Huddersfield Students’ Union have been awarded £15,000 by the National Union of Students and Cabinet Office to increase voter registration.

The funding will help the Union to engage students in the General Election with the voter registration deadline just 35 days away.

Students’ Union President, Josh Elderfield, said: “It’s fantastic that we were successful with the bid.

“It means we are now able to increase student engagement with the General Elections and reinforce our strength in making sure as many students as possible are registered to vote.”

In early February we registered 1862 students and this money will help us to engage a wider range of students from across Huddersfield including those studying at FE intuitions such as Huddersfield New College.

Speaking about what the funding means Josh continued: “The support can now enable us to engage student staff to continue the great work they’ve already done registering over 1800 students.

 “Additionally, it means we can now focus on some outreach work to local colleges, as well as put on a big event to encourage students to vote and as a way of rewarding students who have registered.

“This funding means students of Huddersfield will really experience the election buzz and hopefully feel engaged and turn out and vote!”

Over 60 Students’ Unions were awarded funding to boost registration activities across the national student body.

The competition for funding was a Cabinet Office initiative to increase democratic engagement by students after the move to Individual Electoral Registration.

This change in law means that you can no longer block register a household or halls of accommodation and that each person needs to register individually.

Straw Poll Result

A straw poll conducted during the SU Elections indicates that students are more likely to vote Labour in the upcoming General Election.

They took 238 of 636 valid votes with the Green Party (131) beating the Conservatives (94) into third position.

Students that won’t vote (53) took a slice of the votes putting it ahead of UKIP (42) while current coalition partners the Liberal Democrats picked up 23 votes.

Register 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.