Jack Fenton
Within the recent Student Union Officer elections, and generally across all student voting, there is a surprising lack of participation from those who are most affected by the results of a referendum. Students today are exceptionally busy. People, in general, could be forgetful or perhaps unaware of these votes. But the staggeringly high rate of absentee voters, for a service as integral and important as a student’s support structure and representation during their financially draining and academically straining next year, is surprising.
Of those aged 18-24, which constitutes a large majority of the 2.94 million university students in the UK, the demographic is the least likely to vote or even register in political elections on any level.1
Talking to students around campus, a common theme seemed to be a lack of awareness that the vote was even taking place.
One student, third-year Rose Slater, said “I know it’s a thing but I did not know it was happening” and that they overall felt that “This year I think the advertising was lacking”. They continued that they felt despite observing “election emails, fliers and emails from candidates themselves” throughout last year it seems like this year that more exposure was needed. However, they also commented that “They probably have been around campus, I’m just on a tunnelled path to lectures all the time!” highlighting a specific section of students, those who simply engage with the university for their course, that received little to no exposure to SU electoral advertising.
Other students, like third-year Charlie Carey, said that they had even “heard of other SU elections in Manchester” but had not received or heard much about the UoN SU elections at all.
In my personal experience as a student on campus, I felt very close to their perspectives. I was vaguely aware of the elections but was never certain of the dates or the candidates.
Potential answers to this issue aren’t very helpful. It’s very easy to ask for ‘more awareness’ regarding SU votes but frankly, the already healthy advertising for the elections being upscaled would border dangerously close to being an annoyance. The only real actionable suggestion to help awareness of SU elections is more awareness in mandatory situations, like lectures or prefacing seminars, but these are unreliable at best and take away from learning time.
Another way student interaction could be improved is for those that do see the elections, yet don’t understand what exactly they pertain to.
Third-year student Sophie said that they “knew about the elections due to the adverts around Uni” yet felt “The elections were advertised well but the candidates weren’t. I think there could be more information about how they impact students more…there should be more on the adverts on who they concern.”.
This is far more of a surmountable problem; these students at the very least are aware of the elections to begin with. The suggestion here would be to simply increase information surrounding candidates and their relative positions. This can be achieved by simple changes to the amount of information and promotion available for the elections. By expressing just how easy it is to vote, the candidates themselves and what they all represent from the outset on emails, fliers and posters, and how impactful to supporting their student life the election will be on those things, people that feel like their voice doesn’t matter and people who are unsure of what each candidate stands for could be persuaded to engage.
However, some students felt the opposite completely, such as third-year student Freya Hazelwood, who not only voted but found the “website with everyone’s manifestos extremely helpful” and that the fact the elections were running was “pretty obvious”. This highlights just how individual and case-by-case this problem can be,
The problem of low voter turnout will always exist. Especially in a demographic as flippant, busy and unpredictable as those surrounding higher education.2 Whilst changes to the already well-trod communication methods may seem piecemeal or useless – if they help stimulate even one more vote then they are worth it. To that end then, when faced with low turnout time after time, the only potential solution that seems plausible is a slow, painful improvement to the information surrounding the election. Cultivating a culture of student interaction is a hands-off and long endeavour, but one worth it to foster a healthy democratic tradition at UoN.
Jack Fenton
