New NUS President hasn’t been a student since 2006
Posted on April 4, 2011The bubbling nonsense-pot which is the National Union of Students have just announced the winner of the election for their new President: Liam Burns.
Never heard of him? I wouldn’t worry – nor have the vast majority of students, given that the election is held among Student Union delegates to the NUS National Conference, who are themselves elected on the back of tiny turnouts on campus.
The question is what does this mean for the future of the official student movement in times which Burns himself describes as “some of the most turbulent NUS has seen for a generation”? Is NUS about to break through within its own constituency, changing from a niche, hard left clique to a truly mass student movement?
On the evidence so far the answer is no.
Burns has classic NUS hack credentials – remarkably for the supposed leader of the UK’s students, he appears to have last actually studied something in, erm, 2006. Yes, five years ago. That’s so long ago that he wasn’t even a student when top-up fees came in.
Since then he’s been a professional student union staffer, first at Heriot Watt and then at NUS Scotland. This is only going to reinforce the reason that most students couldn’t give a toss about the NUS – it’s a body which represents union sabbatical officers and NUS oddballs rather than ordinary students. For example, Burns publicly and strongly opposes the idea of enfranchising all students to elect the NUS leadership (see his PDF manifesto, pg 6).
As I noted after the student riots in December, there is a difference between being noticed and being listened to. The NUS will continue to be loud, but under its new leadership it will also continue to be fatally disengaged from the people it is meant to be representing.
Tags: Liam Burns, NUS, Socialism, Student protests, Student riots, Students, Unions, University Fees
You forgot one detail Mark, the SU delegates aren’t elected because of their views or politics but by the number of friends they can get to vote for them.
On the positive side they do manage to make the EU look democratic
13.04.2011 13:34
I doubt that, there are many thousands of students at university, you cannot get by on friends alone. Neither are they effective at getting their message to people though, for most posts you don’t even know the names of any of the candidates until you vote, which makes the whole process pointless as you’re reduced to voting for who ever has a better sounding name.
13.04.2011 16:38
@Charles, I’m refering to the delegates and Sabbs at each university and having recently witness my university’s election, I know it to be the case. Most students don’t vote, and the ones that don’t read the candidate’s manifestos; instead they pick the candidate that they know or the one that has been recommended to them by friends. The general rule is with enough friends in a variety of different sports teams or societies you can make a decent run at being elected.
14.04.2011 15:23
Liam Burns? Does he like coffee and soup?
13.04.2011 16:06
Blow on this soup for me Smithers!
Bah.Now its too cold!
release the hounds.
13.04.2011 18:04
What is wron with Liam continueing his interest in Student Politics and wanting to stand up for current and future Students?
And Paul, the way conference delegates are chosen varies per educational establishment.
13.04.2011 16:10
Problem is “He is not a student” thats why he should not represent the students as pre of national union for students….. NUEXS (ex-students) maybe…. lol
We have Nurse calling Health Secretary a lier – and turns out she union rep more than nurse.
Now NUS president is not even a student …..
16.04.2011 10:50
The reason why universities stay in the NUS is basically because they can’t afford to disaffiliate; they own most of the infrastructure in the student unions, after all. So we’re stuck with a institution so tied to Labour and so undemocratic it makes North Korea look free.
13.04.2011 17:43
Andrew Grey – it’s obvious you’re a graduate as you can’t spell. Anyone who is still involved in student politics 5 years after leaving spunkbridge poly is clearly a loser. Get a real job.
13.04.2011 19:06
Get real “Andrew Gray”. As a current student I know damn well that the NUS represents no-one but itself. Our SU sabbs here is elected on a 15% turnout (apparently quite high for the UK) and are widely disdained by the student body.
Even among the SU officers (a tiny fraction of the tiny fraction who bother voting) the NUS is widely mocked and ignored. Among these few perhaps only another 15% are interested enough in the NUS to take part. And many of these are opposed to the current line.
So perhaps at best 66% of 15% of 15% = 1.5% of students are actually involved with supporting the NUS line. And that’s being reasonably generous.
13.04.2011 21:17
Get hold of education and elections are easy. Socialists worked that out years ago – remember baa baa green sheep?
13.04.2011 21:31
You know very well don’t you Dick that this is a myth? If you don’t then you’re a very silly boy. If you do then you’re a very naughty boy.
http://1millionunited.org/blogs/blog/2010/01/01/the-baa-baa-black-sheep-myth/
14.04.2011 05:53
Read your own link:- this WAS a serious policy-proposal and several nurseries did change the lyrics in the name of “inclusiveness”. Not a myth and not busted.
14.04.2011 15:29
BTW, Bazza, don’t bother leaving a comment on the ’1 million united but still a blood-sucking, handout demanding minority so relying on violence and intimidation’ blog. They are censoring them, including mine that pointed out that the nurseries that the link refers to are state funded not private.
15.04.2011 12:30
All this shows is how irrelevant the NUS is and that the only real test of student opinion is on the streets.
14.04.2011 05:51
The bigger question is why does the government continue to fund a bunch of Trots so that they can bus violent mobs to London, vandalise the Cenotaph and attempt to murder policemen?
This whole NUS accountability probelm would be solved if the government stopping subsidising it and persisting with a legal framework that prevents genuinely representative student bodies from surviving.
14.04.2011 08:38
Presume New Labour were pumping masses of money (under the counter) into the SU. Do hope that has stopped. Somebody plse reassure me.
14.04.2011 09:10
Whilst on the subject, can anyone tell me when Claire Solomons intends to sit her exams and actually graduate.
14.04.2011 10:25
in what way is the NUS a “hard left clique” when it’s been controlled by mainstream Labourites since the beginning of time?
14.04.2011 10:30
The decent universities in Scotland are not members of the NUS.
‘Staffer’ is an americanism and should be avoided especially when discussing an academic subject. Worker is correct… even when mentioning students.
14.04.2011 13:32
ah student politics! I remember our prez convened a secret meeting to get the local union’s constitution changed so he could run for a second term as prez. His arm twisters promised all kinds of things (which never materialised) to 1st years to get re-elected. He then tried the same thing to allow him a third term in office but those of us who had lived through his corrupt, bias, petty cash fiddling previous terms made sure he got busted and he was asked to leave. The local polis I believe were invited to investigate why the union’s books failed to balance.
I graduated before there was a result and I never found out the outcome. He’s probably a labour MP or councillor by now, I must check.
14.04.2011 18:43
The Heriot-what? university… Never heard of it…
15.04.2011 12:37
The NUS is irrelevant to most students. They in no way support a student’s education but merely pump-out lefty propaganda.
15.04.2011 15:20
[...] The centre-left president of the NUS has now been replaced with *drum roll* another centre-left president. Aaron Porter is off to seek fame and fortune, and now we have Liam Burns, who hasn’t actually been a student for five years. [...]
16.04.2011 21:01