NUS Statement

As you may be aware Cardiff Met Students’ Union is not a member of the National Union of Students. The decision made in the interests of our students was made several years ago not to affiliate to NUS Wales following a number of concerns about the service we received, particularly given the substantial cost of membership.

Since this decision was made the Students’ Union has been able to invest the affiliation money back into you, our members, to ensure that you have the best student experience possible. We have developed the representation structure in each academic school to include 3 levels; School Rep, Lead Rep and Course Rep. These roles are now well-established meaning the student voice is now heard at all levels of the institution in a representative and effective manner, and our representative structure continues to develop each year.

In 2012 the Welsh Government announced that it intended to merge 3 institutions in South Wales to form the University of South Wales, an idea that was supported by NUS Wales. This would have resulted in Cardiff Metropolitan University and Newport University being dissolved as a University and taken over by the University of Glamorgan. In a secret ballot, over 90% of Cardiff Met students voted to remain autonomous and mandated the Students' Union Officers to campaign against the plans. If we had not been an autonomous organisation we would not have been able to conduct this campaign and protect our students’ interests.

By being an independent union we were in a much stronger position to represent our students’ views and conduct a major political campaign across all political parties, which contributed and lead to the Welsh Government withdrawing its plans.

We’re now in a great position to represent and support you not just on campus at a local level but increasingly at a national level through our connections with the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) and Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW), two key players in the HE sector.

Some NUS member students benefit from purchasing a discount card at a cost of £11 a year. So that our students don’t miss out we have introduced the Swipe Card. Swipe costs you just £10 and is valid for 3 years. It is the only card that can get you discounts every day on campus in SU venues such as Zen, Centro, Starbucks and our shops. You can also get discounts around Cardiff with our Swipe partners such as: Motorpoint Arena, Doctor Who Experience, The Red Dragon Centre and many more. A full list of Swipe offers and discounts can be found at http://www.cardiffmetsu.co.uk/swipe/.