Cambridge SU (SU) is to offer students the opportunity to vote on whether to remain affiliated with the National Union of Students UK (NUS), in a referendum set to take place between the 27th and 30th October.

The NUS is the national representative of university and college students across the UK, and is a confederation of over 600 student unions across the country. SU has been affiliated since forming in 2020 out of a merger between the graduate and postgraduate student unions.

However, the NUS has come under increasing pressure in recent months from Student Unions and other student groups across the country, due to it having not taken a stance on Israel’s campaign in Gaza.

In July, over 210 student officers, societies and student groups published an open letter directed to the Board of Directors of the NUS, calling for it to take action. Among the demands of the group, which included postgraduate president Augustin Denis, were calls for the NUS to condemn a “plausible genocide” in Gaza, as well as Israel’s “occupation of Palestinian territories”. The letter also called for the NUS to “rescind the IHRA definition of antisemitism,” which it describes as conflating “anti-Zionism with anti-semitism”.

In addition to the disaffiliation referendum, the SU will also ask students whether it should “campaign to end university investments and collaborations with institutions involved in occupation and weapons manufacture”.

The question of divestment was a key one during February’s SU election, with both the undergraduate and post-graduate presidents having campaigned on platforms promising to call for divestment. It has also manifested as a key issue for student campaigners since the beginning of the war in Gaza, with the group Cambridge for Palestine (C4P) holding regular rallies calling for the university and colleges to divest. C4P also endorsed a series of candidates in this year’s election, including postgraduate president Denis.

The announced referendum on NUS membership is not the first time that Cambridge students have considered disaffiliation motions. The last time was in 2016, when the then Cambridge University Students’ Union (CUSU) voted by a margin of 52% to 47% to remain affiliated, with slightly more than 1% of students voting to abstain.

However, that vote took place in a far different atmosphere, with the referendum being triggered by the election of a controversial NUS President whom some students considered to have made antisemitic remarks. A slate of other universities, including Oxford, Newcastle and Warwick, held votes at the same time.

In contrast, while July’s open letter claimed to have signatures from “more than 55 campuses,” SUs at other universities are not known to be considering similar referenda.

A vote to disaffiliate would mark a shift from Cambridge students, who have produced four past presidents of the organisation. Notably, former CUSU president and current Secretary of State for Health Wes Streeting headed the union between 2008 and 2010, having previously studied History at Selwyn College.