Does Warwick care about student politics?

A Boar survey of 217 Warwick students has shown that, while the majority of respondents have voted before, far fewer believe student politics makes a difference and even less have considered standing for election.

Eight out of ten students replied to say they had voted in at least one election in the past, whilst less than half thought that student politics mattered and only one in three had considered running for election in the past. In addition, only one in three students has ever attended an All Student Meeting.

The SU defines these meetings as a place where “All Warwick students have their say and debate the motions their fellow students have proposed to become SU Policy.”

More than half of students felt like the current sabbatical team don’t represent them with only one out of three believing the team had done a good job in the past year. As well as this, less than half of the students surveyed believed that student politics had the university experience a more positive one.

American exchange literature student Taylor Nolfi commented that student politics did not matter in their opinion because: “Students in the end don’t really have a say, it’s a board of directors, investors and donators.”

Females were shown to be more participatory in student politics with nearly 90% of female survey respondents having voted once, while only 80% of male respondents had.

Statistics from another recent Boar Freedom of Information request revealed that an almost equal number of female and male students voted for Warwick SU’s all white male sabbatical team last year.

Of 5,184 total voters, 50% were male, 49.4% female, and 0.6% defining as of other genders unspecified in the data.

This amounts to approximately 22% of Warwick students, and suggests that students who were relatively engaged in student politics took part in the Boar‘s survey.

Of these students, fewer males felt the sabbatical team represented them with less than half believing they did whilst over half of the females surveyed believed that the sabbatical team did in fact represent them despite the controversy of last year’s election results.

Whilst the large majority of people have voted in at least one election, the survey shows that a great number feel the current sabbatical team does not represent them and does not perform to a good standard in their elected role.