Union of Liberal Students

Union of Liberal Students
Founded	1920
Dissolved	1993
Merged into	Liberal Democrat Youth and Students
Headquarters	Offices at theNational Liberal Club,1 Whitehall Place, London
Ideology	Liberalism(British) Radicalism Community politics Social liberalism
Mother party	Liberal Party
International affiliation	International Federation of Liberal and Radical Youth(IFLRY)
European affiliation	European Liberal Youth(LYMEC)

TheUnion of Liberal Students(ULS) was theEnglish and Welshstudent wing of theUnited Kingdom'sLiberal Party.TheScottish Liberal Partyhad a separate organisation,Scottish Liberal Students.

ULS was founded in 1920 as the Union of University Liberal Societies and merged with the student wing of the UKSocial Democratic Partywhen the parent parties merged. Together with the party's youth wing, theNational League of Young Liberals(NLYL or Young Liberals), the organisations made up the Young Liberal Movement. In 1990, the two organisations themselves merged to formLiberal Democrat Youth and Students(LDYS). In Spring 2008, it was renamedLiberal Youth,and in December 2016 asYoung Liberals.

ULS was a member of bothIFLRYandLYMEC.

List of national chairs of the Union of Liberal Students

• Paul Farthing (1988-89)
• Alun Evans (1987–88)
• Sheila Cunliffe (1986–87)
• Harriet Steele (1985–86)
• Andrew Lawson/Martin Horwood(1984–85)
• Andrew Lawson (1983–84)
• Elizabeth (Liz) Barker(1982–83)
• Jane Merritt (1980–82)
• David Hughes (1976–77)
• Tony Greaves(1960s)
• Trevor Smith(1950s)
• Roger Roberts(1956–57)
• Richard Gillachrist Moore(1954–55)
• Derick Mirfin (1952–53)
• Glyn Tegai Hughes
• John Beeching Frankenburg(1940s)
• Archibald Pellow Marshall(1924–25)
• Alec Beechman(1922)

Participation in the National Union of Students and alliances in NUS

In 1966 Liberal, Communist and independent students formed the Radical Students Alliance with the intention of introducing a more active, grass-roots approach to student politics. In 1969Jack Strawwas elected to theNational Union of Students(NUS) executive as a Radical Students Alliance candidate. The RSA was dominant in student politics until 1971 when theBroad Left(an alliance of Communists and Labour Students) came to prominence.

During the 1970s ULS had little success in NUS National Executive elections with Francis Hayden (1975),Gavin Grant(1978) andLeighton Andrews(1979) being the only electoral successes as part-time Executive members.

In 1979 ULS was one of the founders of the Left Alliance along with Communist, independent Labour (not in theNational Organisation of Labour Students) and independent members. 1980-82 was a period of Left Alliance leadership of NUS withDavid Aaronovitchas President of NUS and Jane Taylor as National Secretary.

In 1982 John Murray was elected as a part-time Liberal/LA member of the NUS Executive along with Frank Howard (Labour/LA) and Kate Steele (Communist/LA). John later went on to be National Treasurer of NUS.