82% say YES to opening up the doors…

On Wednesday 13 November, almost 800 students’ union representatives gathered in Wolverhampton Civic Hall for an Extraordinary Conference to discuss NUS Reform.

The Conference, called by 36 unions from across the UK, met to discuss changes to the constitution aimed at making NUS an organisation fit for the 21st Century.

The proposals on the table were aimed at opening up the doors of NUS, ensuring that our members are at the forefront of leading their national organisation. The new structures will create more opportunities for involvement by students through the introduction of a new National Executive Council that will have space for almost double the numbers currently involved.

Representation

It not just about increasing numbers, though, the reforms discussed in Wolverhampton if implemented would see guaranteed representation for mature students, part-time students, and postgraduate students, as well as NUS increasing its representation for international students. In addition to this, for the first time ever, there will be seven places on the National Executive Council reserved specifically for representatives of further education students.

Other proposals included the introduction of a Trustee Board, compromised of full-time elected officers of NUS, students and lay members. The Board will focus on scrutinising the finance and administration of the organisation.

The reform package also includes creating additional volunteering opportunities through creating Zone committees which would provide scrutiny, advice and direction for NUS Vice-Presidents. The five zones, higher education, further education, welfare, union development and society and citizenship will structure NUS work more coherently and run conferences where formative policy discussions would be held. This proposed new way of working would see NUS being able to be more effective in its campaigning work as well as providing improved resources to students’ unions.

Convincing majority

There were also many amendments made to the proposals, including giving the power to call a National Ballot to students’ unions – this amendment means that to call such a ballot, 5 per cent of NUS members need to put in a request.

After a robust debate, the vote on the amended reforms passed with a convincing majority. With 614 delegates at the conference voting in favour of the proposals, and only 142 voting against, the proposals got the support of 82 per cent of the delegates on conference floor, with only a handful of individuals abstaining.

So, what happens now?

In his closing remarks to conference, National President, Wes Streeting outlined the two options going forward.

Students’ unions could either choose to call a second extraordinary conference to ratify the proposals, or wait for annual conference in the spring to complete the ratification process.

He stressed that the leadership on this should come from the membership, and that the National Executive Committee would not be taking a view on whether the members should call an extraordinary. Instead, he stressed that the choice rests in the hands of the NUS membership. In order for a further Extraordinary Conference to be called, 25 member unions would need to put in a call to trigger a further meeting.