that the NUS represents students by ensuring it passes motions that address the cost-of-living crisis, such as the cost of accommodation.

At conference I voted for the Funding, Food and Shelter motion, which, among other things, called for the NUS to push for enshrining a right to food into law and rent caps for student accommodations to alleviate the cost-of-living crisis.

3) Closing the feedback loop: If you elect us, we will write a full report on how the NUS went and what I did.

This one is self-evident.

4) Making the NUS work for students: To ensure that the NUS do more to get involved in student movements across the UK.

Historically, few students vote in the NUS delegate elections, or get involved with the NUS, as the NUS has little presence outside of conference and occasional contact with Students’ Unions. This is one of the reasons I supported the Reform to NUS Democracy and organising motion: this would create the role of NUS representatives within Students’ Unions. The purpose of these is to replace delegates and ensure that the NUS is represented on campuses all year round, which is an important step to ensuring the NUS has more of a presence in the communities it is supposed to represent.

5) To support international and queer students to ensure they are not left behind in the NUS’ policy-making processes.

Although nothing on queer students made it through the priority ballot, I drafted and voted for the International Student motion, as previously stated, to ensure that the NUS takes a stronger stance in standing up for international students, which it has often failed to do in the past.

Concluding thoughts 

Like any conference, it was poorly organised at times, but at the very least, I can say that the conference passed lots of great policies, and I did my job as a delegate by fulfilling my manifesto pledges. It will be interesting to watch how the NUS changes with the passing of the Reform motion, which will hopefully, in the long term, make the NUS a far more representative and engaged organisation in student communities.