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The National Union of Students (NUS) is the main representative body for the Students' Union s that exist inside the United Kingdom . Although the NUS is the central organisation for all affiliated unions in the UK, there also exist the national bodies NUS Scotland , UCMC/NUS Wales and NUS-USI in Northern Ireland . NUS is a member of '' ESIB, The National Unions Of Students In Europe ''. HISTORY The NUS was formed in 1922 at a meeting held at the University of London. At this meeting, the Inter-Varsity Association and the International Students Bureau (which organised student travel and had been lobbying for a national body) agreed to merge. Founding members included the unions of University Of Birmingham , Imperial College London (who first left in 1923 and have subsequently rejoined and left again twice - the last time being in the 1970s), King's College London who supplied the first President ( Sir Ivison Macadam ) and Bristol University (whose AGM voted to leave in 2004 in a decision later overturned by a student referendum). The NUS now has over 700 constituent members (the unions of either Higher Education or Further Education establishments) through which it represents approximately 5 million UK students, which equates to approximately 98% of all students and hence potential members. However, a small number of high profile educational institutions are not members, most particularly the University Of Glasgow , University Of St Andrews , University Of Dundee , University Of Southampton , Open University , and Imperial College London . DEMOCRACY The NUS holds national conferences once a year. National Conference is the sovereign body of NUS, and is where NUS policy is decided. Other conferences, such as Regional Conferences, Women's Conference, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Trans Conference (changed as of 2004 ), Students With Disabilities Conference, Black Students' Conference and the International Students' Conference (created in 2004 ) are run to enhance the representation of the specific members they include. Most of these conferences, and in particular the elections held at them, are hotly contested by Faction s including Labour Students , Education Not For Sale , the Organised Independents , Student Broad Left , Socialist Students , Socialist Workers' Student Society , Conservative Future and Liberal Democrat Youth And Students . In addition to these political factions, interest groups such as the Union Of Jewish Students and the Federation Of Student Islamic Societies are deeply involved in the internal democratic processes of NUS. In recent years the NUS has faced a prolonged financial crisis, caused by a coinciding of spiralling expenditure and decreasing income. A series of measures were proposed to address this, of which the most controversial included a series of changes to the constitutional and democratic processes. In 2004 two emergency conferences passed some of the changes proposed, albeit not without fierce dispute between those claiming the proposals were necessary reforms to maintain the existence of the organisation and those arguing that they were aimed at curbing democracy and involvement. In 2006 policy passed at Conference enabled NUS to launch a paid-for card in September. It is anticipated that revenue from this scheme will benefit both NUS and its member unions. MEMBERSHIP All UK students' unions are able to join the NUS (providing they are not controlled by their parent institution and their admission is approved by National Conference). To become a constituent member, unions must pay an affiliation fee to NUS, which is based upon the number of students in the union, and the money received by the union from its parent institution. Most UK university unions are members of the NUS, although a small number (primarily Imperial College London , the Open University , the University Of Glasgow , the University Of St Andrews and the University Of Dundee ) have historically chosen for ideological, political or economic reasons not to be members. In recent years NUS membership has become a controversial issue with some unions seeing AGM motions and Referendum s on the membership issue. The NUS have in the past received criticism for spending significant amounts of time and money in running pro-affiliation campaigns at universities to ensure that they win referendums. The NUS hasn't lost a disaffiliation referendum in over a decade, but on February 5 2004 the University Of Bristol decided to leave following a AGM motion on dissaffiliation. However a subsequent referendum vote overturned the decision. A further Bristol referendum held in March 2006 came out with strong support for the NUS, and also approved distribution of the proposed 'extra' card. Recent leavers of the NUS have included . SERVICES NUS offer a number of services to their constituent members. NUS also has a subsidiary company called NUS Services Ltd (NUSSL). NUSSL is essentially a purchasing consortium that allows its members to benefit from bulk purchasing discounts. NUS and NUSSL work closely with the Association For Managers In Students' Unions . PRESIDENTS EXTERNAL LINKS
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