Understanding Policy

Political policy is a statement of the political and representational will or beliefs of Durham SU. Policy directs our activities, Student Officers, representatives and bodies.

There are two types of political policy that can be submitted to Assembly – proactive policy and reactive policy.

• Proactive policy indicates students want Durham SU to take action on an issue e.g. run a campaign or lobby the University to make a change.
• Reactive policy indicates students want Durham SU to take a position on an issue e.g. make a statement on behalf of students on a community incident or a government policy.

All Durham SU’s policies can be found here. Once a year the Assembly Procedures Committee recommend which of these policies have either been achieved or are no longer relevant. Assembly members then vote to remove the expired policies.

Issues to Action 

Good policy ideas should make a compelling argument as to why an issue matters to students or specific groups of students. When writing your policy, you should make sure it is well evidenced and consider how students’ lives would be improved if the policy were to be implemented. Durham SU staff can always be on hand for advice, just contact dsu.governance@durham.ac.uk

To get feedback on your policy idea or develop it further, you can attend our informal discussion session called Issues to Action. This is a space where students discuss all kinds of issues and decide what action to take over drinks and pizza. Whether that’s taking a motion to assembly, starting a campaign or speaking to student leaders. This is a great opportunity to help students understand your policy idea better or find other students to collaborate on writing the motion with you. You can find the dates for issues to action 

Any student can submit a motion to be debated, but only members can vote.