About Us
The King's College Student Union is the body designed to represent the interests of the students of King's College, Cambridge.
Promoting the well-being of students is our first aim, as outlined by the Constitution. Historically it has achieved a lot, from advocating the introduction of the C1 key so that students can open gates and doors after hours to fighting against rises in rent bands and tuition fees (occassionally by means of rent strikes!).
We organize entertainments from 8-Track live music nights to bar crawls; we provide condoms, rape alarms and pregnancy tests as part of our welfare programmes. We represent students on college, university (often through CUSU) and national levels (sometimes with NUS); we advocate green and ethical concerns and work with autonomous & representative campaigns to protect the interests of groups which may be discriminated against (these include ethnic minorities, LGBTQ, women and international students, although we have general welfare officers as well). We also lobby on behalf of students when it comes to any concerns over accommodation issues.
Every year we help prospective students who would be otherwise disadvantaged in applying to Cambridge by providing guidance and helping organize Open Days, and we help welcome candidates when they come for interviews.
Every week we sit through long but only occassionally boring meetings to make sure that KCSU is performing as effectively as possible in all these areas.
The KCSU used to be a lot more radical than it is now: in the 80s it was a constant thorn in the 'Man's' side, giving support to protest and strike groups. We gave money to miners' strikes, we protested and we wrote letters to governments.
Today KCSU attempts to reflect the views of all its members and its primary concern is with issues that directly affect students - we are no longer able to give support to charities or organizations that aren't advocating policy changes that would directly affect our students, for example. Nevertheless, KCSU, like King's in general, remains a very politically-charged body. We're proud to consider KCSU one of the most active students' unions in Cambridge, and always strive to encourage participation from all members of the union.
Check out the links below, and explore this site for more information about who we are! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to get in contact with us (contact@kcsu.org.uk). An Exec Officer will always be ready to help.
