Doin’ it for themselves: how empowering and supporting students’ unions is key to tackling challenges facing students

ABSTRACT

This article explores major challenges facing students, such as mental health, financial hardship and employability. It suggests that well supported and appropriately funded students’ unions can play a vital role in improving the experience of students. Their work can be crucial in ensuring students have influence on university decision making, it can help improve mental and physical wellbeing, support enhanced employability, and contribute to a stronger sense of belonging and community. It recommends that universities should support students’ unions, by providing more training, support and funding, and enabling them to take on increased responsibilities for extracurricular activity and providing more campus services. This could make a significant difference in improving the experience of students.

KEYWORDS:

• Students
• students’ unions
• extracurricular
• mental health
• community
• belonging

Introduction

One of my favourite quotes about leadership is from the ancient Chinese Philosopher Lau Tzu. In the 6th Century BC, he wrote: ‘A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves’, (quoted in Shinagel 2013). At a time of immense challenges for students, universities might be well advised to consider this style of leadership in responding. Instead of directly seeking to solve problems for students, they would have more success if they instead invested more in the development and growth of students’ unions, which could be a key partner in supporting students to overcome the challenges they face.

From financial hardship to mental health and wellbeing, the list of issues affecting this generation of students is long and deeply concerning. Many of these are becoming worse not better. A step change in support for students is both necessary and possible, and crucially the most impactful way of achieving this is by a complete change in the way that the Higher Education sector values, invests in and empowers students’ unions. Students’ unions are in many ways universities’ secret weapon in supporting students. They can ensure student views inform university decision making, and that students are genuine partners in university strategy development. They can provide impactful extracurricular programmes in areas like sports and arts, that support positive mental and physical health. Their programmes can help to build students’ confidence and skills to support employability. They can provide impactful, accessible and independent advice and advocacy for those experiencing challenges. They can build civic and community connections through initiatives such as community volunteering programmes. They can build a stronger sense of belonging and campus community by helping broker friendships and connections, and by providing spaces that students genuinely consider their own; and they can respond quickly and efficiently to changing student demands and expectations. But too often they are undervalued by institutions rushing to try to solve challenges of student support themselves, rather than enabling and supporting the very organisations that students have established for this purpose. Huge gains could be made by a change in mindset to better empower and support students’ unions. This could be transformative for the experience of students.

Why do we need a new approach?

Despite record spending on student services and countless new and well-meaning initiatives by universities, in many ways, the current generation of students have never had it so bad. There is a pandemic of poor mental health affecting ever increasing numbers. More than 1 in 4 young people aged between 17 and 19 had a ‘probable mental disorder’ in 2022, up from 1 in 10 in 2017 (Newlove-Delgado et al. 2022). This affects students’ readiness to learn, and means universities are spending increasing sums on mental health support. Students’ university years, which should be regarded as one of the happiest times of life, are now often a time of deep anxiety.

Students are having to contend with high levels of financial hardship, with huge levels of debt baked into the current funding model and inflation far outstripping increases in the student loan. Average graduate debt in England has now reached £45k (Clark 2023). Research by NUS has shown that:

96 per cent are making cutbacks, with over half spending less on food, another half heating their homes less regularly, and one in ten cutting back on sanitary products … More than a quarter of students are left with less than £50 a month after covering rent and bills. (NUS 2022)

The financial pressures are often even worse for many postgraduate and international students.

Students are weighed down by the psychological pressures of debt, with record sums owed, making it even more challenging for graduates to get on the housing ladder or meet the costs of starting a family. This feeds increasing pressure to get the best possible degrees to help secure the best paid jobs. For mature students, financial challenges can be even greater, especially for those with caring responsibilities. Inequality of degree outcomes and persistent awarding gaps, with students of colour and disabled students on average having worse degree outcomes than their peers (Office for Students 2019; and Office for Students 2021), means that they often feel even more pressure to succeed. Pressure and more pressure seem to be the watch words of student life today.

Exacerbating the situation further is a growing anxiety about what the advent of artificial intelligence may bring for the job market, as the onward march of technology erodes areas of higher skilled employment. Technology has also reshaped social relationships. On average, people now spend two hours each day on social media, with many students spending more (Statista 2023). Whilst this has some positive impacts, there are also many well-evidenced downsides, including issues with body image, online bullying, sleep disruption and less time for studying (for example see Tandon et al. 2020). Studies have also show relationships between social media addiction and lower levels of mental wellbeing and academic performance (Hou et al. 2019). There is also evidence of reducing physical fitness and increasing levels of obesity amongst young people more broadly (Weedon et al. 2021). Many students are also deeply troubled about the climate emergency, with climate anxiety a growing phenomenon (Ma, Moore, and Cleary 2022). Universities have both practical and moral responsibilities to do all they can to support students in responding to these challenges. However, current approaches are not turning the tide. Many of these trends are getting worse not better.

Why students’ unions should be a core part of universities’ response

The idea that students’ unions could make a meaningful difference to these challenges may seem impractical given the often-scant resources at their disposal. Indeed, across the students’ union movement, many seem to have lost confidence that they can have a powerful role outside of what many consider to be their ‘core purposes’ of student representation and supporting clubs and societies. In my five years as a Students’ Union Chief Executive, I have been informed on a number of occasions by peers at other institutions, about universities increasingly encroaching on students’ unions services, with examples of responsibility for cafes and bars, as well as sports and areas of student engagement being gradually moved across to university provision. For example, Day and Dickinson (2018), describe the takeover of students’ union commercial services by universities as being a factor which has reduced students’ union’s commercial operations in recent years. Of course, there are examples where the trend is being bucked and students’ unions are engaging in all kinds of imaginative and creative new projects, and even taking on new functions. But overall, it seems that there has been retrenchment in the sector in some areas of service provision.

This appears to be happening for a variety of reasons. Universities may find it more convenient to run services themselves, being able to guarantee quality and drive efficiency. The imperative to offer an excellent ‘customer experience’ for students driven by concerns about the National Student Survey and the imperative to achieve recruitment targets, provides a strong incentive for universities to seek increased control of core campus services, and in the process weaken students’ unions as a site where students are empowered to run services themselves. This reduces an opportunity for learning and the sense of community that comes from student owned and operated activity. In the case of sport, there may be a desire to foster a culture of high performance and elite success that aids institutional standing and perceived attractiveness, which is at odds with students’ unions’ more egalitarian approaches. Universities may also understandably be keen to maximise profits from cafes, bars and on campus catering provision to meet ever rising costs and the declining unit of resource. Students’ unions have also sometimes been their own worst enemies, for example, by failing to sufficiently invest and innovate, leading to variable quality of services; engaging in overly aggressive, naïve and ultimately ineffectual campaigning tactics that have alienated university senior teams; or perhaps seeing their commercial spaces through the reductionist lens of a cash cow, forgetting that their core raison d'etre is to be the heart of the student community. This can create difficult dilemmas for university leadership teams, who often want to support their students’ unions, but can sometimes lack confidence in their ability to be effective and reliable partners in the delivery of services. Sometimes too, university commercial teams with tough targets to achieve, can be heavy-handed in their dealings with students' unions, focusing on competition, rather than collaboration and support, even if this is out of step with a more constructive stance taken by others within the institution.

Many students’ unions are doing brilliant work, providing outstanding services, and lots of universities are providing them with great support. You need only check out #LoveSUs on X (formerly Twitter), to see examples of many bold and imaginative projects. But across the sector, huge potential is also being wasted by a failure by universities to sufficiently recognise the added value that can be delivered by students’ unions. Universities could capitalise on this by empowering students’ unions to play a much greater role in supporting and empowering students to overcome many of the challenges they currently face.

If you ask alumni about their experience of university life, they can of course talk passionately about their degree programme. But often they start by telling you about the friends they met, the extra-curricular activities they were involved in, the sports they played, music and drama groups they performed in, the volunteering projects in which they participated, the leadership roles they held, and nights out in their students’ union. Experiences gained outside the lecture hall or laboratory and inside their students’ union were, for many, the core part of their university life and what made those years so special. These were the ways they stayed calm during the pressure of exams, the ways they were able to cope with limited budgets and uncertain first career choices, the ways they were able to turn anxiety about political and social issues into ways of positively expressing their identity and opinions. Students’ union activities such as clubs and societies, also frequently supported their longer-term career ambitions, the growth of their confidence, and their blossoming into well-rounded graduates, ready to be future leaders and decision-makers. These are areas where students’ unions can and do excel. If universities can properly support, value and develop their students’ unions, enable them to run more services, empower student leaders themselves to design and run the areas of support they need to thrive in today’s tough external climate, they will often be able to develop and deliver solutions more effectively and efficiently than can universities themselves. One recent Higher Education Minister saw this potential back in 2007, prior to taking up the role.

the hub of … university communities is not the university itself. It is not the Vice Chancellor, the central administration or the quadrangle. It is the students’ union. Many of these determined and commercially attractive institutions form such a successful hub that they have been the envy of their respective university administrations. Recognising their potential, some universities have made advances on the services their students’ union provides. Universities – and, for that matter, FE colleges too – should not just be places where you drive in, turn up for a lesson and then drive off at the end of class. They should be open communities which welcome and encourage learners. I think it is sad that almost half of students now do most or all of their socialising outside the university. This is not the way forward. In an age where the voluntary sector helps to run the New Deal, it cannot be progressive to let universities encroach upon their own voluntary sector. If we take a closer look at today’s students’ unions, it becomes fundamentally apparent that the student experience and wider society can only benefit from their continued independence from university and state control … students’ unions offer so much more to students and to the communities they live in. Welfare and advice services provided by students, for students, are at the heart of what student unions have to offer … students would often prefer to approach their peers about their problems rather than the state or other authority. Should these services not have been there, who knows how many students would have kept their problems to themselves, having been too mistrustful of university or state authority … Participation in student societies is, nowadays, a feature of the ambitious graduate’s CV. Students’ unions nurture these societies, which … help students to learn vital skills for the workplace. These might include event organisation, financial management, public speaking, marketing, fundraising and even sales. Furthermore, there are some careers where no involvement in students’ unions and their societies is a distinct disadvantage … Students’ unions are playing their part in their local communities: charitable fundraising; university governance; sports and fitness training; examination guidance; job centres; equality campaigning … ..

We value student unions. We salute them and what they achieve for and on behalf of students. (Willetts 2007, 46–49; quoted in Day and Dickinson 2018)

Research by Pearson and WONKHE (Blake, Capper, and Jackson 2022), found that the main foundations of student belonging are connection, inclusion, support and autonomy. These are four areas where students’ unions excel. Their services and programmes provide extensive opportunities for peer connections. They are inclusive and go to huge lengths to champion access for all, ‘elevating the voices of under-represented students’ and ‘empower[ing] those students, bringing accountability to ensure provision works for everybody’ (Adcock and Natzler 2020). Students’ unions provide a range of high-quality support services such as well-used and independent advice centres. They are autonomous, providing a vehicle for the fulfilment of students’ priorities via an independent organisational structure. They are perhaps the only part of a university which genuinely embraces all four of these foundations of belonging. In the US, research has also shown that there is a relationship between involvement in college unions and students’ sense of belonging (Barrett 2016; Lang 2020).

Increasing the profile, capacity and influence of student leaders

As universities grapple with the many seemingly intractable challenges facing students, an important starting point is empowering students’ unions and their elected leaders to be influential and effective in university decision making. Currently, many students’ union officers start their roles without adequate support and preparation, and there is a lack of consistency about where and how they are involved in university committees. Universities could do much more to support students’ unions in this crucial area. They could, for example, ensure all new Sabbatical Officers receive a positive welcome from their senior teams, with opportunities to meet key university staff and openly discuss how they can work together to deliver on key student priorities during their year in office. Over the past few years, I have undertaken training for Sabbatical Officers at a number of universities. Many have told me that this is not something that happens systematically in their institutions. Universities could also provide an effective induction programme for students’ union officers, covering HE governance, policy, decision-making and finances, alongside that offered by students’ union staff. They could consider the development of sector-wide standards for student representation in university governance, embracing students as full partners in the leadership of universities, for example including consistent and high levels of student representation throughout committee structures and a valued place for students’ union Presidents on university senior leadership teams. But most importantly, they could work with students’ unions to develop a shared vision and strategy for student life on campus, that responds to students’ unions’ priorities, and supports investment in their capacity and capability to be an effective delivery partner.

Student representation and leadership could also be boosted on a national scale. Mission Groups could encourage constituent students’ unions to elect a Union President to join their Boards. UUK and the Office for Students could do the same by inviting elected student leaders to play a key role within their governance, creating a culture of genuine partnership with student leaders in the development of national HE policy. This would be more effective than appointed student advisory groups which are often not representative of wider student opinion and undermine participation in formal democratic structures.

Universities should recognise that a stronger national voice for students would be good for the sector, helping to ensure that key challenges facing higher education are more central to national political debate. Universities could involve students’ union officers in their public affairs strategies, and help to train and equip students’ unions to be impactful in external influencing. They could also automatically register all eligible students to vote in UK elections as part of their enrolment process.

Universities could also do more to support students’ union senior staff. Over the past few years, I have played a role in the recruitment of several students’ union Chief Executives. In these processes, typically a senior university staff member sits on the recruitment panel. However, that is usually where their involvement starts and ends. Senior roles in students’ unions are highly complex, needing a combination of policy and political abilities, higher education policy knowledge, significant operational, commercial and financial experience, and excellent people and facilitation skills. Yet students’ unions are largely left to their own devices to find, develop and retain staff with this expertise. Since the abolition of the Association of Managers of Student Unions (AMSU) some years ago, there is no recognised professional association for students’ union senior staff. UUK could support NUS and students’ unions more broadly to re-establish such an organisation, providing funding and expertise to aid its establishment. Universities could ensure that whenever their students’ union is recruiting a new Chief Executive, they offer to play a more active role in the process, providing advice on job descriptions and recruitment strategies, giving financial support to ensure roles are widely advertised, and facilitating impartial expert advice to Trustee Boards. For new senior students’ union staff, universities could offer comprehensive induction programmes to enable them to receive a proper introduction to the university, its strategy, and senior personnel. By building an atmosphere of openness, engagement and support for students’ unions’ senior teams, universities could create more effective partnerships with students’ unions and empower elected student leaders to be much more effective in their roles.

Ensure long term and fair funding agreements

To be successful, any organisation needs a firm financial base and be able to plan effectively. Research has shown that charities’ ability to serve their beneficiaries can be compromised by unstable funding models (Keenan 2021). Many students’ unions have great relationships with their universities with long term funding arrangements in place. However, many are only given one year block grants, with some having amounts sometimes not confirmed until after the start of the financial year. Levels of funding also vary wildly. Within the Russell Group, for example, annual block grants range from £117 to just £17 per student (Students’ Union UCL 2023). Many students’ unions are desperately short of financial resources to cover their core roles, resulting in lower pay for staff and little capacity for innovation and investment. This can often turn into a brain drain when staff leave students’ unions for better paid roles within universities. Across the country students’ unions need far more financial support and financial certainty than many receive. One idea could be for a minimum percentage of tuition fee income to be passed to students’ unions. 1% might be a good starting point and would result in a large increase in grant support for most unions, enabling them to be properly resourced for the work they do. All unions should also receive multi-year funding settlements to enable them to plan over the medium and long term.

Sports, arts, volunteering and extracurricular provision

Significant impacts could be made on tackling the student mental health crisis by investing more in extracurricular activity, and enabling students’ unions to play a key role in how such activity is planned and delivered. This would also help to build a stronger sense of community and belonging, and through the development of more student leadership roles in these areas would support the development of skills to give students an edge in the job market.

There is huge evidence of the benefits provided by extracurricular activity (for example see King, McQuarrie, and Brigham 2021). Blake, Capper, and Jackson (2022), found that students involved in extracurricular activities are twice as likely to feel part of a community, and more likely to have people to turn to if they need help and support. The research also showed a strong association between levels of belonging and students’ confidence about their studies. Research for British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS 2020), has demonstrated a strong impact of sports and physical activity on student recruitment, transitions, retention, health and wellbeing, graduate attainment, employability and the contribution to universities’ civic and global agendas. One of the most striking findings was that participation ‘shows increases in life satisfaction, happiness, and reductions in anxiety and depressive symptoms’. This is backed up by countless academic studies on the benefits of physical activity for mental wellbeing. (For example, see Street, James, and Cutt 2007). The same is true of community arts participation and volunteering, which have been shown to create similar beneficial impacts for many areas, including improved mental health (Gillam 2018). Participation in sport, the arts and other areas of extracurricular activity can be fundamental to fostering a sense of community and belonging on campus, and can build student confidence and skills. At UCL, students report that engagement in community volunteering had major benefits. 90% of student volunteers said that their academic studies had benefitted as a result of their involvement, 91% of student volunteers said that they’d developed useful skills for the workplace, and 75% felt that their wellbeing had improved (UCL 2021).

Extracurricular activities can also be important in helping students to develop the skills of greatest importance to graduate recruitment. According to the Confederation of British Industry:

When it comes to university graduate recruitment, businesses are looking above all at the qualities of the individual … This underlines the importance of continuing to develop the broader, ‘work readiness’ skillsets that employers’ value – such as time management, team working, and problem-solving – in order to be best placed to seize future opportunities. The reality for graduates is that simply gaining a degree is not enough to win entry to a successful career meaning developing the right skills and attitudes is critical for a successful transition from higher education to the world of work. (CBI 2019, 54–55)

Stuart et al. (2011), demonstrated the positive impact of extracurricular activities on the development of soft skills valued by employers. The Student Futures Commission recently recommended that universities commit to co-create and publish a Student Futures Manifesto with students’ unions, which would include a recognition of the importance of extracurricular activity that builds skills. Research for the Sutton Trust (Montacute, Holt-White, and Gent 2021), found that participation in students’ union societies was especially potent in helping students develop leadership abilities, with more impact on these skills than studying for their degree, work placements, study abroad or paid work. The research also called for universities and students’ unions to work together to help tackle barriers to participation in extracurricular activity experienced by those from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Given its positive impact for health, wellbeing and skills, it’s clear that participation in extracurricular activity can have a significant impact on some of the main challenges facing students. Recent research has also shown that students’ union led extracurricular activity can have significant long-term benefits for university finances. Souto-Otero, Donnelly, and Kanol (2023) found that ‘some of the most substantial differences in donation patterns [to universities] are related to levels of engagement in extra-curricular activities’ and ‘the more involvement a graduate had in students union activities whilst at university the more likely they were to donate’ to the university later in life.

Yet currently, extracurricular activity is frequently limited due to the budget constraints facing students’ unions, with demand from students outstripping what SUs can support. Universities may not be aware that many students’ unions regularly cap student society numbers due to resource constraints limiting the number of groups they can support. It would be far more advantageous for students and universities if extracurricular programmes could be significantly expanded, with the necessary levels of funding provided to students’ unions to enable this. Universities could also consider supporting students’ unions to reduce the costs of activities to enable more equitable participation and develop more schemes to support those facing financial barriers. In a cost-of-living crisis, even small costs such as buying sports kit or bus fares to travel to activities can be major disincentives to engagement. Universities could also work with students’ unions to develop frameworks to better support and recognise the experiential learning of students participating in extracurricular activity, supporting students’ employability.

Universities should also consider giving students a greater role in the management and delivery of extracurricular activity. Over the past 20 years, many universities have invested record sums in sport and to a lesser extent the arts. Sport and arts facilities are often seen as a tool for recruitment in an increasingly competitive marketplace, and sometimes for increased community relationships and connections. However, too often opportunities have been missed for genuinely student-led sports and arts activity that can promote a strong sense of community and belonging.

At UCL, sport has always been student-led and managed directly by the Students’ Union. This enables all sport and physical activity to be led by a single team that is accountable to students via democratic structures. Most importantly, it means that the priority is driving high levels of participation and engagement across the whole student community. One of our main goals is all students having active lifestyles. This means we have more focus on our largescale sports participation programme, thriving intermural sports leagues, and our new and growing programme of mass participation sports events. Our aim over the next five years is to grow participation from around 25% of our student community to over 50% (UCL 2023). A big aim, but one that is achievable with our model of student-led activity and financial support from the university.

Activity led by students’ unions can be both high-quality and community focused. There is no need to choose between these goals. Giving more responsibility and funding to students’ unions to lead sports, arts and volunteering programmes would have the added benefit of students feeling genuine agency and autonomy in the development of these important areas. Empowering and supporting students’ unions to manage more extracurricular activity would be a bold, innovative and highly impactful move for the sector.

Campus services

Many student unions run significant commercial operations. These often include bars, cafes and shops. In recent years there has been a growing challenge to many students’ unions commercial services from a change in student social habits, with reduced consumption of alcohol and less time spent socialising. However, a bigger threat has often come from universities themselves, that have seen opportunities for increasing income via opening more commercial services in direct competition with the students’ union or sometimes taking over students’ union outlets. The short-term financial advantage of such moves for a university is clear. However, it neglects the many benefits of students’ union-led commercial activity, most importantly the benefits that students experience from spending time in informal and inclusive spaces, which they feel genuine ownership of. For example, research has shown that college unions in the US are an important factor in the sense of community on campuses (Barrett 2016). Having spaces where students feel genuine autonomy and belonging are vitally important to developing a sense of community. Running services themselves is also important in ensuring independent income streams for students’ unions, enabling them to maintain autonomy (Brooks, Byford, and Sela 2016).

In an era of increasing concern about the ethics of outsourcing and sustainable business practice, students’ unions can offer a strong alternative to outsourced provision. In some other countries, student unions run a wider range of commercial services. In Finland, students’ unions provide services such as high-quality student accommodation, award winning restaurants, and facilities and vehicle hire schemes (for example see AYY 2024; HOAS 2024; YLVA 2024). Given their imperative to focus on service more than profit, students’ unions can frequently offer significantly greater value products for students, which are especially important in a cost-of-living crisis. Students’ unions can also create large numbers of fairly paid and flexible student jobs, where students also see their paid work as contributing to their community. This also aids a stronger sense of belonging (Paynter 2021). Profits are also recycled directly back into student services and extracurricular activity and can provide an additional income stream which reduces students’ union’s dependence on university funding.

A thriving university social experience is important for students, enabling them to socialise with their peers and form vital social connections which support wellbeing. Universities should take an interest in supporting students’ unions to run strong events and entertainment programmes. Strong commercial services also give students’ unions increased financial autonomy and greater pride in their operations. If students believe their unions genuinely run services that matter to their social lives, as well as representing them on issues concerning their education, they are more likely to stand for election, to vote and to care about the success of their organisation, meaning that unions will be more representative of student opinion. For example, at Helsinki Students’ Union, turnout in elections regularly exceeds 30%, a level much higher than in most UK students’ unions (HYY 2020). As Day and Dickinson (2018) have argued: contracted out campus catering services ‘represent a missed opportunity to deliver social and educational benefits’ for students than could be achieved with students’ union run outlets (Day and Dickinson 2018, 73).

Ensure students’ unions are genuinely student-led

Finally, a worrying trend within students’ unions themselves is a reduction in democratic leadership. Over time there has been a growth in some students’ union boards being chaired by external trustees. However well-intentioned and hard working these committed individuals are, this is no substitute for genuine student leadership. Since the incorporation of students’ unions as registered charities, many sabbatical officer roles have been reshaped to delegate more responsibility for running services to staff, with their focus being solely on campaigning and influencing activity, frequently being told not to interfere in operation of services. There have also been some examples of a reduction in elected student leaders interacting with university leadership teams, with students’ union senior managers taking this role instead, leading to sometimes problematic results (Brooks, Byford, and Sela 2015). Of course, sabbatical officers should respect the professional skills and experience of staff and with the right relationships in place they can support student leaders to be more effective in their roles. But taken too far, distancing student leaders from responsibility for service provision can lead to disempowered officers and significantly reduce the appeal of these roles to potential candidates. The clue is in the name – students’ unions. Universities should be active champions of genuinely student-led unions, enabling sabbatical officers to have real responsibility and influence, not just as partners in leadership of the university, but also as real leaders of students’ unions and their services.

Conclusion

There are many significant issues facing students today, yet universities have a key tool at their disposal in students’ unions, which can be instrumental in supporting students to overcome some of their current challenges. Students’ unions can make real impacts in areas such as mental health, cost of living, and employability. Universities could and should do more to bolster students’ unions, providing more support to their elected officers and senior staff, empowering their national influencing, investing more in their services and providing certainty over funding, increasing their role in extracurricular activity, helping them grow their provision of campus and commercial services, and ensuring Sabbatical Officers are empowered to lead their unions. At a time of great challenge for students, universities should do much more to empower the very organisations that students have established to support themselves.

Disclosure statement

The author is Chief Executive of Students' Union UCL and a Trustee of the University of Warwick Students' Union.

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Notes on contributors

John Dubber

John Dubber is the Chief Executive of Students’ Union UCL. The Students’ Union represents, and provides a wide range of services for the 50,000 students at UCL. John led the development of a new Student Life Strategy for UCL, that puts the students’ union at the heart of delivering an expanded programme of extracurricular and social activities for students. This aims to support physical and mental wellbeing, skills development and employability, enhanced intercultural connections, and improved equity and inclusion. Previously, John was Head of Policy & External Relations for the British Council, leading government and parliamentary relations, and developing the organisation’s policy research programme and its flagship global programme for aspiring young leaders. Earlier in his career, John held senior roles in regional and local government. John has degrees from the University of Birmingham and the University of Warwick, where he was also President of the Students’ Union and won the University’s Prize for World Politics.