Liam Burns, the current president of NUS Scotland, won the NUS presidency election yesterday.

Described as moderate, the physics graduate from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh defeated the socialist candidate Mark Bergfeld and another NUS 'moderate’ candidate, Shane Chowen, the current further education vice president of NUS and the candidate who was backed by outgoing president Aaron Porter.

Liam will take over as NUS president on the 1st of July, succeeding Aaron Porter, who, among some controversy, chose not to stand for re-election this year. This means that Porter will be the first NUS president not to serve for two terms since 1978.

Burns has pledged to campaign for tuition fees at UK universities to be paid by taxation. As NUS president of Scotland, he had managed to secure promises from politicians to rule out the introduction of tuition fees for Scottish students by the Scottish Parliament.

In the next year, Burns has promised ‘civil disobedience’, such as sit-ins and occupations.

In the election Liam Burns secured 322 first preference votes, compared to 250 for Shane Chowen and 149 for the Mark Bergfeld, a member of the Socialist Workers Party. NUS presidential elections are decided on a system of delegates, where representatives from member unions vote for their preferred candidates.

Burns was voted for by Rahul Mansigani, the CUSU president.

Mansigani said that he was hoping that Burns "will be a strong President who will provide a real sense of direction and capitalise on the wave of passion from student unions and activists".

He also said that he believed that Burns is "a candidate who could bring a fresh perspective who could not only build on Aaron's legacy but learn from his mistakes".