By Oliver Hanlon
On November 20th, at Cardiff University Students’ Union’s Annual General meeting, students present decided not renew the union’s affiliation with the National Union of Students (NUS).
As a result, on Monday, March 9th, a referendum will be held on whether our students’ union disaffiliates from the NUS. The results of this referendum will be released on Friday, March 13th.
What is the NUS?
The NUS is, as the name suggests, a national union that represents all college and university students in the UK. Effectively, it acts as a pressure group that advocates for the interests of students and tries to influence policy to benefit students.
What does a referendum mean?
A referendum means that students at Cardiff University will be voting on whether or not the union should remain affiliated with the NUS.
This referendum will be held alongside the SU Leadership Elections and will need at least 1,500 students to turn out and vote in the referendum to be considered binding.
The referendum question will be: “Should Cardiff Students’ Union remain affiliated to the National Union of Students UK (NUS UK)”, and the options for this vote will appear on the ballot as: “Yes (this means Cardiff Students’ Union should remain affiliated to NUS UK)” or “No (this means Cardiff Students’ Union should disaffiliate from NUS UK)”.
The wording of this question could be argued to be somewhat confusing, as voting no will pass the motion to disaffiliate, and voting yes will fail the motion, as it is described in Cardiff University Students’ Union’s own referendum regulations.
The referendum will pass if there is a majority of votes in favour of the motion, meaning to disaffiliate from the NUS; over 50% of students will have to vote No.
If fewer than 1,500 people vote in the referendum or there is a tie, the referendum will not pass, and the union will remain affiliated with the NUS.
When asked about why a 1500 turnout was chosen a Students’ Union spokesperson stated that:
“The 1,500 turnout requirement for a resolution to be passed via referendum is not new or specific to the current NUS UK membership referendum.
“Such a requirement is detailed within the Union’s Memorandum and Articles of Association and applies to any and all referendum’s run by the Students’ Union. Our Memorandum and Articles of Association can be found here: https://www.cardiffstudents.com/about/hwr/“
Why was this referendum called?
At the AGM in November, a vote was held on whether to confirm affiliation with the NUS. The room voted against this motion by a razor-thin margin and did not confirm affiliation, and as a result, a referendum will be held on NUS affiliation in line with Cardiff University Students’ Union’s governing documents.
On that night, Sabbatical officer Joshua Tandy argued that “we need to be in the union to change it”, whilst the speakers against cited an allegation that the NUS threatened action against members who signed an open letter expressing concern over the NUS’s silence on Gaza.
These criticisms swayed the room and resulted in the motion failing. In an article covering the vote at the time, Gair Rhydd asked the president of NUS Wales, Deio Owen, for comment, and he said:
“Maintaining membership is key to ensuring that students at Cardiff University are represented nationally in Wales, the UK and wider afield.
“NUS has been continually working to push the Welsh Government to better support students financially, create an education sector that supports students, and ensure students have access to great SUs.
“We have been, and are committed to continuing, working alongside your Sabbatical officer team to work on your priorities based on the issues your SU has raised with us.
“As we approach a Senedd election in May 2026, it is crucial that Students are united, being a strong voice for students to push for better rights, support and protections as we elect the next Welsh Government.”
What will campaigns look like?
Students have until Monday, February 16th, to register to be on a campaign team. Campaign teams will have the opportunity to feed into the information available for each side’s argument on the students’ union website.
Each side will have a campaign allowance of £200 to produce and develop campaign resources, which is significantly more than what is given in the SU Leadership Elections (£20).
The Students’ Union will be responsible for the printing and placement of materials and posters around the Students’ Union building, specifying that “factual information” will be used to produce these materials.
Each side will also be provided with plain white T-shirts, bed sheets, pillowcases and fabric pens. The number of printed posters each side will get will be confirmed after Monday, February 16th.
Campaign teams will be invited to speak and answer questions at the candidate Q&A event held by the Students’ Union.
When asked whether candidates running for/ current sabbatical officers will be allowed to take sides in this referendum, a Students’ Union spokesperson responded that:
“Any candidate in the election is free and able to engage in the referendum debate as they wish, in the same way as any other student. Nonetheless, students who opt to be part of either the Yes or No campaign will not be able to use the resources provided to them by the Union to promote candidates in the election. “
Is there precedent for this referendum?
Yes, Cambridge held a referendum on the same issue in October 2025; they required a quorum (turnout) of 2000 votes, with the actual turnout being 3,775 students and votes to disaffiliate winning by a margin of 488 votes.
However, it is yet to be seen what each campaign will look like and whether Cardiff University students will choose to also disaffiliate from the NUS.
Thumbnail image: Sionk via Wikimedia Commons