Students' union

A students' union, student government, free student union, student senate, students' association, guild of students or government of student body is a student organization present in many colleges, universities, and high schools. In higher education, the students' union is often accorded its own building on the campus, dedicated to social, organizational activities, representation and academic support of the membership.

In the United States, student union many times only refers to a physical building owned by the university with the purpose to provide services for students without a governing body also referred to as a student activity center, although the Association of College Unions International (largely US-based) has hundreds of campus organizational members). Outside the US, student union and students' union refer to a representative body, as distinct from a student activity centre.

Purpose

Depending on the country: the purpose, assembly, method and implementation of the group might vary. Universally the purpose of students' union or student government is to represent fellow students in some fashion.

University of Birmingham

University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1828 as the Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery) and Mason Science College (established in 1875 by Sir Josiah Mason), making it the first English civic or 'red brick' university to receive its own royal charter. It is a founding member of both the Russell Group of British research universities and the international network of research universities, Universitas 21.

The university was ranked 15th in the UK and 76th in the world in the QS World University Rankings for 2015-16. In 2013, Birmingham was named 'University of the Year 2014' in the Times Higher Education awards. The 2015 Global Employability University Ranking places Birmingham at 80th world-wide and 12th in the UK. Birmingham is also ranked 4th in the UK for Graduate Prospects in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2015.

University

A university (Latin: universitas, "a whole") is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which grants academic degrees in various subjects and typically provides undergraduate education and postgraduate education. The word "university" is derived from the Latin universitas magistrorum et scholarium, which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars."

History

Definition

The original Latin word "universitas" refers in general to "a number of persons associated into one body, a society, company, community, guild, corporation, etc." At the time of the emergence of urban town life and medieval guilds, specialised "associations of students and teachers with collective legal rights usually guaranteed by charters issued by princes, prelates, or the towns in which they were located" came to be denominated by this general term. Like other guilds, they were self-regulating and determined the qualifications of their members.

In modern usage the word has come to mean "An institution of higher education offering tuition in mainly non-vocational subjects and typically having the power to confer degrees," with the earlier emphasis on its corporate organization considered as applying historically to Medieval universities.

Guild

A guild /ɡɪld/ is an association of artisans or merchants who control the practice of their craft in a particular town. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of tradesmen. They were organized in a manner something between a professional association, trade union, a cartel, and a secret society. They often depended on grants of letters patent by a monarch or other authority to enforce the flow of trade to their self-employed members, and to retain ownership of tools and the supply of materials. A lasting legacy of traditional guilds are the guildhalls constructed and used as meeting places.

An important result of the guild framework was the emergence of universities at Bologna, Paris, and Oxford around the year 1200; they originated as guilds of students as at Bologna, or of masters as at Paris.

Early guildlike associations

In medieval cities, craftsmen tended to form associations based on their trades, confraternities of textile workers, masons, carpenters, carvers, glass workers, each of whom controlled secrets of traditionally imparted technology, the "arts" or "mysteries" of their crafts. Usually the founders were free independent master craftsmen who hired apprentices.

Liverpool Guild of Students

Liverpool Guild of Students is the students' union of the University of Liverpool. The Guild was founded in 1889, with the building constructed in 1911.

The title also refers to the Guild of Students building, which is the centre point of activity in student life at the University and is run by the four sabbatical officers who are elected annually in an all-student ballot. Following a £14.25m refurbishment in 2013, it now contains a cinema, a theatre, a shop, two dance studios, four bars, a 2,300 capacity gig venue and an underground nightclub. This is as well as administrative offices and society meeting rooms. The Guild regularly hosts live music, theatre and comedy.

History

The origins of the Guild may be traced back to the establishment in 1892 of two Students' Representative Councils at University College, Liverpool. However, students were forming societies long before this, such as the Athletic Club in 1885, the Medical Students' Debating Society (later known as the Liverpool Medical Students Society) in 1874, the Women's Literary Society, and the Arts and Debating Society in 1888, among others. The University College Magazine documented the activities of these new groups, being first published in 1886. The Guild building has been located on Mount Pleasant since 1911.