The National Union of Students is a representative body for the student unions that exist inside the United Kingdom. Although NUS is the central organisation for all affiliated unions in the UK, there also exist NUS Scotland, UCM Cymru/NUS Wales and NUS-USI in Northern Ireland.
The NUS was formed in 1922 from the merging of the Inter-Varsity Association and the International Students Bureau. It now has over 700 constinuent members (either higher education or further education establishments) and through which it represents approximately 5 million UK students. However a number of high profile educational institutions are not members.
The NUS holds national conferences once a year. National Conference is the sovereign body of NUS, and is where NUS policy is decided. Other conferences, such as Regional Conferences, Women's Conference, Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual Conference, Students With Disabilities Conference, Black Students' Conference and the International Students' Conference (created in 2003) are run to enhance the representation of the specific members they include.
All UK Students' Unions are able to join the NUS (providing this is approved by National Conference). To become a constituent member, unions must pay an affiliation fee to NUS, which at the time of writing (April 4th 2003) is based upon the number of students in the union, and the money received by the union from its parent institution.
