Being an SU officer is an odd job – I spend a lot of my time representing your views to the university, the local council and, even on occasion the Houses of Parliament! But how well do I actually realise what students are thinking? How do I really know that the things I speak about in meetings are based in reality?

To fix this, I set out to collect some official, quantifiable, undeniable data that gauges the views and opinions of students at UEA. In the days after the general election was announced I surveyed over 100 students on a range of issues, some overtly political and some less so. From this data I was able to calculate the political views and opinions of UEA students, what is important to them and what they would do if they were the ones with in power…

The first question asked students to prioritise some key policy areas. The only prompt they received was ‘rank these issues on how important they are to you’. The answers can be seen below.

Unsurprisingly, the NHS was a huge priority for students at UEA, with over 40% of respondents putting it as the area that was most important to them. We just want an NHS that works! It’s that simple. After the closure of the Boots pharmacy, we’ve truly seen the impact of not having accessible services for students this year. It’s about time we had access to the basics.

At the bottom of student priorities was immigration. When I published these results on Instagram, I got a snarky comment from a member of the public saying that students aren’t “interested in protecting the borders or tackling crime, maybe if they were more affected by these issues they would think differently.” But isn’t that the entire point? Students haven’t prioritised these issues because they have little or no impact on their daily lives. What they’ve chosen to prioritise is the things that impact them on a daily basis – the NHS, housing, the economy and their education. Just because we don’t all sit petrified at the idea that there are ‘immigrants’ in the UK doesn’t mean that our priorities are out of whack. There are a lot of problems in this country, and I’d say UEA students are bang on the money on what needs tackling most urgently.

For the next question, I presented students with a choice of ten hotbed political issues and asked them to choose the two changes that were most important to them . A selection of left and right-wing policies were presented, with some policies from the main parties also being included.

The results of this question were far more surprising to me than the first question. I never would have guessed that the issue that students are still most passionate about is re-joining the EU! I underestimated how involved younger students were with Brexit’s long, drawn-out process happening during their formative years. Students have heard ‘Brexit means Brexit’ for most of their life, and still don’t seem to buy it. Maybe it’s time for a mainstream political party to start talking about it again… 

Just one student voted for implementing national service for 18-year-olds, and when given the chance to explain why said “National Service is a great idea for young people (crime, responsibility, etc).” To say this was an outlier would be the understatement of the century! When the Conservative’s flagship youth policy is receiving less than 1% support from the youth, it makes you wonder when the last time any of them actually spoke to someone under the age of 25.

The next question in our survey asked students whether they felt that the mainstream political parties represented them. Respondents were given 4 choices: ‘a lot’, ‘a little’, ‘not really’ and ‘not at all’.

Of all the students who will vote in the next election, just six percent said that they felt that the mainstream parties represent them ‘a lot’. It should worry our politicians that students, a sizeable demographic in this country, feel so underrepresented on a national level. We don’t often forgive political parties who pretend or simply refuse to represent us. You only have to see how the Conservative vote has collapsed amongst the young in the past decade. For instance, in 2010, just under one third of 18–34-year-olds voted for the Conservatives at the general election. Current polling estimates that just 8.5% of 18–34-year-olds will vote Conservative in the 2024 General Election. The student vote has serious influence – just make sure you listen to us!

I hope this data has provided you an insight into how students are feeling at the current moment. With the election nearing, it’s crucial we raise our voices through campaigning locally and nationally, attending events like our student hustings (www.ueasu.org/ents/event/28759/), and ensuring politicians address the real issues that matter to us. 

Students have been ignored for far too long. Make sure your voice is heard on the 4th of July!

You can read the full UEA Student Manifesto 2024 here: Student Manifesto (ueasu.org)