Students at Roslyn Park College in Sandymount, Dublin, went to the polls last week in a referendum on affiliation to USI and the result - 98 per cent voted yes - was overwhelmingly positive. The college provides a range of courses for disabled students up to NCVA and NCEA certificates, and the affiliation vote shows their desire to be taken seriously as students.

"Because we are students with disabilities, it is not as easy to integrate with students in TCD or UCD," said Andrew Flynn, the students' union liaison officer.

Unusually for a third-level college, there are very few disputes with management, as Roslyn Park is exceptionally well-equipped.

"It's a very well managed college, the only part that's lacking is the students' union," Flynn said, adding that USI training would be invaluable for union members.

It is not for support in disputes that Roslyn Park students want USI affiliation, Flynn said, but because they felt "without affiliation we would be on our own".

An indication of how seriously the students at Roslyn Park are taking their membership is that they are all paying personally for the affiliation costs and two have put themselves forward as potential disability officers for USI.

With only 200 students, Roslyn Park is not going to add much to USI's coffers, but its addition marks a departure for the union and helps to broaden its membership base in two ways: As well as being a college providing education exclusively to those with special needs, the highly vocational nature of the courses on offer is unusual for a USI college - but this latter is an area into which USI wishes to expand.