h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

...that there is an urban myth that UCL Union is the only Union in the country to make a regular profit?

Judging by the (poor) standard of Ents they lay on, I'm not surprised. And the price of the beer. And how beery the average UCL stoodent is.

Hang on: I thought that student unons weren't supposed to make a profit. They're supposed to stick all the profits into hiring bands and subsidising drinks and stuff. Or am I living in a dream world?

A lot of SUs have put out the commercial aspects of their function (bars, night clubs etc.) out to tender allowing private companies to come in and run them for a profit. The extra cost to students (i.e. paying someones profit) is offset by having a competent professional organisation with large buying power involved in the running of things.

The SU as such however is a body that represents students and so any profits it makes as a whole will be redistributed to students in some way (possibly by buying new facilities for the SU).

Z

UCL Union Bar, in all that it is a hideous place, sells more pints per year than any other bar in the UK.

Most SU's run commercial services of some kind which either balance themselves out in terms of profit (ie the money made in the bar and shop goes to cover the losses in catering or Ents), or to top up the money they get from their Institutions which is increasingly being cut in many colleges around the country.

Just so you know, like!