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Frances
Not quite free... £1. 
That sounds about right.
If you were at a FE College then odds are the college SU was an institutional member of NUS. You would have then paid £1, which is the same as the NUS affiliation fee.
When you scale that up to HE institutions with large numbers of students, say 24,000 students at Manchester or Birmingham that is a large amount of money going from the SU to NUS.
dave134
That sounds about right.
If you were at a FE College then odds are the college SU was an institutional member of NUS. You would have then paid £1, which is the same as the NUS affiliation fee.
When you scale that up to HE institutions with large numbers of students, say 24,000 students at Manchester or Birmingham that is a large amount of money going from the SU to NUS.
If you were at a FE College then odds are the college SU was an institutional member of NUS. You would have then paid £1, which is the same as the NUS affiliation fee.
When you scale that up to HE institutions with large numbers of students, say 24,000 students at Manchester or Birmingham that is a large amount of money going from the SU to NUS.
Yeah, I was at a sixth from college, and we were a part of the NUS. We even got the current NUS president come to inspect us to make sure we were doing things right, before she was president though.
did noone have a connexions card? they were free and I got more stuff with that than my mates who had the NUS. I got a free manicure and haircut, free trainers and loadsa other stuff, just for goin to school. Brill.
Oh yeah! I had one of them 'n all. I don't think I actually went into school enough to make it worth it though. 
you got all that on the connexions card?!!!? well thats nice we got them this year and i didn't find it as good as the NUS card we had the year before, plus the pictures they took ended up being your face in bright yellow, well i looked like i'd stepped right out of the simpsons! and your head if you were lucky would be just bordering the space for your picture! still worked though
angel18
you got all that on the connexions card?!!!? well thats nice we got them this year and i didn't find it as good as the NUS card we had the year before, plus the pictures they took ended up being your face in bright yellow, well i looked like i'd stepped right out of the simpsons! and your head if you were lucky would be just bordering the space for your picture! still worked though
Blue hair as well?
I had my hair dyed peroxide blond the night before those photos. 24 hours later and it would have been double decker red. That would have been so cool ... what a shame!
Lydiamonds
did noone have a connexions card? they were free and I got more stuff with that than my mates who had the NUS. I got a free manicure and haircut, free trainers and loadsa other stuff, just for goin to school. Brill.
But Hmv and topman wont give you a discount with a connexsions (?) card
No, admittedly u get discounts in some shops, but I got it at my cineworld which was gr8!
I know u do with ur NUS card, but i got my connexions card free and got gifts and stuff, and it was a better option in 6th form!
Lydiamonds
How and wen do we get an NUS card?
If you are going to Durham, you can pick one up from the DSU stall at the Freshers' Fair, then register it online. You can then use it alongside your campus card, which serves as your library card, meal card etc, which you get when you register (wed-fri of Freshers' Week) to get discounts in cinemas, shops etc. (Top Shop, Shuch, Miss Selfridge, HMV, Dorothy Perkins, Etam, Pizza Hut, Bella Pasta, Burger King and many others...)
Pencil Queen
NUS is good for Universities, and I think it would be very difficult for you to argue otherwise. How else are we to be represented? Factionalism caused by no2nus will just undermine the student voice. Plus the website is factually inacurate.
"We think it's time to leave, some universities already have. Look at Glasgow, Edinburgh, UMIST, Imperial College London, the list goes on; for the first time in years they are finding they can make a real difference on national and local student issues on which NUS have failed."
Actually the reason that UMIST haven't joined is because they can't afford to. They are broke and can't afford the affiliation fees, yet have been desperate to join for some time, and will do next year when they merge with Manchester University.
"t isn't the NUS logo on your union card that makes you a student. That means your student discounts are protected by law."
Actually this isn't true...many shops offer NUS discount, not student discount, and I know for a fact that you need an NUS card, not a Durham, or UMIST or any other Campus Card to get discounts in many shops in Manchester, including HMV, Pizza Hut, and Top Shop.
"The top-selling student drink is Stella Artois. But NUS doesn't deal with Whitbread, so student unions can't sell it."
In Durham all the college bars sell Stella. I'm not sure about Kingsgate, but I think they may do as well.
So no to no2nus!
AveHan
NUS is good for Universities, and I think it would be very difficult for you to argue otherwise. How else are we to be represented? Factionalism caused by no2nus will just undermine the student voice. Plus the website is factually inacurate.
"We think it's time to leave, some universities already have. Look at Glasgow, Edinburgh, UMIST, Imperial College London, the list goes on; for the first time in years they are finding they can make a real difference on national and local student issues on which NUS have failed."
Actually the reason that UMIST haven't joined is because they can't afford to. They are broke and can't afford the affiliation fees, yet have been desperate to join for some time, and will do next year when they merge with Manchester University.
"t isn't the NUS logo on your union card that makes you a student. That means your student discounts are protected by law."
Actually this isn't true...many shops offer NUS discount, not student discount, and I know for a fact that you need an NUS card, not a Durham, or UMIST or any other Campus Card to get discounts in many shops in Manchester, including HMV, Pizza Hut, and Top Shop.
"The top-selling student drink is Stella Artois. But NUS doesn't deal with Whitbread, so student unions can't sell it."
In Durham all the college bars sell Stella. I'm not sure about Kingsgate, but I think they may do as well.
So no to no2nus!
"We think it's time to leave, some universities already have. Look at Glasgow, Edinburgh, UMIST, Imperial College London, the list goes on; for the first time in years they are finding they can make a real difference on national and local student issues on which NUS have failed."
Actually the reason that UMIST haven't joined is because they can't afford to. They are broke and can't afford the affiliation fees, yet have been desperate to join for some time, and will do next year when they merge with Manchester University.
"t isn't the NUS logo on your union card that makes you a student. That means your student discounts are protected by law."
Actually this isn't true...many shops offer NUS discount, not student discount, and I know for a fact that you need an NUS card, not a Durham, or UMIST or any other Campus Card to get discounts in many shops in Manchester, including HMV, Pizza Hut, and Top Shop.
"The top-selling student drink is Stella Artois. But NUS doesn't deal with Whitbread, so student unions can't sell it."
In Durham all the college bars sell Stella. I'm not sure about Kingsgate, but I think they may do as well.
So no to no2nus!
At the risk of starting a massive argument, I have to say I disagree over NUS. National Representation is a good thing, but NUS is a poor example. Taking figures from the 2003-2004 Compostition fee budget, it clearly shows budgeted expenditure of just under £12.5K. That is over 10% of the composition fee income going out to NUS.
When any one product/service etc is such a large cost, then it is important to ensure that we recieve value for money.
Currently DSU is kept in NUS, due to the deal on beer we recieve through NUS Services Limited (NUSSL) but such a deal is only vital if there is no competition. A couple of years ago there was investigation into finding an alternative purchasing consortium. The figures produced from the investigation lent themselves to moving to the alternative purchasing group, but the then NUS National Treasurer, Dervish Mertcan, cut our affiliation fee in both real terms, and as a short term loan. This had the effect of binding us into NUS until the loan is repayed.
Dervish ran for National President at the following NUS Annual Conference, but was defeated by the re-election of Mandy Telford. He made deals, such as the one with Durham in a cynical attempt to buy votes at conference, but in doing so has scuppered NUS's finances. It is that type of politics that marrs any organisation like NUS.
St Chads college bar runs externally of the NUSSL deal, and sources its stock via Carlsberg-Tetley. You will notice that they have a different range of beers etc to the rest of the college bars, and apparently ( I have not seen their budgets first-hand) make a larger profit per pint than any other student-run bar in town.
At the moment there are two things holding us in NUS, the cheap beer, and the loan. The loan is shortly to be paid off, and their beer prices are being matched by competitors. If you walk into any student shop, you will find universal bemoaning of Ginsters sandwiches, which are overpriced for the quality and size. They are universal, not due to free-market economics supply and demand etc, but rather they are stipulated as a Category 1 required product in the NUSSL deals with student unions.
When we are spending more on NUS, than we are on the Nightbus, and Welfare services combined (excluding staffing costs). When we are spending more on NUS than a sabbatical officer costs, both in wages, NIC, election, office space and equiptment. When we are spending more on NUS than an assistant manager earns in a high-street restaurant, we must question this spending.
What do we get in return?
At NUS conference the factions bicker so much that it is farcical. For democratic reasons they require all student unions to run a full cross-campus secret ballot to elect delegates as opposed to simply voting them in at a General Meeting of the union. This leads to the sabbatical hopefuls all running for NUS, in an attempt to get some practice in at running a campaign.
The NEC elections are all held at conference, where your average student will never go. It is frequently alleged that the political factions will stitch up the different posts, along the lines, of we will all vote for your candidate for president, if you back ours for treasurer. They are all supposedly acting in the best interests of their student unions, but are more likely out to get themselves noticed within their own party/faction and get picked out for party positions, local councillorships, parliamentary candidates etc.
In fact the report DSU made into switching from NUS was called "Removing the Greasy Pole"
Durham recently sent a delegate to the NUS national conference, who voted with his party and against the clear policy of DSU. Upon his return he was duly censured, but to him it was more about party and himself, rather than representing the voices of the people who elected him. He even voted against his own manifesto commitments, so the people who cast their vote for him were decieved as well. Although DSU made its feelings known on the issue, he still holds high office within an autonmous group of his party.
The annual conference, held in Blackpool is costly, and often wasted. A common tactic used by groups not liking the way the debate is going, is to claim they have No Confidence in the chair. This delays the procedings as the chair has to step down, and somebody else run a vote, of over 1,000 delegates, before returning control to the chair. Hours can be wasted this way. At the 2003 conference, the then DSU President Ben Wood, calculated how much time was lost to late starts alone, which came to just under 8 hours. This included an entire session that had to be called off, as the delegates were either out on bar-crawls, or listening to a speaker one of the factions had organised, outside of the conference.
NUS ties itself up with "Stop the BNP" motions, or the classic motion to Womens Conference about supporting (financially) the striking firefighters. It fell at national conference, and so was re-introduced at the womens conference a few weeks later ( by the same faction) with the only alteration being "...some of whom are women" at the end.
This, is what we pay £12.5K per annum for. That is enough to employ a new sabbatical officer. That is enough to ensure that the societies budget doesn't run dry.
That money, is instead pledged to NUS, where hopeful politicians get to argue about Iraq, the Firefighters, whether the BNP should be allowed to exist or not. NUS finances themselves are so bad they had to hold an emergency conference to discuss what to do. http://www.national-student.co.uk/2004_05/national_news_NUS_fiancial_crisis.htm
They are having to sell their offices in London to make ends meet, but have not found anywhere to move to yet.
This money, so badly misspent could be directed at worthwile projects in each student union, and would make so much more impact, than it does when handled by the bloated, corrupt, bankrupt institution that is called NUS.
Pencil Queen
Oh and the College bars *aren't* SU bars...incidentally is the beer cheaper in in the college bars or in the student union (dunelm house IIRC)?
The beer is cheaper in the colleges, as they do not aim to make a profit from their beer sales
They are college bars yes, not student run, but the contract with NUSSL, includes their figures for the whole of durham. It also gives Durham 12 votes at NUSSL conference, which are normally all proxied to the DSU treasurer
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