Back in November, the Students’ Union launched its General Election campaign with one core aim of ensuring the student voice is heard at both a local and national level.

We spoke to hundreds of students about the campaign and received more than 200 individual ideas about what ideas they wanted addressed during the next government.

With a week left to register to vote we’re going to be posting each day about a topic that you said matters to you in the Student Manifesto. Remember, registering to vote is easy and only takes a couple of minutes online.

Democratic Engagement

In the last General Election only 44% of people aged 18 -21 voted. You told us you wanted to see barriers to voting removed and young people educated about the importance of being an active citizen.

Changing the way people register to vote is one of the barriers we identified and we believe that people should be allowed to register on voting day. This has been successfully trialled in ten US states where it reportedly increased turnout in the state of California between 3-6 percent.

Another area you wanted to see change was democracy education for students in full-time education up to the age of 18. The national curriculum currently states that citizenship studies are mandatory in all state-funded schools but this doesn’t go far enough and needs to be extended to students in further education.

You can see the student manifesto in full below.

Registering to Vote

Registering to vote is done online and only takes a couple of minutes. You’ll need your date of birth and National Insurance number when completing the form.

You can register to vote if you are a British, Commonwealth or European Union citizen.

If you have lost your national insurance number you can contact HM Revenue and Customs on 0845 915 7006 who will be able to help you track your number.

Added Bonus

By registering to vote you qualify for a FREE ticket to our Spring Break event on Monday 20 April. Head over to the event page here to claim your ticket to this party that will kick-start your final term in style, featuring Freshers' favourite Beat A Maxx.