We value the role the NUS has played in student advocacy across more than 400 universities and its representation of 7 million students across the UK.
However, we write to you with deep concern and growing disillusionment at the silence and inaction of the NUS in response to the unfolding atrocities in Gaza. The NUS have failed to adequately confront or even acknowledge what the united nations, the international court of justice, and the 38 nations have recognised as a plausible genocide for nearly 2 years after the 7th of October.
When the NUS eventually released a statement, it contained diluted language, further undermining confidence in its sincerity. Only after significant backlash did the NUS publish a statement explicitly recognising the genocide. At a recent conference, when asked whether the NUS is an anti-Zionist organisation, the NUS President stated that it is not, prompting a walkout from sabbatical officers. Given that Zionism operates as a racialised political ideology linked to structures of oppression, failing to name it as such contradicts the NUS’s stated commitment to anti racism.
The NUS has engaged in conduct that appears to undermine and delegitimise the very student officers it claims to represent. When officers, acting in a personal capacity, co-signed a letter with human rights organisations and Jewish kehillah societies expressing concern about NUS’s inaction on the ongoing situation in Gaza and it’s enabling of Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism, the NUS responded by calling the letter antisemitic and threatening to exclude officers from its Lead and Change conference. This response reflects a troubling departure from principles of accountability, transparency and good governance.
Since the 7th of October 2023, the NUS has been adjusting their policies to platform pro-Israeli actors who delegitimise the BDS movement, denied that what’s happening in Gaza is a genocide and apartheid while structurally repressing pro-Palestinian voices through the “tuck inquiry report” and the “historic conduct policy”.
Their adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism, has been widely censured due to its conflation of legitimate criticisms of Israel with antisemitism by journalists like Mehdi Hassan, academics such as Jan Deckers and 60 human and civil rights organisations, yet the NUS continues to weaponize this definition to silence legitimate criticism of Israel and to sanction students, particularly racialised and Muslim students, engaged in human rights advocacy.
Furthermore, the dismissal of former NUS President Shaima Dallali in 2022 highlights and epitomises the marginalisation of Muslim voices. With the Jewish Voice for Labour condemning the NUS’s actions as “grossly insensitive to the many students, Black, Muslim, Jewish and others, who may not share the UJS’s particular views.” Miss Dallali’s dismissal further contributed to the KCL3 and SOAS2, where sabbatical officers have been suspended for pro-Palestinian activity. Demonstrating the deeply rooted political control the NUS has on its affiliates.
The NUS further replaced the delegate system with a poorly advertised and ambiguous “liberation collective” which has significantly diminished students’ ability to meaningfully shape NUS priorities. Participation has been limited to a small subset of students who happened to be aware of the process, resulting in structures that lack legitimacy and fail to reflect the needs of the wider student body.
We cannot allow Keele to remain associated with or financially contribute to an organisation that eschews from speaking out against injustice. We acknowledge the important role the NUS has played and the support they have offered our Student Union. However, we believe our resources could be more effectively invested directly into our campus and student body rather than being channelled to the NUS. We currently have accessibility issues on campus, underfunded support services and a projected £5 million financial deficit for the 2025/26 academic year. Severe cuts are also being made to humanities and social science courses, as was evidently witnessed during the on-campus strikes last year.
As much as we value or democratic principles, we also value the well- being and future of our university first and foremost. Our SU currently pays more than twenty thousand pounds annually to NUS UK despite most of the financial benefits coming from NUS charity. Therefore, given the NUS’s declining relevance, limited sector impact and lack of meaningful representation for students, continued financial investment in NUS UK appears increasingly difficult to justify.