The Cambridge Union

The Cambridge Union Defending free debate since 1815: www.cus.org

For membership enquiries: [email protected] But there's more. Open most days until after midnight.

Debates
Hosting world famous weekly debates, we have debating some of the most pressing issues of our long history, discussed by some of the most influential people in the world, and some of the best student speakers in the world, alike. Speakers
In the past few years alone Union members have met Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, the legendary actors Sir Ian McKellen and Bill Nighy, comedians Dara

O'Briain and Russell Brand, and the controversial scientist and author Professor Richard Dawkins. Charitable Work
Not only does the Union provide a service to students in Cambridge, it also has multiple programmes for disadvantaged children across the UK. Through teaching public speaking and debate, the Union’s charitable aim is to promote opportunity through education - and we have ambitious plans to expand our charitable work in the future. Social Entertainment
Throughout the year we run some of the best social events in Cambridge. Our Valentines Ball is hugely popular, and we kick off May Week with the most extravagant Garden Party around. With pilates to pub quizzes, Comedy Smokers to Casino & Cocktails nights, we have something for everyone. There's something on almost every night of the week - Union membership ensures you a packed social calendar. The Orator Bar and Restaurant
Our bar is the only one to cater to the whole university, making it the perfect place to chill with friends, particularly from other colleges. Complete with plasma screens and comfy sofas, plus nightly entertainment and drinks deals. Our café is the perfect place to work or play, offering cheap, fairtrade coffee and food throughout the day in a newly-refurbished, friendly and comfortable setting. Library
Our beautiful and historic library is a great place to study and read away from college, with free Wi-Fi, newspapers, and the largest selection of borrowable fiction books outside of the University Library. Competitive Debating
Our competitive debating teams regularly compete on an international level, and in the past two years have won more competitions than any other university in Britain or Ireland. We run workshops for those interested in improving their skills, as well as for complete beginners, giving our members the chance to learn from highly experienced debaters and compete in national competitions themselves.

27 April 2026 - It was a pleasure to welcome the Maestro, Ludovico Einaudi for the first speaker's event of Easter term ...
10/06/2026

27 April 2026 - It was a pleasure to welcome the Maestro, Ludovico Einaudi for the first speaker's event of Easter term 2026, which included a Q&A session with our President, Jack, and a live performance.

📷 -

At 7pm on Monday 15th June, the Union is delighted to be hosting James Nachtwey, the award-winning photojournalist.Since...
09/06/2026

At 7pm on Monday 15th June, the Union is delighted to be hosting James Nachtwey, the award-winning photojournalist.

Since 1981 James Nachtwey has documented armed conflicts worldwide, including the civil wars that engulfed Central America throughout the 1980's, violent conflicts in Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Uganda, the liberation struggle against apartheid in South Africa, wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya and Ukraine, genocide in Rwanda and Darfur, the often violent liberation struggle against apartheid in South Africa, the overthrow of dictatorships in the Philippines, Indonesia and South Korea and the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York City in 2001. Nachtwey's work as a social documentarian includes the effects of HIV-AIDS in southern Africa, the global impact of tuberculosis, industrial pollution in Eastern Europe, state-sanctioned institutional abuse of orphans in Romania and the opioid epidemic in the United States. Among the many honours his work has received are the Princess of Asturias Award, the Dresden Peace Prize, the Commonwealth Award, the Robert Capa Gold Medal (five times), the World Press Photo of the Year Award (twice), the Bayeaux Award for War Correspondents (twice) and the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Grant for Humanistic Photography. He was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame in 2017. Nachtwey's photographs are in several permanent collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Bibliotheque Nationale de France.

Applications are now open for the role of Deputy Returning Officer for Easter 2026 & Michaelmas 2026. Deputy Returning O...
08/06/2026

Applications are now open for the role of Deputy Returning Officer for Easter 2026 & Michaelmas 2026.

Deputy Returning Officers serve for one term and support the Returning Officers in the administration of the Society’s elections. Service as a Deputy Returning Officer is also a prerequisite for appointment as a Returning Officer.

The role is governed by Rule (5)23) of the Society’s Constitution. Please see the application form for full details and eligibility requirements.

Please direct any questions to the Vice President, Heemie Comrie, at [email protected]

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis

Application form: https://forms.gle/uNHq4pv8T5GfFUVg8

We're delighted to announce that nominations for the Cambridge Union Society’s elections for positions served in Lent 20...
08/06/2026

We're delighted to announce that nominations for the Cambridge Union Society’s elections for positions served in Lent 2027 are now open!

Nominations close on Friday 12 June 2026 at 6:00pm. If you wish to stand for election, please complete the Easter 2026 Nomination Form, which is attached to the members’ email. Please further note that the form requires signature and return from the Vice President. To obtain this, please email your form, with your section completed, to Heemie Comrie at [email protected]. The signed nomination form must then be returned to the Returning Officers before the close of nominations, with the following also submitted by email to [email protected]: a manifesto designed for one side of A4, a plain text manifesto, a short manifesto of no more than 100 words, and an experience declaration.

Please ensure that your manifesto complies with the requirements set out in the Cambridge Union Constitution. It may be helpful to consult Rule (3) of the Constitution for these purposes. Please note that any nominations submitted after the deadline will not be considered. If you have any further questions, please email the Returning Officers at [email protected]

Rules and Regulations:
1. All candidates must have served at least 6 weeks on Full Committee, as verified by the Vice President.
2. Candidates for President must have served a full term as a Standing Committee Officer.
3. All candidates must have gained 4 Charitable Points, as set out in the Constitution.
4. All forms of “slating”, meaning candidates supporting other candidates, are banned.
5. Public campaigning can only begin once nominations have closed and the Returning Officers have approved a candidate’s nomination.

For further details on the electoral process and rules, please refer to Laws (7) and (8), and Rules (3) and (4), of the Union’s Constitution.

Dates and deadlines:
Nominations close: 6:00pm, Friday 12 June 2026
Hustings: 6:00pm, Monday 15 June 2026 in the Union
Voting: 15-17 June 2026, in person at the Union

Join us at 4pm in the Library, on the 21st of May, as we host Ukranian MP Kira Rudik!Kira Rudik is a Member of the Ukrai...
20/05/2026

Join us at 4pm in the Library, on the 21st of May, as we host Ukranian MP Kira Rudik!

Kira Rudik is a Member of the Ukrainian Parliament and leader of the political party Holos.
Since the beginning of Russia’s full scale invasion, Kira Rudik has promoted the agenda of Ukraine in more than 50 countries and given more than 3000 interviews for key international media outlets. Kira Rudik advocates for democratic values, digital transformation, and the confiscation of frozen Russian assets for the sake of Ukraine, as well as female leadership and animal rights.

Join us on Tuesday 19th May at the Union for the Nuclear Energy Panel.Speakers:Jim Smith is Professor of Environmental S...
18/05/2026

Join us on Tuesday 19th May at the Union for the Nuclear Energy Panel.

Speakers:

Jim Smith is Professor of Environmental Science at Portsmouth University and an expert in modelling radioactive pollution in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. He has co-ordinated four multinational projects on the environmental consequences of the Chernobyl accident and has regularly worked in the Exclusion Zone. He is lead author of a major book on the accident: Chernobyl: Catastrophe and Consequences and authored key opinion pieces in Nature and Science on the Fukushima accident. He has been a member of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Expert Groups on Chernobyl and Fukushima.

Dr Paul Dorfman is Bennett Scholar, Bennett Institute for Innovation & Acceleration, University of Sussex; Chair of the Nuclear Consulting Group; Member of the Irish Government Radiation Protection Advisory Committee; Member of the International Nuclear Risk Assessment Group. Paul served as Secretary to the UK government scientific advisory Committee Examining Radiation Risks from Internal Emitters; led a European Environment Agency response to Fukushima; served as Expert to the European Economic and Social Committee; Advisor to the UK Ministry of Defence Nuclear Submarine Dismantling Project; Adviser to the French Govt. Assemblee Nationale relative à la Faisabilité Technique et Financière du Démantèlement des Installations Nucléaire, and drafted sets of UK Department of Health NHS guidance.

Raquel Heredia is Senior Programme Lead for Strategic Partnerships at the World Nuclear Association, where she leads engagement across end energy users, the nuclear industry, and multilateral organisations to translate energy demand into nuclear deployment strategies and inform policy development.
Her work sits at the intersection of policy, strategy, and stakeholder engagement, focusing on how nuclear technologies can enable equitable and practical low-carbon transitions across the global economy. She is also an active advocate for diversity in the energy sector and for encouraging women and girls into STEAM careers.

We are delighted to be hosting Nina Khrushcheva on Tuesday 19th May at 7pm! The event will be held in the Union Library....
18/05/2026

We are delighted to be hosting Nina Khrushcheva on Tuesday 19th May at 7pm! The event will be held in the Union Library.

Nina Khrushcheva is a professor of International Affairs at The New School in New York City and a contributor to Project Syndicate: Association of Newspapers Around the World. Her articles have appeared in Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times and other international publications.

She is the author of several books in English and Russian including In Putin’s Footsteps: Searching for the Soul of an Empire Across Russia’s Eleven Time Zones (2019) (co-authored) and Imagining Nabokov: Russia Between Art and Politics (2008). Her latest book (in Russian) is a biography of her great-grandfather, Nikita Khrushchev: An Outlier of the System (Diletant, 2024).

Chernobyl: 40 Years OnJoin us on Tuesday 19th May at the Union for the Nuclear Energy panel.Speakers:Jim Smith is Profes...
18/05/2026

Chernobyl: 40 Years On

Join us on Tuesday 19th May at the Union for the Nuclear Energy panel.

Speakers:

Jim Smith is Professor of Environmental Science at Portsmouth University and an expert in modelling radioactive pollution in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. He has co-ordinated four multinational projects on the environmental consequences of the Chernobyl accident and has regularly worked in the Exclusion Zone. He is lead author of a major book on the accident: Chernobyl: Catastrophe and Consequences and authored key opinion pieces in Nature and Science on the Fukushima accident. He has been a member of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Expert Groups on Chernobyl and Fukushima.

Dr Paul Dorfman is Bennett Scholar, Bennett Institute for Innovation & Acceleration, University of Sussex; Chair of the Nuclear Consulting Group; Member of the Irish Government Radiation Protection Advisory Committee; Member of the International Nuclear Risk Assessment Group. Paul served as Secretary to the UK government scientific advisory Committee Examining Radiation Risks from Internal Emitters; led a European Environment Agency response to Fukushima; served as Expert to the European Economic and Social Committee; Advisor to the UK Ministry of Defence Nuclear Submarine Dismantling Project; Adviser to the French Govt. Assemblee Nationale relative à la Faisabilité Technique et Financière du Démantèlement des Installations Nucléaire, and drafted sets of UK Department of Health NHS guidance.

Raquel Heredia is Senior Programme Lead for Strategic Partnerships at the World Nuclear Association, where she leads engagement across end energy users, the nuclear industry, and multilateral organisations to translate energy demand into nuclear deployment strategies and inform policy development.
Her work sits at the intersection of policy, strategy, and stakeholder engagement, focusing on how nuclear technologies can enable equitable and practical low-carbon transitions across the global economy. She is also an active advocate for diversity in the energy sector and for encouraging women and girls into STEAM careers.

Join us at 8pm, on Thursday 21th May for the Cambridge Union’s fourth debate of Easter Term, on the motion ‘THB NATO is ...
17/05/2026

Join us at 8pm, on Thursday 21th May for the Cambridge Union’s fourth debate of Easter Term, on the motion ‘THB NATO is unfit for the world today’; and at 7:30pm for the emergency debate on the motion ‘THB technology has made us less intelligent.’

Proposition:

Dr Antony Stokes LVO OBE

Dr Antony Stokes LVO OBE is a former British Ambassador with thirty years of senior diplomatic experience, including as British Ambassador in Hanoi and Havana and as Ambassador for Climate Change. He writes and speaks on how diplomacy actually works, drawing on practitioner experience. His Ambassador at Large Gazette reaches 8,000 readers globally. He read Engineering at Queens' College, Cambridge.

Sevim Dağdelen

Sevim Dağdelen is an author, foreign policy expert, and served as a member of the German Federal Parliament from 2005 to 2025. She is the foreign policy expert on the Federal Executive Board of the BSW party and is known for her outspoken critique of military interventionism, as well as her bestselling book,“NATO: A Reckoning.”

Opposition:

Kira Rudik

Kira Rudik is a Member of Ukrainian Parliament and leader of the political party Holos.
Since the beginning of Russia's full scale invasion, Kira Rudik has promoted the agenda of Ukraine in more than 50 countries and given more than 3000 interviews for key international media outlets. Kira Rudik advocates for democratic values, digital transformation, and the confiscation of frozen Russian assets for the sake of Ukraine, as well as female leadership and animal rights.

David Aaronovitch

David Aaronovitch has produced, presented and edited factual programmes for ITV, the BBC, C4 and C5. He was a columnist for the Independent, the Guardian, The Observer and The Times, winning several awards.

At 6pm on Monday 18th May, we are delighted to be welcoming Leonid Volkov to our Chamber for a Speaker’s Event!Leonid Vo...
16/05/2026

At 6pm on Monday 18th May, we are delighted to be welcoming Leonid Volkov to our Chamber for a Speaker’s Event!

Leonid Volkov is the political director of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, the leading organisation of the Russian anti-Putin and anti-war resistance movement, founded by the late Alexei Navalny. 

Volkov was campaign manager and chief of staff for Navalny’s Moscow mayoral campaign of 2013 and presidential campaign of 2018 and since 2019 he has to reside outside of Russia. 

There are eleven politically motivated criminal cases against him initiated by Putin’s regime and in 2024 he was brutally attacked in front of his house in Vilnius. In 2025 he was sentenced to 18 years of imprisonment (in absentia). 

Volkov currently also serves as the Chief of staff for Yulia Navalnaya, as well as the Co-founder of the Internet Protection Society (OZI), Russia’s leading digital rights NGO.

Address

9A Bridge Street
Cambridge
CB21UB

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 11pm
Wednesday 9am - 11pm
Thursday 9am - 11pm
Friday 9am - 1am

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+441223417144

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