Student life in the 1980s: what can we learn from Students’ Union handbooks?

Guest post by Jess Pascal, student volunteer.

Hello, my name is Jess Pascal and I have been volunteering in the archives for the last two months. My task has been to write descriptive summaries of Students’ Union handbooks to make them easier to find in the catalogue. It’s been a really interesting task – reading each handbook transports you back in time and gives you a snapshot of what it would have been like to be a student then. In this post I’m sharing what I’ve learnt about life as a student at Leicester in the 1980s.

One of the biggest sections of the handbooks that can tell us about what students got up to is the guide to activities. Here you can find a real mix of societies we still have today and societies that seem quite dated: it’s hard to imagine having a Morris dancing or a bellringing society now, but maybe they would be worth reviving! In the 1980s, student media was very active, ranging from the weekly student newspaper, the Ripple, to the then-recently revived arts magazine Luciad, to Leicester University Students’ Television (aka LUST). They were successful, too: the television group (who advertised ‘modern colour equipment’) even made it onto regional TV in 1981, while the Ripple interviewed famous people such as Lenny Henry, Bob Geldof and David Attenborough! You can find copies of it, as well as the handbooks, in the archives.

One activity that might have given them a lot to write about was ‘Raise and Give’ (RAG) fundraising, which was a much more dramatic affair than nowadays. In one regular fundraiser, students had to buy ‘immunity badges’ to avoid being attacked with shaving foam, flour and custard pies by the terrifying RAG Hit Squad, pictured here. Other RAG fundraisers included an annual three-legged bar crawl, a procession through town and a curry house crawl. The money raised went to several charities, including the purchase and maintenance of ‘Rag Homes’, homes for elderly people that students volunteered to visit and helped to decorate.

In fact, during the 1980s, students were very concerned with good causes. Besides the Rag Homes, students also volunteered to visit local prisons, hospitals and residential homes, as well as teaching English in the community. Likewise, in 1979 (the same year that the Anti-Apartheid Group was revived), the Third World Scholarship had been established. This was a fund to cover living costs for an overseas student who might not otherwise have had a chance to study at university, financed entirely by voluntary donations from students.

This social concern spilled over into a lot of activism, both inside and outside the university. Students protested against the government’s minimum grants, including outside the then-Chancellor’s home in Blaby. They organised rent strikes in halls, and they also raised money for the Miners’ Strike 1984-85. Within the union, student protests led to the creation of new Executive Officer posts that we still have today: it’s thanks to protests in the early ‘80s that we have a Women’s Officer (then Vice-President for Women’s Affairs) and an International Officer (originally Vice-President for Overseas Students’ Affairs).

Overall, the 1980s were a busy period of student activity. Students made a difference in the world by participating in exciting initiatives that have left us with much to look back on. From the impact of student protests to the materials created by student journalists, it’s safe to say that they left their mark.