A record number of UCL students voted in this year’s Union elections, but hardly any of them voted for the people in charge, analysis of the results shows.
In March, some 13,500 students voted in the Leadership Race, representing 27% of UCL’s student body — the highest for any student election in the UK for the fourth year running.
However, a closer look behind the headline figure reveals just 7.3% — about 3,600 students — participated in the key races that determined the six full-time officers.
This means less than three in ten of those who voted at least once in the March elections took part in the most important races.
Ben Scanlan, president-elect of the Students’ Union, said: “The numbers speak for themselves that there is some kind of crisis of indifference.”
The sabbatical officers, or “sabbs”, are paid £33,000 a year to represent the political leadership of the Union and improve student life at UCL.
Each new sabb received fewer than 1,600 votes on average, meaning they individually command the mandate of just 3% of UCL’s 51,000-strong student body.
In the race for Union President, Scanlan secured 1,317 votes in the final count, representing 37.5% of the vote share in a race that attracted a 7% turnout — still the highest in three years.
The president-elect said “staggering levels of voter apathy” were part of a vicious cycle where elected Union officials can “abandon their duties” without consequence because “not enough people… care to change anything about it.”
Elsewhere, just 700 students on average — 1.4% of voters — voted for each of the Union’s 16 student officers. These are student volunteers who work alongside the sabbatical leadership to campaign on issues under their portfolio, from housing to sports, and represent key interest groups such as clubs and societies and the trans community at UCL.
These results mean the Union has seen no improvement in turnout for student officers despite 2025 being the first time in at least three years where no officer position was left vacant.
This is hardly surprising, as almost 90% of students said they were unfamiliar with what student officers do, according to pre-election polling by our investigations team. Over half of those said they had no clue at all.
Cheese Grater puzzlemaster Seth Harris, who ran an unsuccessful bid to be Postgraduate Officer and also happens to be a Union trustee, said: “Low turnout results in a less representative student leadership and a mismatch of priorities between elected officers and the student body.
“If fewer people vote, it’s easier to win elections with large blocks of support from groups of like-minded societies or social groupings rather than a broad base of support.”
Just 917 students voted for the International Students’ Officer, for example, despite an exponential growth in international student numbers in recent years. In 2024/25, there were 26,739 international students, accounting for 52% of UCL’s student population.
This begs the question: if overall turnout is meant to be record-high, where have the rest of the votes gone? While the Union does not collect data on individual voter behaviour, a breakdown of the total number of ballots cast reveals how most students voted.
Of the 106,000 ballots cast in this election, over 60% were for a club or society committee position; just under a third went to a political officer. Only 2% went to the charity trustees, charged with making sure the Union doesn’t go bankrupt or land itself in legal trouble.
On average, most of those who voted stopped after eight positions or fewer despite being eligible to vote in at least 20 posts. This partly explains the disparity between high overall turnout and low engagement in officer elections.
All in all, the results paint a mixed picture for the Union.
While those who did not care to vote continue to be the largest group on campus, these results place UCL more than ten points above the national average for turnout in student elections — 16.4% — according to a 2024 survey by the National Union of Students.
Indeed, UCL was among just 17 unions — out of 67 that responded to the NUS poll — to report a turnout of 20% or higher.
Are bigger elections better elections?
The NUS survey also revealed that the most common election complaints are to do with candidate conduct, followed by a joint second by voter coercion and online campaigning.
Harris said while boosting turnout is a noble aim, “it’s worth noting that bigger elections do not necessarily mean better elections.”
He said one way the Union could improve the quality of its elections is to ban the infamous campaign strategy of shoving QR codes in people’s faces and demanding they vote for you on the spot.
In 2022, then Welfare and Community Officer Umair Mehmood took this strategy and drove turnout in his race to a record 9% — the highest for any single Union election to this day — securing 46% of the vote share despite widespread accusations of voter intimidation.
One student told The Cheese Grater at the time: “I hadn’t had a proper read of either his or any of his competitors’ manifestos. I just voted because [Mehmood’s campaign team] were looking over my shoulder to make sure I did it.”
The Union has since banned unsolicited offers to provide devices for students to cast their votes on, but many candidates simply circumvented the “iPad ban” with a print-out QR code.
Harris added: “The Union should be focused on promoting real engagement with the election rather than raw voter turnout.”
War on the LinkedIn grind
Despite what looks to be abysmal engagement levels by any democratic standard, UCL Union nonetheless stands out as one of the most engaged students’ unions in the UK.
Asked why he thinks UCL managed to come ten points higher than the national average in overall turnout, Scanlan said: “I think it is certainly the case that university campuses have experienced a depoliticisation among students.”
The president-elect blamed the “LinkedInification” of higher education in Britain, “a phenomenon where students are increasingly concerned with spending their entire time at university building the perfect CV.”
He also praised The Cheese Grater’s extensive coverage of the Union elections as a key factor in driving turnout, adding: “It seems that many other university newspapers rarely cover SU politics in as much detail.”
Previously, the president-elect told Grater Insight that students are in a “war” over what university experience should look like and have pledged to push back against the “high-pressure LinkedIn internship culture.”
He said: “I firmly believe that university should be about having fun and learning life lessons through mistakes.”
Students’ Union UCL declined a request for comment.
