All Student Vote (Autumn 2026)

Warwick SU to disaffiliate from NUS due to threats to student leaders, inaction on Palestine, and a lack of democracy

This motion proposes that the SU disaffiliate from the National Union of Students (NUS UK), citing reasons like their silence on global events, limited voting power due to governance changes in NUS, and threats to student leaders. 

This Union Notes:

1. Warwick SU pays £30,000 to NUS UK a year for membership.
2. NUS has stayed almost silent on Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, and has never spoken out publicly against repression against protest on campuses.
3. 3 of the 25/26 FTO team, alongside 180 other Officers and student groups around the country, are signatories to the #NotMyNUS letter, urging NUS to take meaningful action on Palestine1.
4. Upon receipt of this letter, NUS imposed a de facto ban on all signatories from their Lead and Change conference rather than engaging in any dialogue2.
5. NUS has recently drastically changed its democratic structures regarding NUS Reps: eliminating the requirement for a gender balance, cutting the number of reps, and removing the requirement for them to be directly elected3.
6. Warwick now has 4 NUS reps, for almost 30,000 students3.
7. Warwick SU (through its reps) has the same voting power as, for example, any two colleges combined, each with fewer than 100 students3.
8. The Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) has said in a statement that NUS has failed to address its “institutional islamophobia”4.
9. At least 8 SUs, including Manchester, LSE, and Liverpool have disaffiliated from NUS UK in the last 18 months, with 14 referenda called so far, and many more in motion around the country5.
10. NUS UK and NUS Charity are separate bodies, and that it is NUS UK which is responsible for political and democratic leadership. NUS Charity provides advice, procurement, and services for member SUs6. NUS in this motion, refers to NUS UK only.

This Union Believes:

1. NUS is ultimately ineffective as a national campaigning body, and that it celebrating a 6% interest rate cap on student loan repayments as a “win” is insulting7.
2. NUS’s position, or lack of one, on Palestine, has sold out students campaigning for divestment and for justice.
3. NUS has betrayed its history of fighting against South African apartheid by refusing to act during a genocide and against an apartheid state.
4. The threats to Warwick SU’s democratically elected student officers were unacceptable.
5. Warwick SU condemns in the strongest possible terms NUS’s actions, including but not limited to, the de facto banning of some of Warwick’s FTOs from Lead and Change and threatening them with NUS disciplinary action over a ‘heart emoji’ reaction to a message. Additionally, NUS’s decision to not communicate to the SU Officers directly, and instead utilise their respective CEOs, demonstrates the contempt NUS has for student leaders2.
6. Due to NUS’s lack of internal democracy, including no votes at the most recent NUS England conference, and the inherently anti-democratic nature of its new electoral college-style rep system, it is impossible to reform NUS from the inside. NUS’s ‘democracy’ is now so farcical and decided by such a narrow selection of students, that the NUS Wales President had to be decided on a coin flip8i.
7. Officers and students have other avenues in which to lobby nationally and connect, including directly lobbying Warwick’s local MPs, writing to Ministers, Russell Group SUs, and Warwick’s own, highly successful Liberation Conference.
8. Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism, and is a legitimate philosophical belief, protected by Section 10 of the Equality Act 20109.

This Union Resolves:

1. To immediately begin the process to disaffiliate from NUS UK.
2. For the President to write to the NUS UK Board to notify them of the disaffiliation result and the above rationale.
3. For the Board of Trustees to consider, retaining an absolute right to decline, for the money saved by leaving NUS UK to be spent on continuing to host the National Liberation Conference, to promote national collaboration and campaigning between students and sabbatical officers from across the country. The Board should also consider that the rest to be put aside to either, partly or in full, as the Board of Trustees sees fit:

1. Pay Warwick SU student staff the Real Living Wage, as set out in SU Policy 166
2. Pay Warwick SU’s Part-Time Officers for their work
3. Hire more, or give more hours to, the SU Campaign Assistants

Sources

1. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1okG6sJf1vHGMsH0SWXB7y0NldDOwFV_8-RakuJxopgY/edit?usp=sharing
2. https://theboar.org/2025/08/nus-threatens-action-against-pro-palestine-open-letter-signatories-including-warwick-su-officers/
3. https://assets.nationbuilder.com/nus/pages/12244/attachments/original/1758015488/NUS_England_Rep_Numbers_v3.pdf?1758015488
4. https://web.archive.org/web/20260316055047/https://fosis.org.uk/news/nus-failure-towards-addressing-institutional-islamophobia/
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_students%27_unions_in_the_United_Kingdom_not_affiliated_with_the_NUS
6. https://www.nusconnect.org.uk/resources/finance-committee-recruitment-pack-2025/download_attachment
7. https://www.instagram.com/nus_uk/p/DW1DnWaDQkd/
8. https://www.instagram.com/p/DWXNMqqCPqs/?img_index=3&igsh=MThpMGZ4Njk0Z2I2dg==
9. https://www.irwinmitchell.com/news-and-insights/expert-comment/post/102j1vy/anti-zionist-beliefs-are-protected-under-the-equality-act-2010