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Wonkhe SUs · The 2026 webinar box set

Changing things through students

How you can use community organising to achieve change – with Citizens UK.

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We explore how SUs can turn student membership into organised power that wins real change. We cover the method behind community organising – building relationships first, listening, developing leaders, and the iron rule of never doing for others what they can do for themselves – and how house meetings, accountability assemblies and the civic agenda work in practice. Examples run from Aberystwyth students winning repairs and outdoor social space on their mouldy accommodation, to Newman students leading a Birmingham Living Wage action and a 575-strong accountability assembly, and Brighton & Hove communities standing with Sussex students to reverse upfront international fees. With Tom Snape, Senior Organiser, Citizens UK

What we cover

  • Who Citizens UK are – a people-powered alliance of around 600 community organisations, and the campaign behind the real Living Wage.
  • Community organising as a method – the cycle of building a team, listening, cutting to a winnable issue, public action and getting round the table, plus the iron rule: never do for others what they can do for themselves.
  • Power – why change needs power, the shift from individual complaints to organised collective action, and turning student-voice touchpoints into “do you want to do something about it?”
  • Building power – organising people and resources (SUs already have members, networks and rooms), self-interest, and moving an issue from “private shame to public anger.”
  • The Aberystwyth win – international students in “free” but mouldy accommodation organised, met the VC and won repairs plus outdoor social space (“a change you can sit on”) – then turned out in SU elections.
  • Power in action – Newman SU’s civic leadership in Birmingham (a Living Wage action and a 575-strong accountability assembly), and Brighton & Hove communities standing with Sussex students to reverse upfront international fees.
  • House meetings – “a focus group with teeth”: facilitator, notetaker and timekeeper, everyone answering the same question, then following up to surface stories and leaders.
  • Accountability assemblies – flipping the hustings so the community sets the agenda and decision-makers answer specific asks yes or no, in public.
  • Elections as opportunities – using election moments and accountability assemblies as leverage, and why the “spade work” has to start early.
  • The civic SU – the civic agenda, community-engaged research, and cutting through “town and gown” by building relationships on shared interests.

Things to read

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