At the OU Students Association, we want the voice of OU students to be as powerful and influential as possible – both with the Open University and in the wider political debates that can have a major influence over the student experience and the lives of students outside of their studies. However, we know not all OU students are going to vote the same way, and we really just believe in you having your say and using your vote whenever you get the opportunity.
That’s why, in light of the fact that it is highly likely that there will be a UK General Election in 2024, we are encouraging students to make sure they are registered to vote and able to have their say when the opportunity comes around.
With that said, we know that for many people, it’s difficult to get motivated to engage with politics and elections. There’s so much noise, it’s difficult to know who to believe, and sometimes it’s easy to feel like your vote won’t make much difference anyway, so why bother?!
Well… we want you to understand just how powerful OU students could be if everyone used their right to vote and have their voices heard. We’ve pulled together some interesting data from the last few UK General Elections to try to demonstrate this and persuade you that your vote can make a difference. So bear with me…
The most recent figures state that there were 199,391 students registered to study at the OU. So we’ve used that number to calculate that, on average, there are 306 OU students in each of the 650 UK parliamentary constituencies. Obviously, in reality, there will be some constituencies with more students and others with less, but for the purposes of our demonstration, 306 OU students per constituency is our figure.
In the table below, we’ve set out as simply as possible how this many OU students in each constituency could not only have impacted the constituency they are in, but also in some cases, the shape of the government after the General Election.
* We have also included a line in the table for constituencies with winning majorities of under 500 as a very loose estimate of seats within the potential influence of larger OU student populations.
At the 2019 election, we have to admit that the scale of the majority that the Conservative Party gained means that OU students’ influence was limited to individual constituencies, where nine MPs were elected with majorities smaller than 306 votes, and three more MPs had majorities of less than 500.
However, in the previous three General Elections, it’s possible to see the potential influence that 306 OU students in a constituency could have had. In 2010 and 2017 especially, given the fact that no party achieved an overall parliamentary majority, 306 votes going one way or another in a handful of constituencies could have been the difference between a majority government or making it even more difficult for legislation to be passed in the House of Commons.
In the 2015 General Election, four of the seven constituencies with winning majorities of less than 306 votes were won by a Conservative MP. If, very hypothetically speaking, 306 votes (or much less in some cases) had moved away from the Conservative candidate to the second-place candidate, David Cameron’s majority in Parliament would have been reduced to 2, giving rebellious backbenchers even more influence in the debating and passing of legislation. Alternatively, if the six constituencies where the Conservatives finished in second place by less than 500 votes had swung in their favour, Cameron would have ended up with a working majority of 22, and perhaps would have had more room to manoeuvre.
Anyway, to conclude, while these examples we have explored are highly hypothetical, the broader point to take away is that a small number of voters can potentially make a huge difference to the outcome of an election, either locally at the constituency level, or in terms of the majority (or not) that the eventual government has to work with. And remember, a small number of voters is only possible when individuals choose to use their vote.
So when you’re doubting whether your vote matters, if it makes a difference, whether it’s worth the effort, we’d encourage you to think about the other (on average) 305 Open University students in your constituency and think about the impact you might make if you all registered to vote, and you all made the journey to your local polling station on election day (or got a postal vote), and if you all made sure that you remembered to bring valid photo ID to the polling station. It might make all the difference.
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You can register to vote quickly and easily online at www.gov.uk/register-to-vote, where you will also be given the option of registering for a postal vote.
The law changed in 2023, meaning that voters are now required to present valid photo ID when they attend their local polling station. You can find a list of accepted forms of ID here: www.gov.uk/how-to-vote/photo-id-youll-need.
You can also apply for a free valid form of voter ID at www.gov.uk/apply-for-photo-id-voter-authority-certificate.
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