Durham Students' Union

The Durham Students' Union is a body that was set up with the intention of representing and providing welfare and services for the students of Durham University in Durham, United Kingdom. The union is almost universally known by the acronym DSU.

DSU owns a building in the centre of Durham where a wide variety of student activites take place. The union employs full-time trained counsellors[?] to provide students with Welfare advice, and also helps fund semi-autonomous representation groups to help those whose gender, sexuality, race or disability causes them to be discriminated against. A highly valued welfare service is that provided by the DSU nightbus, a mini-bus that runs during term time to ensure that students can get home safely regardless of their immediate financial state.

DSU also runs more commercial ventures such as a shop, cafe, bar and night-club. The money raised from these operations is used to fund the welfare and student societies affiliated to DSU.

DSU is designed to be truly democratic - to this end every student has a vote in the principle elections and in the sovereign body of DSU - the Union General Meeting. With approximately 11,000 affiliated students it is difficult to engage the interest of all, and DSU does come under criticism for the excessive procedure and bureaucracy that is perceived by some. In the 2003 elections it received the highest turnout of any student union in the UK, a fact that some use to show the continued relevance of DSU to the students of Durham.