1895
A ‘canvassing sub-committee’ is formed in the Guild, the start of the Guild’s official lobbying activity.
1902
The Guild successfully campaigns for students to have Wednesday afternoons free of lectures for sports and other events - something the Guild still works on today!
1968
The Guild publishes a report demanding student representation on university committees, which deal with academic complaints, university decision making and more. Negotiations between the Guild and University break down and more than 1000 students occupied the Great Hall in Aston Webb for a week, after which the university relented.
1969
The Guild protests Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech, just down the road in Edgbaston, which was criticised for encouraging racial hatred.
1974
The Guild organises a rent strike on campus to oppose rising rents. Students pay their rent into a ‘rent strike fund’ rather than giving it to the university, and the Guild only hands over the money to the university when they guarantee to freeze rents.
1982
The Guild organises a rally on campus with President of the NUS to protest cuts to maintenance grants as part of ‘Grants Action Week’. The government eventually backs down from freezing grants.
1989
The Guild raises money for Chinese students fleeing the Tiananmen Square massacre, organises a vigil in Mermaid Square, and successfully lobbies the government to provide refuge to 33 Chinese students, now political refugees, in the UK.
1992
The Guild President and a group of women students campaign for women to be allowed to wear trousers, not just skirts, to graduation. The Guild organises 1,000 students to sign a petition and a large number of women wore trousers anyway. The rule was removed.
2010
The Guild’s Officer Team leads hundreds of students in a protest all around campus to oppose the ‘Browne Review’ – in which the Vice Chancellor had participated –which had recommended lifting the cap entirely on tuition fees. The government eventually gave up and capped fees at £9000.