Stirling joins nationwide campaign to leave NUS

A group which supports Stirling University to withdraw its membership of NUS has launched this week.

The group, No to the NUS, claims that since its creation in 1922 the NUS prided itself on representing student voices across the UK, but it feels NUS no longer does this and feels that the organisation is now used as a “glorified soapbox” for its executives.

No to the NUS draws inspiration from the non-affiliation to the NUS of other Scottish universities such as Dundee, Glasgow and St Andrews, who don’t seem to do too badly for themselves. No to the NUS also highlights the savings these universities make with non-affiliation, money which can be spent elsewhere.

In order to remove itself from the NUS, the group is advocating that Stirling Union holds a referendum in order that Stirling students’ voices can be heard and represented, which they have not been for the last 18 years, the group argues.

The campaign sees Stirling joining forces with other universities across the UK in a coalition of student voices which includes Oxford, Cambridge and Durham amongst a number of other universities. A coalition which has already seen success as the student unions in Hull and Newcastle have passed motions this week to hold a referendum on the issue.

This comes only a week after the election of new NUS president Malia Bouattia who it was revealed had published an article describing her university, Birmingham (a university who have also joined the campaign), as a “Zionist outpost”. Bouattia also told Channel 4 how she was comfortable being called anti-Zionist