Club & society affiliations
The term 1 affiliation window for standard societies is now closed. Affiliation applications for standard societies will reopen in January 2025.
The webform is open for anyone wanting to create a departmental society only. Please follow the link below.
Should you wish to affiliate a departmental society, rather than a standard club or society, please visit this page.
Students' Union UCL supports over 400 sports clubs and societies. They receive a range of support including funding, facilities, administration, banking and legal services.
Clubs and societies exist to provide a wide range of co-curricular opportunities and activities to Students' Union UCL members. The union will only consider applicants who meet the criteria below. These criteria exist so that the union resources are effectively used to maximise opportunities.
Criteria for new clubs and societies
- The club/society must not conflict with Students' Union UCL's Memorandum and Articles of Association, Byelaws or policies. These can be found here.
- New clubs/societies should not significantly overlap with any activities provided by existing groups. Please refer to our clubs and societies directory.
- There must be proven interest from UCL students in the new club/society. This can be demonstrated through the application form and from gathering 30 signatures from UCL students.
- Applications should demonstrate how the new club/society would enhance the student experience at UCL.
- The activities of the club/society must be practical for the Union to support with its current resources.
- Every new club/society must be open to all members of Students' Union UCL.
- All committee members must be able to buy standard membership for their own society once affiliated.
How do I apply for affiliation to Students' Union UCL?
The are two rounds of applications per academic year:
- Term 1: September to October 2024
- Term 2 : January - February 2025
- If you want to start a club or society, make sure there isn’t one already existing that does the same activities, or is based on the same idea – there’s no point in duplicating. You can check this on the union website: Clubs & Societies Directory.
- Get a group of UCL friends, or like minded fellow students together, to sit down and discuss what the basic activities and functions of your club are going to be. Will you be going on trips, are you discussing something, are you training etc?
- Read our Guidance for Applicants and complete the online application form (make sure you are logged in with your UCL username and password before clicking 'apply now', or you won't be able to view the application form).
- You need to choose a committee; this comprises a president, treasurer and welfare officer as a necessity, and you may want to think about a social secretary, a captain, a producer, editor etc. It all depends on what your club/society will be doing.
- President and treasurer are known as the principal officers of a club/society. No position sits higher on the committee than them and they are the main contacts with the union. You can only have one of each and the positions, unlike other committee posts, cannot be shared between more than one person. Welfare officer is mandatory post but not a principal officer. You can find out more about the responsibilities of each officer in our Rules & Regulations which you should familiarise yourself with before applying.
- You need to attract a minimum of 30 UCL Students to become potential members. At this stage, they don’t need to pay anything, but you will need to collect their names and contact information on the provided signature sheet and attach to your application. Physical signatures are not currently required as part of the application, instead we accept digital signatures or their name (as appears on their UCL Student ID) and UCL email address.
- All applications will be reviewed by the Activities Executive.