Students have voted for Students’ Union UCL to leave the National Union of Students after a week-long referendum.
3,021 students turned out to vote, with 2,631 choosing to Leave and just 364 siding with Remain, representing a landslide victory for the Leave Campaign.
This victory marks another nail in the coffin for the NUS, with Cambridge, LSE, Manchester, and Bath all voting to leave this year.
UCL Union was one of the founding members of the NUS back in 1922, and has consistently chosen to remain, with 59.4% of voters choosing to remain in 2023.
Despite consistent support for the NUS, the tide has certainly turned with a record breaking 87.85% of students voting Leave, the highest margin of victory for an NUS Referendum in the country.
This exceeds the current record held by Liverpool Guild of Students, who voted to leave back in February by a margin of 86.82%.
In reaction to the victory, ‘UCL Vote Leave’ Campaign leads Elizabeth Cheung and Tanisha Rahaman released a statement on Instagram — “We genuinely never believed we would end up here — reaching quorum during Term 3 and exam season.
“Over the past month, this campaign became countless late nights designing posts, writing arguments, organising volunteers, handing out flyers and trying to build something that students could genuinely believe in.”
Prior to the campaign, the Union came under fire from some students for scheduling the referendum during Term 3, with fears that quorum would not be reached.
For the referendum to be considered binding, 5% of Union members had to vote, a target of 2,658, which was reached Thursday afternoon.
There were also concerns that ‘Brexit Trauma’ would reduce students’ willingness to side with a ‘Leave’ campaign as represented by The Cheese Grater’s polling in March which suggested 76% of students would side with Remain.
The Leave Campaign has, without a doubt, played a significant role in informing students and changing opinions, with over 562 followers amassed on Instagram over the past week and thousands of flyers distributed around campus.
The same cannot be said for the NUS Remain campaign, who came under fire this week for a lack of transparency with their sole campaigner saying “I didn't want my name linked to NUS, or to be seen as having the same values and beliefs as them.”
The UCL Remain in NUS Instagram account appeared to have been deleted just hours after the results.
In the coming months, the Union will begin the process of officially disaffiliating from the NUS, which is projected to save £23,040 annually in affiliation fees.
The Union will also no longer be able to influence or engage in NUS campaigns, as well as voting for NUS officers and attending the National Conference. However, they maintain that national campaigning efforts will continue through the Russell Group Students’ Union.
It remains to be seen what the consequences of disaffiliation will be, but the door is not closed to rejoining, with the Union saying: “If students wanted to, they could use our democratic processes to hold a vote re-affiliate in the future.”