Cambridge University Students’ Union (CUSU) and the Graduate Union (GU) have renewed a proposal that would see them funded largely by colleges themselves, rather than by JCRs and MCRs.

Under the current system, JCRS and MCRs that are affiliated to the student unions pay an Affiliation Fee, which is calculated based on the numbers of students at each college. As a result, affiliated combination rooms can then send representatives to vote at CUSU Council meetings, and also receive certain “institutional” services from CUSU, including officer training.

However, separate to this system, all undergraduate students are automatically members of CUSU, as graduate and mature students are of the GU, and the two central student unions are forbidden to discriminate between individual students based on whether or not their combination room is affiliated to it.

Consequently, students from a college whose JCR or MCR has disaffiliated from CUSU or the GU may still vote in their elections and referenda, make use of any central services provided by them such as printing, or receive funding from them for campaigns.

CUSU and GU claim that, under this system, student combination rooms “believe that their members will be minimally disadvantaged by a decision to disaffiliate and subsequently withdraw funding from the unions”, and are thus more likely to separate from the central bodies.

CUSU has been pushing for the change for some time, but has met resistance from some college bursars.

A consultation on the topic found bursars evenly split on whether to support the new system. In response, CUSU created a new funding proposal, which the GU Council gave its support to in June.

Former CUSU President Priscilla Mensah argued that when JCRs and MCRs disaffiliate, the subsequent cut in funding “directly impacts all students”.

In the proposal, which GU President Chad Allen also contributed to, Mensah argued that the current funding model is “precarious” for the central unions, as well as being “unfair”, as the colleges that do pay affiliation fees are “subsidising” those that do not, and paying “higher” fees than necessary.

Instead, the document proposes that colleges, rather than JCRS and MCRs, are charged a “levy” related to the number of CUSU/GU members at each college. It suggests that, to maintain CUSU’s current level of funding, £5.90 would have been needed to be charged, with undergraduates and graduates being charged the same amount.

“The University’s been very sympathetic to CUSU's position,” GU President Allen told Varsity. “The Colleges, understandably, are less unanimous in their opinion. Most bursars sympathise, but many also have concerns about accountability in the case of a simple levy.”

Individual students are currently able to disaffiliate themselves from the student unions by applying directly to the Junior Proctor of the University.

“Not everyone knows that they have a right to individually opt-out of membership,” said Allen, adding that it “should be better advertised.”

Individually disaffiliated students would still have access to voting platforms and welfare support, but would be unable to use services such printing, binding and gown hire, Allen told the GU Council.

If successful, the levy system would echo a similar funding change at Oxford’s student union, OUSU, who in 2010 shifted from an affiliation-fee based model to receiving a block grant from the university.

OUSU say that the old affiliation model created a “deeply destructive free-rider problem”, in which college unions could “disaffiliate, cease to pay their affiliation fees but nevertheless receive all the practical benefits of affiliation anyway.”

Regarding the situation in Cambridge, Allen said: “As it stands, individual students don't lose anything if their college union disaffiliates – but their union will have more money to spend on them.”

The change would be especially welcome for CUSU, after a two-year period in which they had to seek a bailout from the University, and were forced to cut print funding to The Cambridge Student (TCS). 

They are likely to face affiliation referendums from some JCRs next year in reaction to TCS cuts and the outcome of the vote on NUS affiliation.

At present, each JCR and MCR pays £6.70 per undergraduate and £3 per graduate student to CUSU per year. For a large college such as Homerton, this constitutes a cost of over £6,000 annually.

Queens’ college’s JCR presidents, who promised to give students a say on CUSU membership, claim this figure stands at £3,400 per year for their college. The total figure for CUSU affiliation fees stands at around £100,000.