The impact of these laws on the activities of student unions are a big issue for student activists. This is because student campaigners of all sorts are regularly told by their student union officers that particular proposals to the SU are ultra vires and cannot be carried out.

This guide seeks to set out in basic terms what the law says and what it doesn’t; explain how in most cases it is relatively easy to get round ultra vires perfectly legally, providing some suggestions for doing so; and put the case for campaigning for changes to the law so that students alone and not the government can determine how our unions’ money is spent. We intend it as a contribution to rebuilding the culture of political campaigning that we need in the student movement.

See the ENS website: