THE GRADUATE UNION

From its founding, the Graduate Union acted as a hub for students for whom the colleges struggled to accommodate, such as international postgraduates and their partners, mature students, visiting scholars and later post doctorate researchers.  These students were somewhat neglected and also did not fit in with the paternal culture in the colleges at this time.

The Graduate Union was founded in 1955, by grace of the Regent’s House to support Postgraduates better, and raise awareness of this growing group. Credit for this founding goes to Margareta “Greta” Burkill, who previously studied at Newnham College. She was born in Germany and became a political refugee due to her father's activities. She helped house many child refugees escaping persecution in the 1930s and 40s. She also helped found New Hall (now Murray Edwards College) to further the Higher Education of women at the University of Cambridge.

CUSU

CUSU was founded as the Cambridge Students' Union (CSU) in 1971 to represent all higher education students studying in Cambridge, that is students attending the University of Cambridge plus undergraduates at CCAT (the then Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology, which in 1993 became Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge). CSU also represented students at Homerton College, then a separate teacher training college in the city.

CSU during its early years from 1971 to 1974 received support from CCAT Students' Union as CCATSU was from the 1960s the only large NUS-affiliated, and conventionally funded, students' union in Cambridge. CSU in turn supported CCATSU in its campaigns to get more student housing provided for CCAT degree students, a serious issue for the college by the early 1970s. CCATSU and CSU went their separate ways after 1974.

CSU was formally recognised by the Cambridge University authorities on 25 May 1984 and renamed, following a student referendum in March 1985, as CUSU - Cambridge University Students Union.