National Union of Students of the Universities and Colleges of England, Wales and Northern Ireland

Students' unions and guilds had existed in individual British universities since the 19th century, but there was no attempt to set up a national body until the early years of the 20th century. The British Universities Congress was established in 1906 and met annually until 1914 and a variety of other organisations were established in succeeding years. In February 1922 two of these organisations, the Inter-University Association and the International Students' Bureau, amalgamated at a meeting held at the University of London to form the National Union of Students, largely to provide a British body that could affiliate to the Confdration Internationale des Etudiants (CIE).

By 1924, all universities and university colleges in Britain were members of the NUS. In its early years, the NUS concentrated on organising student travel opportunities, vacation work and language courses. A Travel Department was set up and in 1924 the NUS took over responsibility for the CIE's International Travel Commission, organising student travel throughout the world. In 1934, the NUS produced a report on student health and soon came to be recognised as a body that would support students in all aspects of their lives and ensure that their views and interests were represented to the government and other relevant bodies. By the late 1930s the NUS had a reputation for radicalism and barely survived the outbreak of war in 1939. After the war, membership widened to include non-university colleges. Travel remained a major concern and the NUS derived much of its revenue from its travel company. However, problems in the travel industry in the 1970s led to a collapse and the union was forced to sell the company. The NUS now has about 750 member institutions. Each students' union is entirely autonomous and the NUS has no authority over individual unions; it is purely a co-ordinating body.

From the outset, the NUS was organised on a federal basis, with individual students' unions and guilds sending delegates to an Annual Council. Here they elected (and still elect) an Executive, which met at least three times a year. The Annual Council was later replaced with Winter and Spring Conferences until 1991, when the Winter Conference was abolished. A National Council was instituted at that time and is required to meet at least twice (three times since 2000) between Annual Conferences. It consists of the NEC and members elected by Regional Conferences, Campaign Conferences and special committees. Every constituent member may send one delegate to Annual Conference for every 1,000 full-time equivalent students the institution has (although all with more than 750 students can send at least two delegates); all but one of each delegation (usually the union president) must be elected by the students. Since 1952 the President has been elected for a two year term (previously only for one year). NUS Scotland, NUS/UCMC Wales and NUS-USI Northern Ireland (Northern Irish institutions were only admitted from the late 1940s) are semi-autonomous and their Presidents have seats on the 26-member NUS National Executive Committee (NEC), which is accountable to the Annual Conference and National Council. Originally, the Executive consisted of one representative of each member union, but now it is much smaller; eleven of the NEC members are full-time and paid and the remaining fifteen are part-time and unpaid.

The NUS has a Steering Committee, which organises and runs Annual Conference, a Finance Committee, a Rules Revision Committee and an Elections Committee, which scrutinises union elections to ensure fairness. These are made up of a mixture of elected members, members of the NEC and (on the Elections Committee) independent scrutineers.

In 1962, the NUS had Education and Welfare (previously Grants and Welfare), Events, Publications and Travel Departments. The Travel Department operated the NUS Hostel in London.

From the guide to the Papers of the National Union of Students, 1933-1993, (Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick Library)