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The 14th of February 2026 marked the final National Student Pride festival after 21 years.
The idea of this festival was born all the way back in 2005 by Oxford Brookes LGBT Society, after a homophobic and bigoted talk on campus by the Christian Union. The first event had an inclusive panel with a Vicar and Rabbi amongst others.
National Student Pride 2005: Its first ever press coverage!
Over the years, National Student Pride has held panels and conversation at the heart of the event transforming into a two-day festival with students, career opportunities and -of course- queerness at its epicentre. The festivals always centred around the Main Stage with alongside student focussed career fairs, music stage, networking events, and workshops.
Student Pride grew bigger each year and in order to keep the main Daytime Festival free the organisation has relied on the Careers Fair to fund the not for profit.
However, the everchanging events of the world that led to the recent evident rise of conservative ideology caused mass cuts to DEI funding, gradually leading to the reduction of corporate sponsorship. Student Pride also adheres to a strict sponsorship policy. To be precise, in 2024 Student Pride had 24 sponsors, but this year’s event had only 8.
This meant that National Student Pride could not continue or at least not in its current form. It is therefore time for NSP to turn page and start over by redefining itself and going back to its roots and initial cause: providing LGBTQ+ students a community.
This blog is the first step in this transformation.
The purpose of this blog is to give LGBTQ+ students across the UK a platform where their voices can be amplified. Any student will be able to submit a draft of an article they would like to publish. This could contain anything from voicing an opinion, to discussing concerns regarding student life, advocating for issues or supporting other queer student events.
More details on the submission processes will be announced soon. Until then… Welcome to the National Student Pride Blog — made by students for students!
