Leicester is remaining in the NUS

Leicester has decided to stay in the NUS.

The results show that a total of 1206 cast a ballot with 826 voting to stay and 374 voting to leave and six votes spoilt.

Dissatisfaction over the NUS at Leicester had resulted in the petition titled “We, the undersigned, hereby call on Leicester University Students Union to hold a referendum on its membership of the National Union of Students (NUS)”, with 227 members signing it.

In 2016, we have already seen the student unions of Lincoln, Newcastle, Hull and Loughborough disaffiliate themselves with the NUS.

But rather than follow them, Leicester overwhelmingly voted to remain.

On the result, Leicester SU President Rachel Holland said: “I’m really pleased that Leicester Students’ Union has voted to stay in the National Union of Students. I hope that this is the start of a bigger conversation about how we as a Union engage with NUS, and how we ensure that NUS works best for students.

“I’d like to congratulate the leave campaign, who ensured that this was a debate we had on campus, but by voting to remain Leicester stays part of these conversations, stays part of a collective, and stays fighting nationally for the interests of students.”

The NUS has recently taken a lot of criticism after complaints that President Malia Bouattia had made anti-semitic remarks when she referred to Birmingham University as “something of a Zionist outpost in British higher education.”

The open letter which followed suggested that many Jewish Students have not felt safe participating in the national student movement because of the actions and rhetoric of leadership of the NUS.