Common room representatives, assembled as the Council of the Student Union, have passed a motion to write to the Vice-Chancellor expressing dissatisfaction with OUSU’s funding.
Currently, OUSU and the Common Rooms jointly receive around £50 per student, which is provided by the University in the form of an annual block grant. Of this, OUSU itself is allocated £17.50. In comparison, the average student union in the Russell Group, with a similarly sized student body, receives around £80 per head.
The motion, which passed unanimously last week, states, “Underfunding of OUSU prevents it from doing the job that its members and constituent common rooms expect of it, especially with respect to the implementation of electoral promises and the communication of its current activities and services to its 22,000-strong membership.”
OUSU Council therefore resolved to “express its complete dissatisfaction with the current level of block grant, relative both to OUSU’s own institutional needs and other Russell Group student unions” and to “express its deep concern over the unsustainability of OUSU’s current activities and services under a budget suffering a real-terms cut.”
In Trinity 2012, OUSU called on the University to remedy the situation and increase funding. Early indications, however, appear to suggest that the OUSU budget will instead face a real-terms cut for 2013-4.
St Hilda’s JCR has passed a motion in support of OUSU, which aimed to address OUSU’s lack of recognition.
OUSU President David J. Townsend said, “There is no good reason why OUSU is underfunded compared to other major UK universities. There was genuine concern amongst Common Room Presidents that a cut to OUSU’s budget next year would diminish OUSU’s ability to achieve things in the future. It’s great to see that St Hilda’s JCR has passed a motion in support: anything that can be done to get the message to the level of the individual student is important. What we’re talking about is proper financial resources for OUSU to do what Oxford students legitimately demand of it.”
Alex Bartram, Balliol JCR President, stated, “The University has a responsibility to provide the resources to make its student union viable and at the moment it doesn’t. This is demonstrated in the lacklustre support for OUSU amongst students, despite the hard work done by its officers and frequent lobbying successes.”
Michael Young, a second-year at Brasenose, expressed opposition to the motion: “Using the Russell Group as a comparison is silly, given that because of the student Common Rooms in Oxford, OUSU does not do as much as other Student Unions. Furthermore, rather than ask for more money, OUSU should look at where it spends existing funds and perhaps consider cutting the generous salaries paid to its officers.”
A University spokesperson said, “Given constraints on resources, the size of the grant allocated to OUSU has to be considered in line with funding levels elsewhere in the University. The University continues to look for ways to address these long-standing issues with OUSU.
We welcome the strides OUSU has made since becoming an independent charity and we look forward to continuing our close and productive
working relationship with them in future.”
