The Guild does not have a registered campaign team for the Stay in NUS UK position. Due to this, NUS UK have provided the below statement:

Vote STAY case

What is NUS? 

NUS is the national voice of students, and our sole mission is to win for students. NUS UK brings together over 400 member students’ unions across the UK to campaign as a united national student movement.

Students created SUs to build collective power on our campuses, realising that we are stronger when we work together. SUs then created NUS to harness this power nationally and direct it to the government and decision makers.  

By being members of NUS UK, Liverpool students contribute to the national student voice through feeding in your experiences and your priorities.

What does NUS campaign on?

NUS UK campaigns on the big issues impacting your time at university; from student poverty to housing, and from international students’ rights to transport.

Being a member of NUS is about working together. Together, over the past two years we’ve banned your landlord from charging more than one month’s rent up front – and that’s because over 50 campuses came together to campaign for it, including Liverpool. The more of us there are, the more impact we have.

We ensure that students are represented to government and the education sector. We run the All Party Parliamentary Group for Students, ensuring student voices are heard by MPs and decision makers.

What has NUS won for students recently? 

Over the last year and a half, we have won:

• An extra £2.5million for Liverpool students, thanks to a raise in student maintenance loans that NUS led campaigns for
• The reintroduction of maintenance grants for the poorest students
• Making it illegal for your landlord to charge you rent in advance
• Winning the reintroduction of the Erasmus+ Scheme
• Saved the Graduate Route Visa for international students
• Votes at 16 increasing electoral power for students and young people

The below statement was submitted by the Leave NUS UK Campaign Team:

Currently, Liverpool Guild spends £30,700 annually on the NUS. For that price, we deserve an organisation that stands up for students and represents our concerns without hesitation. Instead, we believe NUS UK has become financially motivated and fragmented.

NUS UK has not been serving the interests of Liverpool Guild’s membership, be it ethically, politically, or democratically. NUS’s recent track record has clearly demonstrated that it lacks the capacity to resolve these long-standing problems. Further, NUS’s failure to adequately address these problems raises concerns over whether key stakeholders in NUS UK actually want to deliver acceptable solutions.

Three reasons to vote Leave:

Cost: We believe that NUS is not worth our £30,700. Instead, we want Liverpool Guild to put this money where it matters, such as extra equipment for societies or cost-of-living initiatives for students.

Lack of action: Despite outcry from its members, NUS took nearly two years to address the genocide in Gaza. Further, we believe NUS continues to ignore calls by student organisations like FOSIS to investigate allegations of Islamophobia.

Fragmentation: NUS has been unable to convince its members to stay. Cambridge SU and LSE recently voted to leave the NUS UK. Other unions are preparing to hold referendums later this year.

The NUS is a sinking ship; let’s escape while we can! Vote Leave!