University of Manchester Students' Union
Encyclopedia
The University of Manchester Students' Union (UMSU) is the representative body of students at the University of Manchester
, England
, and is the UK's largest students' union. It was formed out of the merger between UMIST Students' Association (USA) and University of Manchester Union (UMU) when the parent organisations (UMIST
and the Victoria University of Manchester
) merged on the 1 October 2004.
Unlike many other students' unions in the UK, it does not have a president, but is instead run by a 14 member executive team (eight full-time, six voluntary) who share joint responsibility.
of 300 members for ordinary meetings which is rarely met; no meetings reached quorum during the academic year of 2009-10. At the October 2010 General Meeting students voted to call an unprecedented referendum
on whether policy setting should be moved online so all Union members can vote; this took place in November 2010 showing a 93% support for the plans. Online Voting is to be included in the new Union Constitution currently being ratified by members.
The positions on the executive are significantly different from those of UMU and USA. Faculty Officers did not exist in either organisation, nor did the full-time Campaigns Officer.
The elections are organised by the Returning Officer, who was previously nominated by executive from among the sabbatical officers. They would remain impartial in the outcome of the election. However, much power rests in the hands of the returning officer, who can disqualify candidates and rule on anything where the Election Regulations remain silent. Consequently, a number of highly contentious decisions have been made in the past, some of which have been overturned on appeal or by an independent third party.
Starting in 2009 an external Returning Officer has been appointed from NUS to provide a more impartial governance to elections.
.
, is situated on the former UMIST
Campus (now North Campus). It originally contained the offices for the UMIST Students'Association. Unlike in the Biko building, the Students' Union does not occupy the whole building but has facilities on the ground floor. It now contains a peer support centre as well as a student bar and a print shop.
http://www.pangaeafestival.co.uk/
, University of Salford
and University of Bolton
and Manchester Metropolitan University
. A crack team of talented section editors are responsible for producing the paper, with the editor being one of the sabbatical officers on the Union Executive. Nick Renaud-Komiya currently holds this position. The paper has a print-run of 40,000 and there are 20 editions per academic year.
It's official website is www.manchesterrag.com
is UMSU's radio station. The Student Union Executive accepted the a proposal to create the station in July 2000 and work began on creating a base for the station, which was originally called MintFM. Space in the Union basement was converted into a fully functioning broadcast studio and production suite. Fuse FM went on air for the first time on 15 February 2001 at 06:00, broadcasting on 106.2 FM as well as via internet streaming. Since 2003, Fuse FM has broadcast for four weeks in each academic semester. Fuse Fm was briefly denied it's Spring 2008 license to broadcast, due to the startup of community radio station RockTalk. However RockTalk collapsed in late 2007 and Ofcom granted a license for FuseFM's 16th Broadcast.
Fuse has a history of high quality student broadcasting and its DJs have won awards in the past three National Student Radio Awards
. In 2007 Becca Day-Preston won the Bronze Prize for Female Presenter of the Year, Andrew Jackson won Male Presenter of the Year in 2006, while Minnie Stephenson claimed the Female Presenter of the Year award in 2005.
There are many clubs and societies operating within the Union and the University. Common areas include sports, hobbies, politics and religion. Sports societies are not operated by the Union but rather by the University itself through the Athletics Union. There are several fairs during the freshers period in which various clubs and societies promote themselves.
There are a wide range of religious societies and places of worship within the University. A religions fair is held too, where information is distributed about the different societies. There are large Christian, Muslim
, Jewish, Hindu
, Sikh
, Buddhist
and Bahá'í
societies which hold regular events and meetings.
Most of the large subjects have their own society, which generally represents the interests of students in that subject as well as offering advice and support to students and arranging socials. Examples include the BA Econ Society, the History Society and Faculty of Life Sciences Society.
The University also has a strong Drama tradition and former students include Meera Syal
, Adrian Edmondson
, Rik Mayall
and Ben Elton
. The Drama Society holds a yearly drama festival, involving 13 plays in five theatres and over 120 students, as well as coordinating several independent student-run productions. The Fringe Society in 2006 took twelve plays and over 70 students to the Edinburgh Fringe festival under the company name "Johnny Miller Presents". The company was awarded a ThreeWeeks Editors' Award, which honours the most talked about and exciting people and companies at the festival.
. The MDU was founded in 1996 and is modeled on other similar university debating societies in the UK. The Union organises the participation of Manchester students in intervarsity debating competitions, as well as arranging public debates and hosting its own competitions at both university and school levels.
The MDU was placed 5th in britishdebate.com's 2008/2009 European university debate rankings.
The MDU holds regular public debates on Tuesdays during University semesters. Although these are often conducted by MDU members the society also holds debates with guest speakers. In the past these have included politicians such as George Galloway MP
, Lembit Opik MP
, Tony Lloyd MP
and Sir Richard Leese, as well as various notable experts, academics and campaigners. The MDU also trains its members for participation in competitive debating. Regular practice debates are held on Thursdays and occasional master classes in issues such as international politics and specific aspects of debating are also held.
As well as the regular public debates, MDU holds 3 competitions throughout the year: one intervarsity, one national schools competition, and one local schools competition. As part of their local schools competition MDU members provide debating training to comprehensive schools within the Greater Manchester Area.
, Nablus, Palestine. A motion to enact the twinning was passed in a General Meeting in March 2007. The meeting was attended by over 600 students and the motion was passed by a majority of over 50 votes
In November 2007 a motion was proposed in the general meeting. It resolved to freezing UMSU's association with Al Najah University whilst awaiting a statement "denouncing terror and disassociating it from all terrorist organisations".
An-Najah responded to the motion with a full statement written by the Right to Education campaign. An-Najah rejected the motion and all the accusations: "Neither the University nor its Student Council is a terrorist organisation, and the implication that they are is insulting." They added that the motion is: "defamatory because it repeatedly implies that ANU and its Student Council promotes, facilitates or has links with terrorism."
An amendment was put forward by the "protect our twinning campaign". The amendment resolved to accept the invitation made by An-Najah University for an olive tree from the university to be planted on campus at Manchester as a gesture of peace and as a symbol of life, rather than requiring An Najah to accept the statement denouncing terrorism.
This amendment passed with almost a two-thirds majority of the attendance of over 1100 students.
University of Manchester
The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, and is the UK's largest students' union. It was formed out of the merger between UMIST Students' Association (USA) and University of Manchester Union (UMU) when the parent organisations (UMIST
UMIST
The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology was a university based in the centre of the city of Manchester in England. It specialised in technical and scientific subjects and was a major centre for research...
and the Victoria University of Manchester
Victoria University of Manchester
The Victoria University of Manchester was a university in Manchester, England. On 1 October 2004 it merged with the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology to form a new entity, "The University of Manchester".-1851 - 1951:The University was founded in 1851 as Owens College,...
) merged on the 1 October 2004.
Unlike many other students' unions in the UK, it does not have a president, but is instead run by a 14 member executive team (eight full-time, six voluntary) who share joint responsibility.
Governance
The Union is controlled by three levels of government. The sovereign body is the general meeting that sets policy and may be attended by any Union member. It has a quorumQuorum
A quorum is the minimum number of members of a deliberative assembly necessary to conduct the business of that group...
of 300 members for ordinary meetings which is rarely met; no meetings reached quorum during the academic year of 2009-10. At the October 2010 General Meeting students voted to call an unprecedented referendum
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
on whether policy setting should be moved online so all Union members can vote; this took place in November 2010 showing a 93% support for the plans. Online Voting is to be included in the new Union Constitution currently being ratified by members.
Council
The Union Council has approximately 65 members elected annually. They meet every three weeks in term-time. The Union Executive runs the union on a day-to-day basis and also sits on, and is elected concurrently with, the Council.Executive
The current UMSU executive contains fourteen positions of which eight are full-time sabbatical officers and six are volunteers. All have their own areas of responsibility, but share joint responsibility as trustees of the Union and directors of Materialise Ltd, the Union's external trading company.The positions on the executive are significantly different from those of UMU and USA. Faculty Officers did not exist in either organisation, nor did the full-time Campaigns Officer.
Elections
Elections to the Council and Executive take place in March for the following year, with a by-election in October to fill any vacancies. All Union members are free to stand, and to vote online (since October 2008) via the University's Central IT System, Portal.The elections are organised by the Returning Officer, who was previously nominated by executive from among the sabbatical officers. They would remain impartial in the outcome of the election. However, much power rests in the hands of the returning officer, who can disqualify candidates and rule on anything where the Election Regulations remain silent. Consequently, a number of highly contentious decisions have been made in the past, some of which have been overturned on appeal or by an independent third party.
Starting in 2009 an external Returning Officer has been appointed from NUS to provide a more impartial governance to elections.
Steve Biko Building
The Steve Biko Building (often referred to simply as the Biko Building, or Students' Union) is the Union's primary building and the home of its administrative offices. The building also contains a number of meeting rooms, the main council chamber and various student amenities including a ticket office, an optician, a student shop and a cafeteria. The building is named after anti-apartheid activist Steve BikoSteve Biko
Stephen Biko was a noted anti-apartheid activist in South Africa in the 1960s and 1970s. A student leader, he later founded the Black Consciousness Movement which would empower and mobilize much of the urban black population. Since his death in police custody, he has been called a martyr of the...
.
Barnes Wallis Building
The Barnes Wallis Building, named after Barnes WallisBarnes Wallis
Sir Barnes Neville Wallis, CBE FRS, RDI, FRAeS , was an English scientist, engineer and inventor. He is best known for inventing the bouncing bomb used by the RAF in Operation Chastise to attack the dams of the Ruhr Valley during World War II...
, is situated on the former UMIST
UMIST
The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology was a university based in the centre of the city of Manchester in England. It specialised in technical and scientific subjects and was a major centre for research...
Campus (now North Campus). It originally contained the offices for the UMIST Students'Association. Unlike in the Biko building, the Students' Union does not occupy the whole building but has facilities on the ground floor. It now contains a peer support centre as well as a student bar and a print shop.
Manchester Academy
Manchester Academy refers to the University of Manchester Students' Union's four concert venues. They are situated on Oxford Road both within and adjacent to the Biko building. 'Manchester Academy' was originally the name of the largest of these venues (see picture), but became an umbrella term for both itself and the Union's other venues in 2003. It has hosted such big names as Ian Brown, The Stranglers, Super Furry Animals, Deftones, Pink Floyd, The Cure, The Coral, Blur, Oasis, George Clinton, Nirvana, Manic Street Preachers, The Libertines, The Ramones, Billy Talent, Fightstar, Lost Prophets, Babyshambles, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Supergrass, It Bites and Death Cab for Cutie.Student activities
There are many student-run activities which involve thousands of students in various roles including media, community volunteering fundraising for charity and over 250 societies.Pangaea Festival
UMSU is notable for regularly organising and hosting what is reportedly the largest student-led festival in Europe, Pangaea Festival. This is a biannual event where approximately 4000 students are invited to the Students' Union to enjoy a multi-venue music and arts night utilising rooms throughout the Steve Biko Building and the adjacent Manchester Academy 1 building, to mark the end of most University of Manchester undergraduate exams.http://www.pangaeafestival.co.uk/
The Mancunion
The Mancunion is UMSU's student newspaper and is distributed through four universities; University of ManchesterUniversity of Manchester
The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...
, University of Salford
University of Salford
The University of Salford is a campus university based in Salford, Greater Manchester, England with approximately 20,000 registered students. The main campus is about west of Manchester city centre, on the A6, opposite the former home of the physicist, James Prescott Joule and the Working Class...
and University of Bolton
University of Bolton
The University of Bolton is a university in Bolton, Greater Manchester, England. It has around 14,000 students across all sites and courses, with 700 academic and professional staff. Around 70% of its students come from Bolton and the North West region...
and Manchester Metropolitan University
Manchester Metropolitan University
Manchester Metropolitan University is a university in North West England. Its headquarters and central campus is in the city of Manchester, but there are outlying facilities in the county of Cheshire. It is the third largest university in the United Kingdom in terms of student numbers, behind the...
. A crack team of talented section editors are responsible for producing the paper, with the editor being one of the sabbatical officers on the Union Executive. Nick Renaud-Komiya currently holds this position. The paper has a print-run of 40,000 and there are 20 editions per academic year.
Student Action
Student Action is a community volunteering project that sends student volunteers out to work in the local community. In 2010, there were over 2500 active volunteers working anything from 20–300 hours over the year. More information can be found at http://www.umsu.manchester.ac.uk/actionManchester RAG
Manchester RAG is the official fundraising arm of the UMSU. It is responsible for helping facilitate the fundraising activities of all students in Manchester, and in doing so promoting the personal development of students. Last year Manchester RAG helped University of Manchester students raise £330,000 for a variety of charities, ranging from small community based charities in the North West, to large international development organisations. The vast majority of funds raised come from the many events that Manchester RAG organise throughout the year. Popular events include Jailbreak , a sponsored hitch where participants have to get as far away from Manchester without spending a penny in 30 hours, Bogle, a 55 mile walk around greater Manchester, and Beerfest, a three day student run beer festival which attracts over 1500 students annually. RAG also runs many 'challenge' events such as sponsored expeditions to Mt Kilimanjaro, Everest Base Camp and the Great Wall of China. All fundraising is conducted by hundreds of student volunteers, and the organisation of RAG is run primarily by a committee of students who volunteer their time in addition to their studies. In 2011/12 Manchester RAG aims to raise over £500,000.It's official website is www.manchesterrag.com
Fuse FM
Fuse FMFuse FM
Fuse FM is a student radio station covering the campuses of the University of Manchester, England, UK, broadcasting all year round online via the station's website from the University of Manchester's Student's Union....
is UMSU's radio station. The Student Union Executive accepted the a proposal to create the station in July 2000 and work began on creating a base for the station, which was originally called MintFM. Space in the Union basement was converted into a fully functioning broadcast studio and production suite. Fuse FM went on air for the first time on 15 February 2001 at 06:00, broadcasting on 106.2 FM as well as via internet streaming. Since 2003, Fuse FM has broadcast for four weeks in each academic semester. Fuse Fm was briefly denied it's Spring 2008 license to broadcast, due to the startup of community radio station RockTalk. However RockTalk collapsed in late 2007 and Ofcom granted a license for FuseFM's 16th Broadcast.
Fuse has a history of high quality student broadcasting and its DJs have won awards in the past three National Student Radio Awards
Student Radio Awards
The Student Radio Awards is a UK awards scheme celebrating talent within the UK student radio industry, held annually since 1996 by the Student Radio Association and supported by BBC Radio 1....
. In 2007 Becca Day-Preston won the Bronze Prize for Female Presenter of the Year, Andrew Jackson won Male Presenter of the Year in 2006, while Minnie Stephenson claimed the Female Presenter of the Year award in 2005.
Societies
See also: University of Manchester: Clubs and SocietiesThere are many clubs and societies operating within the Union and the University. Common areas include sports, hobbies, politics and religion. Sports societies are not operated by the Union but rather by the University itself through the Athletics Union. There are several fairs during the freshers period in which various clubs and societies promote themselves.
There are a wide range of religious societies and places of worship within the University. A religions fair is held too, where information is distributed about the different societies. There are large Christian, Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
, Jewish, Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
, Sikh
Sikhism
Sikhism is a monotheistic religion founded during the 15th century in the Punjab region, by Guru Nanak Dev and continued to progress with ten successive Sikh Gurus . It is the fifth-largest organized religion in the world and one of the fastest-growing...
, Buddhist
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
and Bahá'í
Bahá'í Faith
The Bahá'í Faith is a monotheistic religion founded by Bahá'u'lláh in 19th-century Persia, emphasizing the spiritual unity of all humankind. There are an estimated five to six million Bahá'ís around the world in more than 200 countries and territories....
societies which hold regular events and meetings.
Most of the large subjects have their own society, which generally represents the interests of students in that subject as well as offering advice and support to students and arranging socials. Examples include the BA Econ Society, the History Society and Faculty of Life Sciences Society.
The University also has a strong Drama tradition and former students include Meera Syal
Meera Syal
Meera Syal MBE is a British comedienne, writer, playwright, singer, journalist, producer and actress. She rose to prominence as one of the team that created Goodness Gracious Me and became one of the UK's best-known Indian personalities portraying Sanjeev's grandmother, Ummi, in The Kumars at No...
, Adrian Edmondson
Adrian Edmondson
Adrian Charles "Ade" Edmondson is an English comedian. He is probably best known for his comedic roles in the television series The Young Ones and Bottom , for which he also wrote together with his long-time collaboration partner Rik Mayall.-Early life:Edmondson, the second of four children, was...
, Rik Mayall
Rik Mayall
Richard Michael "Rik" Mayall is an English comedian, writer, and actor. He is known for his comedy partnership with Ade Edmondson, his over-the-top, energetic portrayal of characters, and as a pioneer of alternative comedy in the early 1980s...
and Ben Elton
Ben Elton
Benjamin Charles "Ben" Elton is an English comedian, author, playwright and director. He was a leading figure in the British alternative comedy movement of the 1980s, as a writer on such cult series as The Young Ones and Blackadder, as well as also a successful stand-up comedian on stage and TV....
. The Drama Society holds a yearly drama festival, involving 13 plays in five theatres and over 120 students, as well as coordinating several independent student-run productions. The Fringe Society in 2006 took twelve plays and over 70 students to the Edinburgh Fringe festival under the company name "Johnny Miller Presents". The company was awarded a ThreeWeeks Editors' Award, which honours the most talked about and exciting people and companies at the festival.
Manchester Debating Union
The Manchester Debating Union (MDU) (home page) is the debating society ; membership is also open to people from other higher education institutions in Manchester, including Manchester Metropolitan UniversityManchester Metropolitan University
Manchester Metropolitan University is a university in North West England. Its headquarters and central campus is in the city of Manchester, but there are outlying facilities in the county of Cheshire. It is the third largest university in the United Kingdom in terms of student numbers, behind the...
. The MDU was founded in 1996 and is modeled on other similar university debating societies in the UK. The Union organises the participation of Manchester students in intervarsity debating competitions, as well as arranging public debates and hosting its own competitions at both university and school levels.
The MDU was placed 5th in britishdebate.com's 2008/2009 European university debate rankings.
The MDU holds regular public debates on Tuesdays during University semesters. Although these are often conducted by MDU members the society also holds debates with guest speakers. In the past these have included politicians such as George Galloway MP
George Galloway
George Galloway is a British politician, author, journalist and broadcaster who was a Member of Parliament from 1987 to 2010. He was formerly an MP for the Labour Party, first for Glasgow Hillhead and later for Glasgow Kelvin, before his expulsion from the party in October 2003, the same year...
, Lembit Opik MP
Lembit Öpik
Lembit Öpik is a British Liberal Democrat politician. He was the Member of Parliament for the constituency of Montgomeryshire in Wales from 1997 until he lost his seat in the 2010 General Election...
, Tony Lloyd MP
Tony Lloyd
Anthony Joseph 'Tony' Lloyd is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Manchester Central since 1997.-Early life:...
and Sir Richard Leese, as well as various notable experts, academics and campaigners. The MDU also trains its members for participation in competitive debating. Regular practice debates are held on Thursdays and occasional master classes in issues such as international politics and specific aspects of debating are also held.
As well as the regular public debates, MDU holds 3 competitions throughout the year: one intervarsity, one national schools competition, and one local schools competition. As part of their local schools competition MDU members provide debating training to comprehensive schools within the Greater Manchester Area.
Twinning with a Palestinian University
UMSU is twinned with An Najah UniversityAn-Najah National University
An-Najah National University is a Palestinian non-governmental public university governed by a board of Trustees. It is located in Nablus, in the northern West Bank. The university has over 16,500 students and 300 professors in 19 faculties...
, Nablus, Palestine. A motion to enact the twinning was passed in a General Meeting in March 2007. The meeting was attended by over 600 students and the motion was passed by a majority of over 50 votes
In November 2007 a motion was proposed in the general meeting. It resolved to freezing UMSU's association with Al Najah University whilst awaiting a statement "denouncing terror and disassociating it from all terrorist organisations".
An-Najah responded to the motion with a full statement written by the Right to Education campaign. An-Najah rejected the motion and all the accusations: "Neither the University nor its Student Council is a terrorist organisation, and the implication that they are is insulting." They added that the motion is: "defamatory because it repeatedly implies that ANU and its Student Council promotes, facilitates or has links with terrorism."
An amendment was put forward by the "protect our twinning campaign". The amendment resolved to accept the invitation made by An-Najah University for an olive tree from the university to be planted on campus at Manchester as a gesture of peace and as a symbol of life, rather than requiring An Najah to accept the statement denouncing terrorism.
This amendment passed with almost a two-thirds majority of the attendance of over 1100 students.
Famous Former Officers
- Anna FordAnna FordAnna Ford is a retired English journalist and television presenter, best known as a newsreader....
(President 1966-67) - Anna Ford was the first female President of UMU in 1966-67 and, on recommendation of the Students' Union became Chancellor of The Victoria University of ManchesterVictoria University of ManchesterThe Victoria University of Manchester was a university in Manchester, England. On 1 October 2004 it merged with the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology to form a new entity, "The University of Manchester".-1851 - 1951:The University was founded in 1851 as Owens College,...
on 16 December 2001. Upon the merger with UMISTUMISTThe University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology was a university based in the centre of the city of Manchester in England. It specialised in technical and scientific subjects and was a major centre for research...
she became the co-chancellor of the new University of ManchesterUniversity of ManchesterThe University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...
. - Liam ByrneLiam ByrneLiam Dominic Byrne is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Hodge Hill since 2004, and was the Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2009 to 2010 before being appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on 20 January 2011.-Early...
(Communications Officer 1992-93) - (former Chief Secretary to the Treasury)