SU Spring Elections 2025 Interviews: Louis Gosling, President

In the run-up to the Warwick Students’ Union (SU) Spring Elections, The Boar and RAW 1251AM collaborated to offer all Full-Time Officer (FTO) candidates the opportunity to be interviewed.

Louis Gosling, current SU Vice President for Sports, joined the student news team to talk about his campaign for President, and what his leadership would bring to Warwick SU.

What are your key priorities, if you were to be elected SU President?

1. Push for more effective student engagement within the SU, as we enter year one of the new strategy.
2. Showcase and signpost our services better to ensure students feel supported.
3. Unshackle our societies and sports clubs by reducing bureaucracy.
4. Seek an ‘academic grand bargain’ by empowering our students to shape a system suited to them.

What makes you stand out from the other presidential candidates?

“I like to think I’ve been much more student-facing than any of the others this year”, Gosling said. “[SU President] is a political position, and you can’t claim to lead that organisation unless you’re really willing to be there for the students and be in the students’ eyeline.” This is something Gosling believed he has achieved in his role as VP Sports: “I think I’ve got a clear track record in it.”

“I just think there’s a real opportunity that can be unlocked if the President is really willing to be out there in front of students and willing to answer the tough questions as well. I don’t think you’re equipped to tackle the unhappiness and the disillusionment that’s at play sometimes unless you’re willing to engage in that heavy-duty way. I’ve always been happy to answer the tough questions this year.”

What is the biggest issue facing Warwick students right now, and how do you plan to tackle this?

“We all know students are pushed from a resource point of view, right?”, said Gosling, citing “time” as an extremely pressured resource for students. He mentioned the contact hour-laden schedules of STEM students, and how this can create problems when combined with sports commitments and part-time jobs.

Gosling proposed two ways to tackle the issue. First, “we can make sure that when a student really does decide to put their time into something, and whether that’s engaging with student activities, whether that’s going out, whether that’s spending time and money on a meal, […] we can make sure that they get really fantastic value from that experience.”

Returning to his point on engagement, Gosling mentioned how “sometimes so much of [the SU’s services] are behind so many closed doors”. Making things like grant schemes more evident, he suggested, can really save students the time they may otherwise spend “searching around”.

How would you help create a more inclusive and accessible SU, especially for students from marginalised groups and low-income backgrounds?

Again, Gosling stressed increased openness and transparency as a way of achieving this. He noted how some SU schemes have not been fully utilised this year, referencing for example how £1000 remained unused in the grant pot for sportswear after not enough people applied for it.

Increased publicization of the Sports Officer Bursary, he said, has resulted in the SU giving out “a record number of bursaries this year, and actually attracting between a third and a quarter more applications than ever before”. “There is excess resource available for [students from] low-income backgrounds. We just need to make sure we’re getting it to the right people.”

What makes you the correct candidate to represent Warwick SU on a national level, for example, at NUS conferences?

“I’ve got a lot of experience in it, guys, that’s for sure,” smiled Gosling. The VP Sports role, he explained, has seen him represent sports at Warwick on a national scale, attending BUCS (British Universities and Colleges Sport) events like their conference and AGM. His leadership role as Regional Student Chair of BUCS West Midlands has allowed him to access BUCS Advisory, he told The Boar and RAW, “the highest level of student engagement for BUCS”. Further experience with NUS, he felt, also shows his wide experience. “I like to think I’m pretty personable as well, and I can get points across. I’m certainly very confident in my abilities.”

How will you seek to improve transport for students, especially those living off campus? 

“I think it’s a really good point. I suffer with the Leamington buses as much as anyone.” The Better Buses Campaign has brought progress with National Express, said Gosling, but less so with Stagecoach. “One of the big steps forward we’ve had this year is that at the Education and Student Experience Committee, we got the University to buy into this. They’re very happy to support us however they can to really help us engage with Stagecoach in a much more positive way going forwards. They recognise that it’s a huge issue for students, […] and it really does impact their ability to have a fantastic degree and extracurricular experience at this university.” Gosling promised to carry on the work of his predecessors should he be elected, and to “not stop until we find a solution”.

Another issue that concerns students is the environment. How would you continue to help us to achieve sustainability goals on campus? 

“Plastic-free Pop is a motion that’s gone forward a couple of times now”, although implementing that would prove a struggle, admitted Gosling. He again stressed the need for transparency on what can and can’t be done, alongside a heightened student engagement focus to “make sure that they feel really involved in that process”.

“And otherwise just continue the fantastic work that’s already begun, and we are doing some brilliant stuff. Just keeping that momentum and that emphasis in there, I think, is really important.”

How would you approach calls for demilitarisation on campus? Would you consider working on projects such as the Ethical Assurance Framework that SU Full-Time Officers have focused on this year as a priority? 

“It has been a huge priority for the FTO team this year. Fundamentally, this is about student engagement, right? If we really interact with our students, and if this is what we’re hearing back, if this is what really matters to our student body, then absolutely it should be a priority. We help our students shape our priorities is, I think, the point that I’m really trying to drill down on. So absolutely, if our students really want us to push demilitarisation as a massive priority, then we continue to do that.”

As SU President, you would be students’ leading representative to the Vice-Chancellor. What do you think the relationship between the SU and the University should look like moving forward?

“One of the most important roles of the President is being that lead point of liaison with the University”, Gosling affirmed. “We are the figurehead of the organisation. As a result, there’s a huge responsibility there.” He stressed how “both the University and the SU are after the same goals” – giving students “a fantastic academic and extracurricular experience at this university”.

However, Gosling intended not to give the University a “carte blanche”. “We’ve got to be that really questioning, inquisitive partner, and when they do something that our student body makes clear isn’t what they want, that’s when we do stand up.” He believed he has done this during his tenure as VP Sports.

How would you continue to support the SU drive to increase the institution’s transparency?

Gosling’s concluding statement returned to his belief that students require a student-facing, transparent President. He explained how he has had to justify some decisions made by Warwick Sport. “We’ve given our presidents unprecedented access to strategy conversations and consultations this year, and we’ve done some really fantastic work in those spaces.”

“I think there should be a space where all students can put questions and expect a genuine and proper answer. And if we can’t give them a genuine and proper answer in that space, then we follow it up.” Overall, he explained, there must be a culture of transparency and accountability from the rest of the organisation. “This should be something that everyone has access to.”

This interview, along with all other interviews for Students’ Union positions, can be watched in full using the link here, courtesy of RAW 1251AM. [coming soon]

Read Louis Gosling’s manifesto here.