The 1930s are as far back as any records we have found about the LiverpoolSU. The NUS had only formed ten years prior and there were records of student unions, with our neighbours The University of Liverpool already having an established SU. The colleges that would go on to form Liverpool polytechnic that would then lead to becoming John Moores were all still finding their feet. Nevertheless they were all still established colleges in the area.

Higher education was being made available to more people because of these colleges but in terms of a student union it was all still very new. These colleges simply weren’t that big. The numbers weren’t that large and while that doesn’t decrease the need for a student union it means the chances of one forming and making an impact that would result in records being left are very slim. There are records of a student union at the art college on Hope Street in 1936/37. They arranged activities and offered student support which is, on a very small scale, what we still do today. Details of the student union at the art college continued into the last year of the decade but very little had changed. They still just offered help to students and offered advice on membership and activities on a very simple scale. The details in the prospectus for the art college in 1936/37 about the student union doesn’t really change for the next few years. A very old fashioned copy and paste job if ever I’ve seen one!

Records of the art college and the science college, both of which formed Liverpool Polytechnic, we did find as far back as 1914 for the art college, although they had no record of student unions and the college records from 1861-1901 had no mention either. So the records say that as student unions were building from the growth of the NUS, the colleges that turned into to LJMU years later had a student union but not a very active one, just one which did what it needed to do for the students it had. Which is exactly what student unions should do.

In 1931 the NUS moved into Endsleigh house, the home of student unions and published a report in 1937 to ensure that graduates got good opportunities and a report was published again in 1938 looking at how to modernize education. So even though LiverpoolSU and its roots weren’t involved in student unions this far back, they were being given the platform by the NUS, and by running their own small unions they became one of the largest student unions in the country today. A quiet decade but still a very crucial one for unions being able to find their feet not just in Liverpool but in colleges up and down the country.