People who aren't current students at the University of Southampton can take part in your group's activities, but they have to buy membership of the Union first. They cannot vote in your elections or be on your committee. They can download the forms and find out more information at susu.org/membership, and if you have any questions you should email membership@susu.org .

Why do non-students have to buy membership?

The Students' Union is run by students for students, and we're mainly funded by a block grant from the University each year. This gives is around £120 per student to spend on the activities and services we provide.

Every student at the University is automatically a Full Member of the Students' Union, and as a charity, these Full Members are our "beneficiaries" - the people the charity is there to support. As a charity, we have to be careful to ensure that our funds are only spent on things which are designed to benefit our students.

However, this doesn't mean that the only people who can get involved in our activities, and the activities of our student groups, are students. Non-student membership is an important part of the running of groups; groups benefit in many and varied ways from the considerable amount of advice and support offered by non-students, and participation by non-student members often contributes to the successes enjoyed by our student members.

Therefore, we offer non-student membership to:

• Students at other institutions
• Carers/spouses of UoS students
• Union and University staff
• Alumni
• Members of the public who have significant input to a student group and are recommended by them

Whoever they are, everyone who participates in a student group must be a member of the Students' Union. 

Non-students who take part in student group activities benefit considerably from the Union. They receive the benefits of:

• comprehensive insurance cover
• over £250,000 worth of grant funding per year
• spaces including The Cube, specialist dance facilities in Building 42, and many others
• services we provide, such as clothing provision, web hosting and technical equipment hire
• support and advice offered by Union staff

Most of the money for this comes from the block grant we receive every year from the University – which comes from student tuition fees. We therefore think it's only fair that non-student members contribute to the cost of providing the services and facilities, just as our student members do. As a charity, all the money we receive goes directly back into delivering services to our members.

What happens if we have people who take part in/help out our group and they aren't members?

If you have non-members regularly take part in activities organised by your group, they need to hold membership of the Students' Union. Your group could be in trouble if they are found to be having people take part in their activities who don’t hold membership of the Union.