The Lancaster University Students' Union (LUSU) is a students' union at Lancaster University in Lancashire, England. It is a registered company and charity overseen by a board of trustees. Politically, it is led by four sabbatical officers - the President, Wellbeing Officer, Education Officer, and Activities Officer - who are elected annually by the student membership.
History
Early history, 1964–74 The original student government at Lancaster University was the university Junior Common Room (JCR), which was a meeting of the entire student body, and college JCRs, though the colleges did not yet exist in physical form. The day-to-day running of the University JCR was deputed to a committee called the Student Council, which was responsible to the University JCR. The Council set up various sub-committees to deal with areas such as lodgings, charities week, and the university bookshop.
In June 1965, two students presented a report on the future of Student Council, in which they argued: "To coordinate the activities of the University societies some central organisation and representation is required. To this end we will have to have a Students' Union which will be similar to other University unions but with no union building." In response, Professor Tom Lawrenson, the principal of Lonsdale College, argued that there should instead be "a top body which arises organically from the colleges... I feel that the body you propose would be, in time, schismatic and in vacuo, devoid of real roots among its constitutents in a collegiate university..."
2019–20 controversies
Bailrigg FM broadcast license In April 2019, LUSU announced that it would not be renewing funding for Bailrigg FM's full-time FM broadcast license and that it would have to switch to online-only broadcast after 20 years of broadcasting on 87.7FM. The story was picked up by local by regional radio and news outlets BBC Radio Lancashire and newspaper Lancs Live, with then Station Manager of Bailrigg FM, Pascal Maguet, giving interviews to both expressing disappointment at the decision. Alumni members of the radio station such as Louis Barfe, James Masterton and Paul Dale publicly condemned the decision as well as a number of student media institutions at other universities.
The decision was overturned by the Trustee Board in August 2019.
Proposed sale of The Sugarhouse In September 2019, following a leak to the media, LUSU confirmed that negotiations were underway to potentially sell the Sugarhouse nightclub to build student flats, following a vote of the Trustee Board The "risk of noise complaints" was identified as a key reason to sell the Sugarhouse, but it was revealed that no noise complaints had been made about the nightclub. Many expressed opposition to the decision, including alumni James May and Cat Smith, along with Lancaster city councillors. Concerns were raised over the role Lancaster University management played in pushing for the sale, and the lack of transparency surrounding the process. Following the backlash against the proposed sale, LUSU's Chief Executive and two external trustees resigned.
After petitions opposing the plans on Change.org and on LUSU's website received over 4,000 and 1,100 signatures respectively, the LUSU Exec decided to hold a student referendum in November 2019 over the sale, in which 94% of students voted against the sale. Despite having refused to guarantee that the referendum result would be respected, LUSU's Trustee Board unanimously agreed to abandon their plans to sell the Sugarhouse in December 2019.
Sabbatical officer resignations In November 2019 and March 2020, two sabbatical officers resigned, both citing a "toxic" culture within the students' union. In May 2020, after having been re-elected to serve a second term, the president was summarily dismissed following an independent investigation and hearing into unspecified, but multiple, complaints against him. Immediately following his dismissal, a third sabbatical officer, and two voluntary student officers also resigned. The following month, an independent appeals panel upheld the decision to dismiss the former president.
June 2020 Presidential by-election A new president for the 2020–21 academic year was elected in a June 2020 by-election, but the Returning Officer's decision to disqualify all votes cast for the Re-Open Nominations (RON) option led to many students questioning the legitimacy of the result. Other concerns about the process of the by-election were raised, including discrepancies in the reported turnout figure and the fact that the JCRs did not oversee the vote count, as is required by LUSU's bylaws. Most JCRs issued statements demanding LUSU's rationale for disqualifying RON be publicised, and for the results before the disqualification to be released, as it was widely assumed that RON would have won. Additionally, Grizedale JCR threatened to boycott freshers' week, and County JCR to disaffiliate from LUSU entirely if their requests for transparency were not met. The Women+ voluntary student officer-elect also resigned in protest over LUSU's handling of the by-election.
Proposed reforms Following several unpopular decisions made without student consultation (such as the attempts to sell The Sugarhouse nightclub and to remove the funding for Bailrigg FM's radio broadcast licence), student demands for the reform of the Trustee Board grew throughout 2019. The fact that since 2016, the Trustee Board was majority-unelected was identified as a reason for them repeatedly coming into conflict with the democratic will of the student membership. The October 2019 LUSU AGM voted for all the trustees to be elected by the student membership, and for a constitutional convention to review LUSU's Articles of Association and related bylaws. In addition, students voted for the Trustee Board to be majority-elected in a November 2019 referendum.
Changes to the Full Time Officer team Before 2024, the sabbatical officer team (known as the Full Time Officer, or FTO, team) consisted of:
The President Vice President Union Development Vice President Welfare Vice President Education Vice President Societies and Media Vice President Sport
In January 2024 the makeup of the FTO team structure was changed, reducing the roles from six officers to four. By refining the team down, it was believed that they would be able to be more cohesive, more clearly representative of students, and easier to support from a staff resource perspective, there would also be the added benefit of a cost saving which could be reinvested back into the organisation.
The new FTO structure, starting in the 2024/25 academic year, is now:
The President Wellbeing Officer Education Officer Activities Officer
Student Democratic Leadership
The Executive Committee and Union Assembly Before 2023, LUSU's political decision-making body was 'The Executive Committee' ("Exec"). Its membership consisted of the then six sabbatical officers, six voluntary elected student officers, two JCR or PG Board representatives, and two faculty representatives. The Exec was responsible for reviewing students' policy ideas, and scrutinising the implementation of agreed policy.
In 2023, this democratic body was replaced by Union Assembly. The members of the Assembly are as follows:
A student chair- and co-chair person The four full time officers (originally six) The nine College presidents The five Liberation & Campaign Officers Seven representatives from Sport Committee Seven representatives from Societies Committee The twelve Faculty Student Academic Representatives
In 2023/24 only, four student delegates elected from the general student body also sat on Union Assembly.
Union Assembly meets twice a term to receive updates of, and provide scrutiny over, the work of the FTO team, and, as 'the Exec' before, review students' policy ideas and scrutinise and implement agreed students' union policy. Union Assembly meetings are open to all students to attend and participate in debate, and, from February 2026, are also available to watch along live through LA1TV online.
Junior common rooms and PG Board Each of the eight undergraduate Colleges has an elected Junior Common Room Executive ("JCR Exec" or simply "JCR"), responsible for representing students on and off campus, running college-based welfare and academic campaigns, and organising events. The exact structure of each Executive varies between colleges, but they all consist of around fifteen positions including a president, at least one vice president, wellbeing officers, social secretaries, communications officers, and sports representatives. Graduate College, as the only postgraduate college, instead has a Postgraduate Board or "PG Board".
College Presidents regularly meet with LUSU in 'President's Committee', chaired by the LUSU President.
Liberation & Campaign Groups To ensure representation of marginalised groups within the student community, five liberation groups operate under LUSU:
The Accessibility Community The Ethnic Minorities Committee The International Students' Forum The LGBTQ+ Community The Women's+ Network
Membership of these groups is automatic and free for any student who identifies as one or more of the characteristics represented by them. Similar to JCRs, the executive makeups of all of these groups are each slightly different, but they all have a lead student representative officer, known as a Liberation & Campaign Officer, or 'LCO' (previously Part-Time Officer), who sits on Union Assembly.
LCOs and liberation groups fall under the remit of the LUSU Wellbeing Officer.
The above liberation structure at LUSU came into effect for the 2025/26 academic year after changes were agreed at Union Assembly in April 2025. These changes primarily adjusted group names, moving away from the term 'forums' which was deemed to be unclear, and giving them more autonomy over their own identities. The most notable change, however, was the removal of the Postgraduate & Mature Students' Forum and Officer, recognising that postgraduate students and mature students are two different demographics, and identifying that representation of the postgraduate community was already served by the PG Board and Academic Reps. A PhD Forum was created to serve PhD students, although sitting under the LUSU Academic Rep structure rather than liberation, and no facility was created to replace lost representation for mature students.
Academic representation Student Academic Representatives ('Academic Reps') are a joint venture between LUSU and Lancaster University, formally agreed between the two organisations at a meeting of Senate in June 2015. All programmes in a department should have at least one elected Academic Rep, whose role it is to act as a liaison between students and academic staff across the university to raise feedback and concerns regarding their courses.
From the pool of programme level Academic Reps, Faculty Reps are then elected to represent the Undergraduate, Postgraduate Taught, and Postgraduate Research student cohorts for each of the four faculties at Lancaster University: Faculty of Science and Technology (FST), Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (FHASS), Faculty of Health and Medicine (FHM), and Lancaster University Management School (LUMS).
Academic Representation falls under the remit of the LUSU Education Officer.
Sport and societies committees The Sport Committee and Societies Committee are both chaired by the LUSU Activities Officer, representing a cross section of student executive members from LUSU affiliated sports clubs and societies respectively.
Services The Sugarhouse