Tuesday 11-08-2026 - 17:34

We’re pleased to share our Big SU Survey: SU Elections annual report for 2026

The Election Support Service supports SUs through:
- ensuring SU elections remain free and fair
- collate and highlight good practice from across the sector
- give assurances to SUs' parent institutions that their obligations under the Education Act (1994) are met.

During 2025/26, the service acted as the Returning Officer for 158 elections, across the autumn 2025 and spring 2026 election periods. 69 SUs completed the survey this year, the findings of which are shared in the Big SU Survey: SU Elections Report. 

Key highlights from the report include:
- the average turnout at 18.1%, a 0.7% increase from last year
- turnout has now recovered to pre-pandemic levels, with the highest national average over the past eleven years
- this increase in turnout was a trend in SUs of all different membership sizes
- 65% of all SUs that replied had increased their turnout from last year
- the survey collected candidate demographic data on candidates, with data ranging from 154 - 10,649 responses
- the most common complaints continues to be candidate behaviour & conduct

The Big SU Survey: SU Elections Report 2026 and previous reports since 2018/19 are available here.

Any questions, contact elections@nus.org.uk.