YES – Dan Sutton
When I was a little boy, I was taught that if you wanted to spend your money on something, you should ask yourself three questions: how much do you like it, how much will you use it, and how much will it cost. Even though I rarely display such dispassionate rationality myself, the questions seem to provide reasonable guidance for evaluating any substantial cost. And so, in response to this title, I’d like to suggest that while OUSU does undoubtedly perform some very worthy tasks, but from a purely use-orientated perspective, such as that my grandfather imparted to me, it is a waste of money.
On the “how much do you like it” question, OUSU struggles a little. According to its website, its mission is, “To represent, support and enhance the lives of Oxford students” – a fair test for this question might therefore be the student satisfaction results. In the most recent National Student Survey results, OUSU scored a 31 percent satisfaction rate. Quite remarkably, it achieved a score five points lower than the one which saw it ranked worst in the country in 2014, has a rating exactly one-third as popular as Sheffield’s Student Union, and is statistically less popular than Tony Blair when he resigned.
Perhaps more damning is that these results were the worst for any one part of the University by a country mile: it weighs in a full 26 percentage points lower than any other score related to Oxford University. These statistics suggest that Oxford students are deeply unhappy with OUSU, an unfortunate predicament for the organisation whose raison d’être is to make them happy. Crucially, it also shows that they regard it as substantially less helpful than other services financially supported by Oxford University, who are competing for the same funds. Not only is OUSU unpopular, it also limits funding to the services students actually regard as satisfactory.
The “how much will you use it” question also provides some difficulties. In the 2014 elections, turnout was estimated at 14 per cent – an engagement rate even lower than the infamous Police and Crime Commissioner elections in 2012. Even that response is tremendous in comparison to the single reply received by the Rent and Accommodation questionnaire last term. Even among the minority of students who do show interest, there is not enough enthusiasm to fill roles: planned elections for eight divisional board representatives last term were cancelled because only one person stood. This lack of interest renders the representative nature of OUSU limited at best: the represented opinion of most appears to be apathy, and those few candidates who do stand are hardly tested or accountable. On the other hand, disengagement is unsurprising when the council report for the end of last academic year cited a £9 million quote for double beds across the University and plans to build a monorail. Irrespective of whether or not it benefits them, the students OUSU aims to represent show little willingness to engage at all, and thus the second test is failed.
The last question, “how much will it cost”, offers little more hope of value. The University provides the bulk of OUSU’s funding, just over £650,000 for this academic year: this outlay equates to over 140 of Oxford’s most generous undergraduate bursaries per year. Some will argue that this grant is lower than that which many student unions up and down the country receive; however, a glance at the comparable Cambridge Student Union (CUSU) accounts shows that they require far less, only around £300,000 per year including affiliation fees. Also striking is how the CUSU is able to generate roughly £400,000 per year of its own budget through charitable activities, while OUSU only manages to fund around £250,000 of its own money, two-fifths of which in 2015/16 is due to come through charging £40 per stall at Freshers’ Fair. When compared to a similar institution from a collegiate university, OUSU appears a considerable and inefficient drain on University and society finances.
At this point, we should acknowledge that a number of OUSU’s expenses are, without doubt, money well and thoughtfully spent: projects such as the Access Scheme and the Mind Your Head mental health campaign are of vital importance to the student body. Yet, the problem here is that the allocation of resources limits the positive effect of such projects, thus wasting substantial sums of money. The two projects mentioned above receive tiny amounts: the Access Scheme was apportioned just over £2600, while the Mind Your Head campaign, as with similar projects, was budgeted only £600 for 2015/16. Compare that to the £136,017 OUSU plans to spend this year on website and publication costs, or the £90,000-100,000 spent on “democratic structures” and related staffing, and it becomes apparent the good OUSU does is fiscally swamped by inefficient and poorly-prioritised spending. It seems OUSU’s cost is hardly justifiable either.
I am not trying to show that OUSU is useless , or that OUSU does not serve necessary and important functions on behalf of Oxford students. What I would suggest is that, if we purely evaluated OUSU on its value for money, it fares poorly, using considerable funds while fulfilling few of its aims. My grandad, admittedly an accountant, would not be impressed
NO – Nick Cooper
Now if you think that we sit in our office all day, condemning and censoring left, right and centre (or, I suppose, just right and centre), I can completely understand why you might consider OUSU a waste of resources. So I’m very pleased, as a current Sabbatical Officer, to let you know what we actually do for students on a daily basis – and how we’re able to do a lot for Oxford students despite the limited resources we have.
The role of the Student Union in Oxford will always be different from most universities: the collegiate system gives students a natural home. Your common rooms do an incredible amount of work: putting on many events, representing you, providing welfare support and supplies. However, across the 74 Common Rooms – all run by people who are super committed, but ultimately still students with degrees to do – there needs to be a place for central training, support and resources. This is what we’re here for.
Last weekend we trained Common Room Presidents how to lobby effectively on your behalf. We also offer training for many other positions – including welfare, academic affairs and charities reps. We also lobbied for, and still oversee, the sexual consent workshops across most Common Rooms – workshops that received 99% satisfaction. As a central service, we help Common Rooms every year to provide you with the best support possible. Oh, and ever used your Common Room’s welfare supplies? They probably came in bulk from us.
But while you all belong to a college, you are students of the University. The University writes students’ curriculums and exams, sets the policies on supervision and workload, provides the Counselling Service and central libraries, and decides on most fees and funding arrangements. The only way that you – as students – can influence these crucial decisions is via your Student Union.
OUSU now has representation on almost every University committee that makes decisions affecting students. Recent wins include securing the right of suspended status students to have access to University facilities, an extra £200m in graduate scholarships, and protecting the Castle Mill graduate accommodation. protecting the Castle Mill graduate accommodation.
I hope you’d agree that this work – only possible through lengthy negotiations by Sabbatical officers and others – is crucially important. And it may be you’ve had a great experience – which is fantastic! – but as we hear daily, many don’t, and this is why we’re here.
So I’ve outlined what we do, and I hope this sways you that we’re a good use of surprisingly few resources – our University grant comes in at around £29 per student. But I should address why people might think we’re a waste of resources. First, headlines like “OUSU condemns X”, “OUSU wastes £20”, “OUSU supports the X”, “OUSU supports the Devil”. These reflect decisions of OUSU’s Council – a body comprising each of your Common Rooms.
If you don’t like these decisions, that’s perfectly reasonable – but you’re always welcome to attend and speak against them (as many do) or to mandate your Common Room to vote a certain way. We are ultimately accountable to all of you as our members – undergraduate or postgraduate, UK or international, and whatever your background and circumstances.
A lot of attention is paid to the £2500 allocated by Council, despite the fact that this constitutes less than one per cent of our budget. What about the other 99 per cent?
14 per cent pays for the six Sabbatical Officers. Offering Common Room support, overseeing Raise and Give (RAG) and 13 other campaigns – including our newest, SusCam, supporting suspended status students – and lobbying at cross-college, University and national level, I hope you’d agree that we’re worth the money. 20 per cent (our commercial arm) pays for itself. 25 per cent directly supports students.
This includes student campaigning on issues like access, bringing hundreds of disadvantaged students to shadow undergraduates and producing the Alternative Prospectus which reaches thousands. We also provide Common Rooms with free online elections, and our Student Advice Service who give free, confidential advice to hundreds of you each year. 10 per cent powers the office and our legal duties – we have little choice here.
Finally, just under 30 per cent funds the bare minimum of permanent staff who work tirelessly to ensure that our accounts are in order; that welfare supplies are distributed; that Freshers’ Fair runs smoothly; that our elections, Council and Executive work effectively; that hundreds of course reps are trained and supported; and that we can communicate all this to you. We couldn’t and shouldn’t scrap these services, and it would be such a disservice to class their work as a “waste of resources”.
I hope I’ve convinced you what we do is I hope I’ve convinced you what we do is a good use of moderate resources. You may not always agree with everything we do, and I get that – but please get involved and speak up. Vote in the upcoming elections, take up a position, or drop us an email. All officers make reports to Council – I’d urge you to read them on our website to see what we’ve done. We are your voice to the University: now, tell us what you want us to say.
