Venue: Queen's University Belfast Students' Union
Town: Belfast, GB

Queen's Students' Union (QSU) is the official representative body for students at Queen's University Belfast. Membership of the union is automatic and currently totals 24,560, making it one of the largest unions on the island of Ireland and in the United Kingdom. The Students' Union derives its existence and authority from the University's Statutes, and so is not entirely independent of it. Therefore, it must have amendments to its constitution approved by the University Senate. It aims to represent students' interests both with the university and the wider community, to create a sense of student spirit and provide services that aid its student members during their time at Queen's. The Students' Union can trace its origins to the nineteenth century, and has been based on University Road, directly opposite the university's main 'Lanyon Building', since it opened in 1967. The history of the Students' Union can be traced back to the late nineteenth century and to what was then Queen's College, Belfast, which was founded in 1845 and became a separate university in 1908. Student facilities at the College remained minimal until the establishment of the all-male Students' Union Society (SUS), which began fundraising with the support of the College's management to build a dedicated Students' Union building providing services to the College's 400 students. The SUS was responsible for managing the Students' Union building which was located on University Square and was opened on 19 January 1897 by the 5th Earl Cadogan, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, during celebrations to mark the College's Golden Jubilee and had been built at a cost of £8,000. The facilities offered by the Students' Union included a shop, cloakroom, billiards and smoking room and meeting and debating chambers as well as a dining room, which was the only part of building always opened to women students. Women had first been admitted to Queen's in September 1889 and in response to the male make-up of the SUS,