SU Spring Elections 2026 Interviews: Ilyan Benamor, President

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

Ilyan Benamor joined the News team to discuss his campaign for SU President, reflecting on his background, priorities, and how he believes the Union can better represent Warwick students.

Why did you decide to run for this position? And what makes you stand out from the other candidates?

“The main reason I wanted to run for this position”, began Benamor, “was because I felt people like me were very underrepresented.” He outlined how this refers not only to his current status as an undergraduate but also to his challenging upbringing in Newham, East London.

“The place where I come from, it’s not a very nice place. I didn’t grow up with a lot of money. I grew up as a young carer, and I felt as if people that came from my sort of background were quite often ignored at university. I just felt as if I didn’t really hear people that sounded like me, that represented me in these sorts of elections.”

He added that many students in his friend circles feel disconnected from the SU, and “had no clue about the elections and didn’t really understand what it did in the first place.”

What are your key manifesto pledges?

Benamor’s campaign is centred around five key pledges addressing practical issues affecting students.

“First of all, it’s to fix the buses, which is quite a popular pledge.”

“Stagecoach has continuously let us down for years and years”, he said, citing data from a 2024 Boar survey in which 58.5% of students claimed that the buses negatively impacted their attendance. “If you live in Leamington, that goes up to 81%”, he added.

Benamor’s next priority is “to fix a very broken guarantorship model”, whose affordability requirements he believes too often cannot be met, particularly for international students.

He also wants to help students through the still-ongoing cost-of-living crisis – noting the potential benefits of a “one-time cost-of-living payment”– and to increase renters’ rights.

Benamor said his final priority is financial transparency within the SU: “I want to make sure that every student knows where [the Union’s budget] is being spent.”

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

“I don’t think it’s fair to only put it to one issue”, Benamor clarified, but highlighted the rising cost of living as a major concern.”

He pointed to cost for transport – in particular, bus passes – and accommodation as examples of the “outrageous” pressures students face.

“It’s very hard not only to eat healthy, but to go to university every day, and just live in general.”

The SU has to work closely with the University throughout the year, and if you were elected President you would be the face of the student voice in communication with the University. What sort of relationship would you want to foster between the SU and the University?

“One thing I want to ensure is that we are a union”, Benamor affirmed. “We’re a union of nearly 30,000 members, and I think we need to make that a little clearer.

“When we took all our candidate photos, we went to the Kevin Gately room, and I think Kevin Gately signifies something important, in that students have a voice. If you look at the numbers, as a union, we’re really up there – so I think we need to act more like that and stand up for more students.”

You have touched on the cost-of-living crisis and how you’d like to tackle it as one of your pledges. What specific things would you do as SU President to support students who feel priced out of university life or who are struggling financially?

Benamor said that “there are various different ways we can help students”, but suggested that there should be “more hardship micro-grants” in addition to the bursaries he and many others already receive.

“A one-time cost-of-living payment could go so far”, he added.

“Sometimes it’s needing groceries, sometimes it’s needing a little more to top up their rent. So ideally it would be a financial thing for me.”

How will you work to make the SU more sustainable and hold the University accountable to  its net-zero targets?

Benamor was enthusiastic about the current SU drive for sustainability, but referenced improving the buses as a step he would look to take.

“Making them more reliable will make less people want to use cars because it will just be a financially ridiculous option.”

Looking back to his aim to make the SU “a union”, he said he would really push this point” in every meeting on bus services. “We have to tell them whether they’re meeting their targets or not.”

You have already alluded to  my next question with your citing of Boar statistics, but how would you go about seeking to improve transport for students, especially for those living off campus?

“There’s a few things that I’ve quite extensively put in my manifesto, but the main thing is we need to go into meetings and do more than just make ‘little progress’” – here he quoted the words of SU Full-Time Officers following a  meeting with Stagecoach in November. “I think that was quite poor”, he added.

“I’m sure they’re doing the most they can, but I think we need to really have more productive meetings. In my opinion, we need to ensure that they have double-deckers during peak times, that all their buses are properly GPS live-tracked, and I think we need to reinstate the idea that if Stagecoach doesn’t want to listen to us, doesn’t want to perform, we have to look at alternative options – even if it’s switching to a  different supplier or making our own shuttle.”

One of The Boar’s biggest stories this academic year was how more than 600 freshers were placed off campus after the University ‘ran’ out of rooms for those first-year students. What do you think the SU could do to support these students, and any students who may be affected in the coming academic year?

“First of all, I found that to be genuinely a scandal. It’s pathetic how many students were just uprooted out of a very imperative part of being at Warwick.

“I want to ensure that this never happens again. I also want to do more than what the current SU did. Asking students how they feel is not enough – I want to support these students.”

“We need to understand that if this were to happen again, students need to be provided with some form of compensation – whether its bus passes or cheaper rent, something needs to be done. We have a severe issue with students at university being lonely as it is, and this could have severely impacted their social and mental health.”

This interview, along with all other interviews for Full-Time Officer positions, can be watched in full using the link here.

You can also view a list of all candidates and their manifestos here.