Just 550 of KU's 22,782  students voted in this year’s sabbatical officer elections, according to figures released by KUSU this week after ditching traditional polling stations for an online system. 

The turnout, described by the union as “exceedingly disappointing”, shows that only 2.4 per cent of the population of the university decided which of their number would benefit from a wage well above the starting salary for many graduates. 

Mark Horne, KUSU general manager, said: “We have looked at the outcomes of the election in terms of the significant fall in overall turnout and a number of recommendations have been made.” 

An NUS spokesperson said they believed sabbatical officers' salaries to be around £20,000.  Although this varies nationally, this is a figure well above the starting salary for many graduates.

The elections in mid-March saw the return for a second term of President TJ Esubiyi who won by a margin of 105 votes.  443 votes were cast in the VP Activities election taking Rhiannon Hiscocks to a second term with a margin of 101.  Chris Dingle won the VP Education position after two rounds of redistributed votes and new VP Communications Stefan Mattison after one redistribution round. 

Lucy Hayward, a third year Drama student and secretary of the Wine Society, said: “[The change from polling stations to online voting] confused a lot of people.
“There are a lot of people who did not vote because they thought it was too complex.” 

KUSU has defended its decision to move to online voting despite being aware of the big drop in turnout the switch often produces.  The student’s representative body claimed that the online system would encourage more KU students to have their say in who put their views across, especially those away on work placement and at campuses other than Penrhyn Road. 

Mr Horne added: “In a world where students increasingly do not need to be on campus to be at university, this seemed a much fairer system.”

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Students at Kingston University are still awaiting their student loans despite the academic year starting over six months ago.

The delay has lead to many students being threatened with eviction and removal from their studies even though the fault has not been their own.

Joe Longley, a first year Journalism student, is one of the students experiencing such problems. He is frustrated with both Kingston University and the Students Loan Company (SLC), blaming the bureaucracy of both institutions for exacerbating the problem.

“The main problem with both institutions is they have set rules and they’re not flexible with special cases.”

He feels that the stringent rules and the automated response systems used by both companies has made dealing with problems almost impossible.

Without his loan, Joe could not pay his tuition fees, so Kingston University removed him from his course. He contacted the SLC to resolve the problem but the University’s computerised response system proved problematic.

“It’s an automated response system and it automatically replied ‘No, he isn’t on the course’ so then the Student Loans Company said they wouldn’t pay me. It’s catch 22.”

The problem of delayed student loans is one that has affected students nationwide and Wes Streeting, President of the National Union of Students, addressed the problem saying: “The poor leadership and management of the Student Loans Company has led to disruption and hardship for hundreds of thousands of students.”

With news out today that The National Audit Office fear a repeat of the same problems next year Mr Streeting has been quick to challenge the Student Loans Company to not let this happen.

“Given that the SLC will be dealing with double the number of applicants this year, they must do everything in their power to avoid making the same catastrophic mistakes again.”

Ralph Seymour-Jackson, chief executive of the Student Loans Company, has made a personal promise to students that they will not experience similar problems come this September.

Speaking to the BBC Mr Seymour-Jackson admitted: “We’re really sorry for all the problems and delays students experienced last summer.”

“We’ve put those problems right and we will be able to cope.” He said, “I can tell students that if they apply by the key deadline of the end of June with all their evidence I will make sure they will have their money at the start of term.”

This promise however is no consolation to Joe and the thousands more students who have suffered due to the Student Loans Company’s mistakes.