Image: Iwan Stone
The nomination window has now closed in the 2021 YUSU elections, with campaigning scheduled to begin next week (2 March).
If you’ve kept up to date with York Vision’s coverage of the elections so far, you will likely be familiar with how things operate at York.
Student Union elections take place each year in spring term, with candidates running for a range of full and part time positions, as well as non-officer roles and faculty reps.
While the sight of cardboard posters plastered across campus, candidates interrupting lectures to pledge their promises, and social media becoming inundated with shameless self-promotion posts may be all too reminiscent of previous years, what you might not have considered is how things at York match up against Student Unions across the country.
Vision took a look at the Universities of Birmingham, Edinburgh, Exeter, Durham, Lancaster, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, and University College London to see how YUSU compares to Student Unions, Guilds, and Associations in the UK.
How Does Our Sabbatical Team Differ from Other Unis?
With voting due to commence on the 5 March, I’d be surprised if you weren’t already familiar with the five full time sabbatical officer positions elected each year at York: Union President, York Sport President, Academic Officer, Student Activities Officer, and Community and Wellbeing Officer.
However, what you might not know is that York’s full time officer team is smaller than our neighbouring Russell Group Universities: Leeds has seven, Newcastle six, and Manchester elects a team of eight.
York’s smaller sabbatical team certainly raises questions of representation, specifically where roles which warrant full time, paid positions at other unis are entrusted to a voluntary officer at York. For example, at the University of Manchester the titles of International Officer, Postgraduate Officer, Women’s Officer, and Liberation and Access Officer warrant full time positions rather than voluntary roles.
With an expected commitment time of around five hours per week for the Part Time Officer (PTO) roles at York, you might question whether the same attention is paid to issues of equality and liberation. That said, the student body at York is approximately half of that of Manchester, and a smaller committee not only saves cash but may increase the speed of decision making.
Interestingly, at the University of Lancaster (which employs six full time sabbs) students also vote to elect an Officer for Union Development, responsible for “maintaining governance and democratic proceedings, including elections, referendums, and meetings”. This position appears absent from the roll call at YUSU, and is perhaps something to consider in future years to improve the election process.
However, York trumps Lancaster in terms of PTO roles – offering greater representation to causes such as the Environment, Volunteering, RAG (Raising and Giving), and Working Class – which are not available at LUSU.
Over in Leeds, additions to the 2020 full time sabbatical team at LUU include an International Officer, a Union Affairs Officer, and an Equality and Diversity Officer, but lacks a full time representative for University Sport.
This seems to be a common theme – like York, Edinburgh Students’ Association elects five Officers, however the areas of activities, community, and welfare warrant separate positions, and a Sport Officer is absent from proceedings. Durham similarly lacks a full time representative for University Sport, bringing York out on top in this area.
Distinctions are also apparent in terms of postgraduate representation where York seems to be lacking – with the Universities of Birmingham, Newcastle, and Durham among those electing a dedicated Postgraduate Academic Officer.
In addition to these roles, you might be surprised to hear that the University of Leeds also elects the editor of the student newspaper, The Gryphon, responsible for holding the Student Exec and Union to account. This system has also been adopted by Newcastle – which elects the Editor of the Courier as a full time paid position.
What About Their Salaries?
Student Union representatives might campaign upon these promises, but they’re not just responsible for social events, sports, and societies.
Our Student Unions reps serve as “trustees of the organisation” – the title of sabbatical officer is a full time job – with the five officer trustees at York taking home an annual wage of £19,578 according to YUSU. Based on a contracted 35 hours a week this works out at an hourly rate of £10.76 an hour – a mere £2 more than the national minimum wage.
This figure sits roughly in line with the national average, with Sabbatical Officers at Lancaster and Exeter receiving £19,612 and £19,500 respectively as of 2020.
Full Time Officers at Edinburgh come away marginally better, with their Student Association representatives earning £22,000 in exchange for their years’ service.
These figures pale in comparison to University College London however, which pays a yearly salary of approximately £25,000 on its seven sabbatical officers. Overall, UCL forks out an extra £77k a year on its team of full time officers, compared to York.
Is Our Turnout As Good As Other Unis?
If you didn’t already know, the Single Transferable Voting System (STV) is the system used to elect representatives at York and this is mirrored at nearly all Student Unions across the country.
STV allows voters to vote preferentially, ranking candidates in order of preference which produces fewer wasted votes. The candidate who receives the least votes is removed from the running and their votes reallocated among second and subsequent preferences, until we have a clear winner. This voting format – including the RON (Re-Open Nominations) feature is replicated in all of the Universities mentioned in this article.
Turnout in Student Union elections is historically low across the board, but differs significantly amongst our closest neighbours.
According to YUSU, engagement amongst students at York has been consistently high in comparison to other Student Unions.
In the 2020 Student Union elections at York, turnout stood at 23.8% of eligible voters, amounting to 4,896 unique voters casting a total of 40,569 votes.
Although this figure was down on the previous figure of 31% in 2019, it stands higher than turnout in Durham, Manchester, Leeds, and Lancaster last year.
In Durham, where the size of the student population is most comparable to York, the turnout figure according to student publication Palatinate in 2019 stood at 16.58%, or 3,101 of the 18,707 total eligible voters.
At Lancaster, the 2020 Student Union elections concluded with a turnout of 21%, with over 20,000 total votes cast by 3,270 individual voters, according to Lancaster University Students Union.
Similarly, turnout in the LeadLUU student exec elections at Leeds was 18.46%, down from 20.91% in 2019 according to student publication, The Gryphon.
None of these figures compare with the University of Manchester however, which saw one of the worst turnouts nationwide last year. A total of 30,161 votes were cast by 5,812 voters, but with a student population of over 40,000 at UoM, turnout stood at approximately 14.5%.
The greater turnout for YUSU may be due to successful initiatives to increase engagement with elections at York in recent years – such as reduced price pints in exchange for every 1,000 votes cast, or donation to charity.
York is relatively unique in that for every voter, the University donated 75p to charity in the 2020 elections, raising a total of £3,672 for YUSU RAG and the Equal Access Scholarship Fund.
Vision only found evidence of a similar scheme at the University of Newcastle, which donates 50p per voter to three charities.
Could the High Turnout at York be Related to Campaign Budget?
You could be forgiven for thinking that the comparably high turnout at York may be due to more expensive campaigns launched by candidates.
However, you might be surprised to learn that YUSU sets one of the lowest campaign budgets nationally for candidates running in student union elections.
According to YUSU, the maximum campaign budget for full time officer candidates is £20, and part time officers £10, which are both reimbursable by the University to ensure that candidates are not left at a financial disadvantage during their campaigns.
Lancaster offers a slightly higher campaign budget of £30 for full time officer candidates, as does Birmingham, reimbursed by the Student Union.
By comparison, the University of Edinburgh has a hefty campaign budget of £90 per sabbatical officer candidate, and £30 for voluntary roles. The figure for candidates running at Durham sits at £60.
Newcastle however operates differently – their campaign budget differs depending on whether there are other candidates in the running for the same position.
Candidates for full time roles running without opposition are only entitled to a budget of £25, whilst those who are opposed are granted a heftier budget of £100.
Likewise, opposed part time candidates are limited to a budget of £50 – still more than double the maximum budget granted by YUSU.
This suggests that the cost and size of the campaign doesn’t necessarily matter – candidates at York have had to work harder, think outside the box and get creative to reach students – perhaps responsible for the greater turnout witnessed in York compared to other Unis in recent years.
Let’s hope this trend continues. Voting commences on 5 March.