matric cards getting refused?

[crystalclear]

I'll be honest... I'm quite angry.

I went to an odeon cinema the other day to see 'the ugly truth.' (shit film by the way.) I showed them my st andrews matric card as my form of student ID so I could get a student-priced ticket like I ALWAYS do... and they wouldn't accept it claiming they now only accept 'NUS' cards as student ID. What exactly does this mean and why is the st andrews matric card not an NUS card? My friend from Exeter Uni got in fine. I mean it says the words: 'University of St Andrews' and 'student' on the matric card... that OBVIOUSLY means I'm a student!

I'm just a little peeved that I had to pay a full 8 quid to see catherine heigl's pretty shocking attempt at acting.

[lost_eden]

The St Andrews University Students' Association ('the Union') is not a member of the National Union of Students of the United Kingdom ('NUS')*.Therefore your matric card will not entitle you to NUS discounts, because you are not an NUS member. The issue isn't that Odeon don't believe you are a student, but that their student discount is only offered to NUS members, which you are not. Odeon probably get some sort of financial incentive from NUS to make this arrangement worth their while. If you want to pay for NUS membership (which your friend from Exeter will have done, either directly or indirectly), then you can happily reap the benefits with discounts at a range of UK high-street shops & attractcions.

Also, Katherine Heigl wasn't bad in Roswell.

* At least it wasn't the last time I checked.

[donpablo]

Something to do with the way the system works down in England (and Wales?) . They all get some NUS card thing where as in Scotland we don't. Not entirely sure what the deal or difference is with that except that a lot of places don't officially recognise non NUS card's because it means learning so many different types of matric cards and looking out for forgeries etc and becomes a nightmare for them (<sarcasm>my heart bleeds for them it really does</sarcasm>). So instead management just decided to be cocks about it and stick one over any Scottish or 'other' student presumably because it isn't a Scottish company and they really don't give a shit about customers. And then they are among the first to cry when their profits get hit when people download films!!! Is it any wonder people don't want to go to the cinema when you risk getting bleach thrown in your face and have to pay those prices! BAH!!! Ugh thanks even I'm annoyed at them too now

Im sure someone here can clear up the exact details of the NUS thing for you.

Edit: See above!

[lost_eden]

It's got nothing to do with the way the NUS system works, as NUS is a UK organisation & not just an English organisation. In fact, there is even a separate Scottish section of NUS, imaginatively named the 'National Union of Students Scotland', of which many Scottish universities are affiliated to;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NUS_Scotla ... .27_Unions

However for some reason the Union here at St Andrews has decided not to affiliate. This bears the benefit that they don't have to pass the membership fees & affiliation costs onto us students, but also means we get none of the benefits that come with NUS membership, such as cheap cinema tickets at Odeon.

[orudge]

If you get yourself an ISIC card, however, they do (or did when I got one a few years ago) have an NUS logo on the back, despite St Andrews not being part of the NUS. You might be able to use that to get the discount, perhaps. Otherwise, unless discounts are specifically advertised as NUS discounts, a bit of explanation can often result in the person accepting your St Andrews card. If not, well, not a lot you can do about it I guess.

[Fawksie]

Or give your patronage to a cinema with better service. Cineworld and Vue both accept St Andrews ID. Odeon say on their website that "a valid form of ID such as NUS, NUS Associate, or ISIC" is required.

There are many threads on this board about businesses demanding NUS cards for student discount, and about why the Students' Association isn't a member, if you're bored.

[Oli]

Or to save you finding those threads...

If the offer is advertised as a "student discount", then they should honour ALL student cards.
If, however, it's an "NUS discount", then I'm afraid the St Andrews card won't entitle you to the discount.

The University of St Andrews Students' Association isn't affiliated to the NUS for several reasons, which I'll very briefly outline.

1) The NUS represents Unions all over the UK, as well as some high schools and many colleges (700 institutions; 5 million students). Our ~7500 voices wouldn't carry much weight among so many others, plus the Association disagrees with some NUS policies.
2) NUS membership requires an affiliation fee, which (at the last calculation) would be approximately £35k for St Andrews. The Association doesn't feel that the membership fee is worth what we'd get back from the NUS.
3) As a member of the NUS, the Association would have to buy its supplies through NUS Services Ltd, and if their partner organisations don't stock the goods we want to sell, we wouldn't be allowed to buy them elsewhere.

Instead of the NUS, we have chosen to affiliate with the Coalition of Higher Education Students in Scotland (CHESS).

1) CHESS represents approximately 100,000 students in Scotland. I feel that we have a much stronger say in the decisions of CHESS, yet have the weight of another 92,500 students behind us - which packs a hefty punch.
2) The affiliation fee for CHESS is much more manageable (I think it's £50)
3) The Association buys its supplies through Northern Services, which is a buying consortium featuring some of the biggest Unions in Scotland. As a result, Northern Services members can still achieve the levels of discounts that NUSSL members can achieve, while being allowed to buy from other suppliers should the recommended suppliers not be able to offer the stock required. This is one reason how the Union Bars manage to bring you Tennents at £1.50 per pint.


You are still eligible to buy an "NUS Extra" card, though most places will accept your St Andrews student card, so you're better off saving yourself the tenner, and just asking nicely. If anyone questions whether St Andrews is a real university (you'd be surprised), you just need three words - Golf, Prince William.

(edit: corrected £10k annual NUS membership fee to £35k
CHESS fee from £150 to £50
and added that we disagree with some of their policies)

[pandora-incarnate]

I was just about to try and explain exactly why St Andrews isn't affiliated to the NUS, but I think Oli summed it up quite perfectly himself.

[DACrowe]

Of course, that's not to say that the comedy value of the NUS conference isn't worth the £35k for on its own; particularly if you like your chuckles to have a 'delusional socialist' vibe to them. 'Missed the Spanish Civil War? Fear not; you to can enjoy infighting between Stalinists, Trotskyists and anarchists all without having to go back in time to before perestroika'. It was a very educational experience to show up, as a left leaning liberal, and discover than, on NUS terms, that meant I was somewhere on the far right wing.