The National Union of Students which represents 7 million students, including the University of Kent, has failed in its attempt to pass wide ranging reforms at the national conference in Blackpool.
The National Union of Students (NUS) was debating large numbers of changes which were backed by the NUS executive. The reforms, which were intended to bring the NUS more up to date internally, fell short of the two thirds majority needed to pass. The reforms were background policies that dealt with the detailed running of the NUS, but were controversial amongst some students.
A split seemed to emerge between the delegates of different political affiliations with some on the left believing the reforms were bad for the NUS as a whole. 358 people voted against the motion with 692 voting for it. 717 votes were needed for it to pass.
The new President of the NUS, Wes Streetling, said at the conference, “There are some gleeful faces but they have won a narrow hollow victory.” He campaigned for the changes and said they will eventually pass, declaring, “Every single year you boo me, I couldn’t care less. Bring it on.”
The new proposals would have changed the system so that a board, made up in part by non students, would have made some decisions, thus taking away responsibility of day to day management from the elected representatives. The reasoning being our representatives would be able to focus on issues, such as South East Weighting. The plans were long and complex, the first debate of the annual conference lasted over three days.