Firstly… what is the NUS?
The National Union of Students (NUS) is an organisation that represents university and college students across the UK to enable change nationally to improve the student experience. They believe that education should be accessible and enjoyable for all and collectively we work with them to make this possible for students at BNU.
How does an NUS Delegate fit into this national work?
We pay an annual membership fee to the NUS to make sure that we are supported every year when it comes to national campaigns and can access support to enable us to create change within the University.
Each year the NUS hosts a national conference which is an opportunity for delegates from each Students’ Union within NUS (around 400) to network, consider reports made by the National and State officers, discuss policy changes to improve the student experience across the United Kingdom and elect in the officers for the next two years who will lead the NUS – similarly to how our Sabbatical Officers lead Bucks Students’ Union.
Vytautas (Vy) Kravcenka (recent NUS delegate, School Officer for Creative and Digital Industries 2022-23) told us why he ran to be an NUS Delegate the last two years:
“My journey at university started during COVID times, as you can imagine the university tried to keep everyone safe, which meant that over 80% of my first year was online only. This was a hard time as a student and young person, as it felt that I was wasting precious time on nothing. Since I was determined to stay at this university, I knew that the moment I can get involved with the university or Students’ Union in any way I would take it. And this is exactly what happened! The next year, all rules to do with Covid have been lifted and I started hunting for roles in the Students’ Union such as committee member for multiple societies, chair for the Societies Council, involvement with international students’ conferences and many others.
As part of my many student roles in the Students’ Union, I got to work with the representation team. It started with me going to the National Union of Students (NUS) conference as an NUS delegate representing the university and bringing back knowledge from the national level. This is a 2-day conference where you can meet students from all over the country, making this one of the biggest networking events between students, and you also get to vote on national campaign policies, leaving quite a big impact this way. I got to participate in this event as an NUS delegate twice. Both times I found it fascinating that our Students’ Union is part of this big organization that brings students from all around the country. It was a very interesting experience, I got to talk to many university’s Sabbatical Officers (Presidents and/or Vice-Presidents of the Students’ Union in their university), staff members of NUS (who bring this whole event together and later work on the voted policies), and I got to know my university delegates a little more in a little less formal atmosphere.
Being an NUS delegate is a very interesting and unique opportunity, not only that but thanks to the Students’ Union's Big Deal, it was completely free. It is something I would recommend for anyone curious about involvement in student representation both in the university and outside on a national level. If you are interested in any opportunities like this one feel free to contact Bucks Students’ Union via email or go directly to the office as they have an open-door policy for all students from BNU.”
If you are interested in standing in the election to become an NUS Delegate next year, please email surepresentation@bnu.ac.uk for more information or head over to our NUS Delegate election page now.