Thursday 10-08-2023 - 09:49

Supporting students’ union elections is a vital part of NUS Charity’s membership offer.

With support from our Elections Support Service, SUs can ensure their elections are free and fair, learn from good practice from across the wider movement and give an assurance to their parent institutions that their regulatory obligations are being met in accordance with the Education Act (1994).

During the 2022-23 academic year, NUS Charity acted as Returning Officer for 150 students’ union elections in two main election cycles, Autumn 2022 and Spring 2023.

Alongside our expertise in the running of elections, our annual Elections Survey brings SUs across the UK together to share data and good practice. This year 76 SUs took part and their results show that:

• the average turnout was 13.14%, with a number of students’ unions reporting record breaking turnout
• on average, smaller students’ unions (with fewer than 10,000 members), had higher turnouts than larger ones
• there is no discernible correlation between the length of nomination periods and candidate numbers
• 70% of students’ unions collect demographic data on their candidates, to better understand barriers to participation
• the most common complaint during elections was around candidate conduct and behaviour

This year’s NUS Charity Elections Report, alongside all reports going back to 2018/19, are available to view on NUS Connect here.

For any questions, please contact us at elections@nus.org.uk.