Sussex students have voted to boycott the National Student Survey in a Students’ Union referendum.

62% of the 964 students who voted chose to support the Students’ Union’s plans to campaign to boycott the NSS, which was supported by the National Union of Students in a national vote earlier in the year.

Students last week voted also voted in favour of an NUS risk assessment on the proposed boycott in a national poll conducted by all students’ unions affiliated with the NUS.

However, Union Council, made up of elected student representatives and the full-time and part-time officers, voted in favour of starting campaigning for the boycott before the risk assessment is published in a meeting last night.

In the meeting, Rose Taylor, Postgraduate Education Officer, said: “Waiting for the risk assessment to come out before joining the NSS [national boycott] campaign would make the NSS boycott a lot less effective and potentially redundant.”

Savannah Sevenzo, Undergraduate Education Officer, echoed this view and said that waiting to campaign until the risk assessment would be ignoring the mandate given to the Union to support the boycott of the survey.

Whether or not the NUS will go ahead with the risk assessment will be announced on Friday (December 9).

Voting for the referendum, which asked ‘Should the Students’ Union campaign for students to boycott the National Student Survey in 2017?’, had been extended by four days after the arguments for both sides of the poll were accidently left out of last week’s edition from The Badger by the Student’s Union.

RESULT:

Should the Students’ Union campaign for students to boycott the National Student Survey in 2017?

YES 62% (536 votes) NO 38% (326 votes) 102 abstentions

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