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During the 2024 UQ Union election season, we collectively elected seven members to the National Union of Students (NUS). The NUS is the peak representative body for 1.2 million tertiary students, advocating on their behalf and lobbying the federal government for better student conditions.
A key victory in 2024 was the federal government’s commitment to directing 40% of the Student Services and Amenities Fee (SAAF) to student-led organizations. At UQ, the SAAF is around $365 for full-time students, and currently, 50% of it is allocated to student-led organizations, exceeding the target.
The NUS hold a conference every December where elected delegates from all affiliated universities attend and vote on what the executive NUS members should do throughout the next year, as well as the stances of the NUS as a whole.
The national conference was held at the Mt Melen campus at Federation University in Victoria from the 9th to 12th of December 2024. In this recent conference, over 400 pages of motions were decided upon. As such, giving an entire recap of the conference would be about as long as the conference itself, however I will provide a summary of some of the most important motions.
The NUS in 2025 have endorsed a move to have 100% of SAAF to go towards student-led organisations within universities. The NUS also called for clarification on the broad definition of “student-led organisations,” as some universities have created pseudo-student-led groups with unelected, staff-appointed members, rather than a democratic process, such as that of the UQ Union.
Additionally, the NUS advocated for free education for domestic and international students, in recognition that many other developed countries can offer this basic right, and Australia has the capacity to do so.
Furthermore, the NUS has supported cutting the cap on international students. The federal government announced that in 2025 only 270,000 new international student commencements would be able to take place. This is around a 30% decrease from 2024. Delegates at the conference stated that these caps are part of a ‘racist culture-war-like campaign against international students’.
The NUS conference voted against the Australia, United Kingdom and United States nuclear submarine deal (AUKUS) for the first time. This is a reversal of the decision last year, whereby AUKUS was approved by the conference.
The conflict between Israel and Palestine, which has resulted in the genocide of tens of thousands of Palestinians was discussed within the conference. The NUS followed the lead of many universities across Australia in 2024 in denouncing the actions of Israel and calling for a ceasefire and for the Australian federal government to cease all political or financial support to Israel.
Now that 2025 has kicked off, it is up to the executive of the NUS to action the conference’s policy decisions. Semper Floreat will report on the decisions and actions of the executive; we look forward to a successful year ahead with the hopes that the federal government will listen to students.
Written by Samuel Wong
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