How to Campaign and Organise at Arts

Ways to campaign and organise at Arts SU  

As of Term 1 2026, there are two main ways to get involved in campaigning and organising with Arts SU.  

1. Propose a student-led Campaign  

Arts SU wants to support you to run powerful student-led campaigns that change things for students and help build a more inclusive, equitable and democratic university.  

At Arts SU's we believe in power of students to use effectively collective action to change the conditions of UAL. Student-led campaigns are an exciting opportunity because to learn, alongside other students, how to use a variety of tactics pressure powerholders, change the conversation around an issue and propose and build new possibilities at UAL.  

Student representation (for example, academic reps raising issues in formal student-staff committees) has limitations especially when the issues arising in your course or college are result of structural or systemic problems like under-funding. In other words, we believe student-led campaigns are critical way of shifting the dial on longstanding student issues like the cost of student housing, accessibility and disability support as well as the provision of genuinely tranformative and supportive art education.  

• Before you submit a proposal, read through our Arts SU campaign principles outlined below.   
• When you submit a proposal through the form on this website, the Campaigns and Community Organiser at Arts SU (SU staff member) will contact you and set up a chat to discuss your proposal and possible next steps.  
• Ratified campaigns will receive in-depth campaign and organising training and strategy support as well as access to funding (up to £200 with opportunity to apply for more).  

Submit your proposal here.

Want to chat through an idea for a campaign? Email: Campaigns@su.arts.ac.uk 

2. Be part of organising a dispute 

Dispute is a term used within trade and tenant unions to describe a conflict between workers/renters and employers/landlords, often over material conditions of people's work or housing (e.g. pay, rent or disrepair). It is this tradition of collective action that we are drawing on at Arts SU this year.

Disputes are an important way to win mmediate material changes (safer working conditions or vital repairs) for workers or tenants while building the experience and political organisation of your union or group. We want UAL students to see that Arts SU can win changes for UAL changes while building your experience of organising collective action.  

Arts SU wants to support students to run focused and effective disputes to resolve persistent student issues when existing and formalised pathways of change have failed (e.g. when reps have raised an issue with course leaders or on committees but nothing is changing). At Arts SU, we believe that as the higher education sector in the UK becomes increasingly profit-oriented and less invested in teaching and learning, students' unions need to use new tools and try different approaches to campaigning on student issues.  

• Are you a rep/student who has tried everything to resolve an issue (e.g. spoke with course leaders, attended staff-student committees) that affects lots of students on your course or in your college?  
• Do you want to be part of organising disputes at UAL but not sure what kind of issue to focus on? 
• Or, just interested to understand more about this approach? 

Please reach out and we will set up a conversation with you: Email: Campaigns@su.arts.ac.uk 

Arts SU Campaign Principles 

Student-led 

• Student-led campaigns are campaigns that, with support from the SU, are driven forward by students themselves. Arts SU wants to support students to develop knowledge and skills so you can lead your campaigns. 

• Student-led campaigns are also a way for Arts SU to intentionally train and develop students so that you can move from issue to collective action. You don’t need to have done anything like this before to propose a campaign, but you will want to learn and develop new skills. 

• At Arts SU we believe that the ability to organise, advocate and campaign is something that all students, workers and artists can and should understand.  

Systemic 

• At Arts SU, we recognise that many student issues including financial hardship are result of systemic problems to do with the way higher education is funded in England and how society and economy are structured more broadly.  

• We are excited to support campaigns that can deliver material and concrete changes for students in the here and now but also want to see campaign proposals that show an awareness of the structural roots of the problem you want to challenge. 

• By extension, are excited to support campaigns that demonstrate a desire to understand how smaller scale actions and tactics can build towards challenging more the systemic issues facing students at UAL and beyond.  

Strengthening Solidarity 

• At Arts SU, we believe that impactful student-led campaigns related to issues that affect lots of students are one important way of building solidarity between different students.  

• We want to use our finite resources to support campaigns that recognise and challenge discrimination and inequalities—particularly those related to class, race and gender—and are committed creating accessible spaces that build solidarity between different students.