SU stays in NUS

Any move to leave the National Union of Students is “financially unviable” for the Students’ Union, according to a report by its finance and governance officer, even though the NUS “does not provide value for money” to Warwick students.

The report by Governance and Finance Officer Andy Glyde said the affiliation, which costs the Students’ Union £47,062.45, does not justify expensive training programmes for Students’ Union officers and the slow pace of reforms in the national body.

The report said that Warwick sabbatical officers who have participated in the training programmes have called them “a waste of time” and, at an additional £200 per course, “too expensive for what they offer”.

Efforts to change the NUS’ organisation have prevented the discussion of other issues “in the depth they require” at the body’s annual conferences. While the prospects of reform this year look “promising”, Glyde said a failure to do so would lead to Warwick “seriously reconsidering” its affiliation.

But any present effort to disaffiliate from the national body would be a “knee-jerk reaction”, according to Glyde.

Such a decision would involve forgoing the savings (£36,900 in 2006-07) offered by NUS Services Ltd, a consortium through which the Union buys most of its food and drink supplies, and possibly having to pay the Students’ Union Superannuation Scheme a sum of £4 million for Warwick’s contribution to the scheme’s deficit.

The Students’ Union is already running a deficit of £720,000 this year, partly due to the heavy costs of building new premises.

Having called the NUS “bureaucratic” and “factional” before conducting the review, Glyde said the Students’ Union had to involve itself more actively in the NUS’ decision-making to extract more value out of its affiliation.

“Many [other unions] see Warwick as isolationist, snobby, elitist and even insular…. It would be expected that if Warwick were to disaffiliate that this reputation would get even worse.”

Last October, Stuart Thomson, the president of the Students’ Union, assured that, were the review to suggest withdrawal, he would put the question to a referendum.

Glyde said political infighting had diverted the NUS’ focus from how to benefit students. The confederation had “too many committees” which hampered decision making.

But last week, Glyde said that it was time for Warwick to step up to the “podium” of national student politics, and “wield its influence”.