We want to hear your ideas—big or small—for change at LSE!
Fill in the short application form here and we will be in touch to set up an initial meeting.
Maybe your academic rep has even tried to solve it by raising with staff, but nothing has changed. For example, a specific department might be consistently failing to recognise and accommodate student’s academic adjustments and access needs.
We want to empower students to act on issues affecting them as students right now but may not constitute a campaign. A dispute is when we have a public confrontation with a power holder and are a way to improve the conditions and experience of students.
Book a drop-in session here or email su.campaigns@lse.ac.uk to discuss with the SU Campaigns Coordinator about the possibility of a dispute
Please have a read of the principles that underpin our approach to campaigns below before applying.
Campaigns must be student-led. While we are confident that SU staff can provide useful strategic and administrative support, campaigns must remain student led as the Union is, at its core, a membership organisation.
This does not mean that the Union simply says yes to all campaigns. In contrast, it means that we will need to be confident that the campaigners we support can demonstrate their e their capacity to engage and organise other affected and interested students.
In addition, the campaigns process outlined here is underpinned by these three principles and guided by some criteria outlined below. These principles and criteria have approved and shaped by the elected Sabbatical and Part-Time Officers.
We want to build high levels of trust with student campaigners and part of that is being clear about the role of the SU; we are not a service or a consultancy!
We are clear that the challenges facing students today—financial hardship, stress and mental health crises as well as increasing career insecurity—are not evitable but the result of both government decisions and increasingly marketised, managerial and neoliberal nature of UK universities. In short, we believe powerful student campaigns must challenge the systems that support and facilitate these processes.
This does not mean your campaign aims or goals need to be, for example, ending institutional racism. In contrast, we want campaigns that use creative and grassroots tactics to create small but impactful change for students.
But we want these campaigns to show an awareness and interest in how these smaller actions might challenge the systemic nature of many issues facing students.
LSESU is clear that the challenges mentioned above do not affect everyone in the same way or to the same extent. Black and People of colour, working class, disabled, queer and trans students are all more likely to face the above challenges at university and beyond. The Union will always work to use our finite resources to support student campaigns that seek to challenge these inequalities.
We want to support campaigns that recognise and challenge discrimination and are committed creating accessible spaces that build solidarity between different students.
Has a clear call to action and potential long-term impact for students
Engages a wide and diverse group of students
Builds the power of students at LSE
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