The Union of Students in Ireland has championed many causes over the past 50 years, but all that has changed, changed utterly. Today's students are more concerned with getting their first Opel Astra than changing the world, argues Steven Conlon

Since the very foundation of the modern university, students have been to the fore of mass political movements. Ireland was no exception, that is, until the emergence of the "career student leader".

The student movement in Ireland has given birth to the careers of many political household names in the last 40 years, from former leader of the Labour Party Pat Rabbitte to SDLP leader Mark Durkan, with many cutting their teeth as officers of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI).

Both Rabbitte and current Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore have served as presidents of USI, the only organisation with a democratic mandate to represent the interests of third-level students to government and those of influence, while other notable former student activists include Ruairi Quinn, Joe Duffy and Ivana Bacik.

USI, a loosely affiliated federation of students' unions and political wannabes, has had a turbulent past. Once upon a time, the wrath of the student movement would at the very least prompt a Minister to increase security at the gate. Nowadays, the barbarians at the gate are more interested in compromise than protests, more concerned with photo-ops than occupations.

The days of sustained protests, student strikes and general student disobedience seem to be numbered. The phenomenon of the "career student leader" has led to timid press releases and carefully choreographed photo-ops so as not to offend anyone.

The lack of passion from student leaders may derive from their democratic deficit. In recent years, the turnout for local students' union (SU) elections has been abysmal, with some SUs struggling to reach 20 per cent. This has seriously discredited the idea that student leaders speak for all students, when realistically only 10 per cent bothered to turn out to vote for them.

To further this lack of a credible mandate, the policies and outlook of many student leaders have little or no bearing on the general student body. There is a real failing in student leaders to make students passionate. The student movement has seen the personal political motivations of its leaders move to the centre of the agenda of the national union, leaving ordinary students scratching their heads and settling down for another can of Coke and a bite of a Nestlé bar.

The politics of personal interest has infested student politics, often with little regard for the real needs of ordinary students, and just like the national political arena, it gets very personal. USI is in real danger of becoming a carbon copy of the UK national union of students (NUS), where candidates stand for election based on their membership of a particular political party, derive their policy from their party's policy manual and become mouthpieces for their political masters.

It may now be time for the Minister for Education to legislate in this area. With the instability in USI, students' welfare and representation on statutory bodies is in danger. USI provides the predominate training for student leaders in areas of effective representation, and working within existing educational structures. Should such an unstable body as USI be the main facilitator for training on such important matters?

There is precedence for this. The 1998 Education Act established student councils in all post-primary schools. It legislated for the existence of the councils but also gave those councils terms of reference.

With the prevailing culture of quality assurance, where students are consulted in the design and roll-out of courses, the Minister for Education should ensure the survival of quality assurance process by professionalising the national students' union, resourcing it appropriately, and laying down explicit terms of reference, not just for USI, but for local SUs as well.

Membership of a national students' union should be obligatory for local unions. They should be required to feed into the representational structures of the national union so that the learner seats USI holds on a number of statutory bodies, including the Higher Education Authority (HEA) and the Higher Education Training Awards Council (Hetac), are truly emblematic.

Any legislation should ensure that if the students' union fails in its duties, essential services such as education and welfare support continue by placing such responsibilities on the third-level institution themselves.

Students' unions which are no longer distracted by abortion debates and Coca Cola debacles could focus on improving the third-level education system, ensuring the welfare of students during their study, and truly representing students on issues of direct relevance to them while at college.

This of course, does not take away from the right of students to associate and debate in a public forum. Debating societies and youth political parties allow students to define themselves in terms of their beliefs.

Next year will mark the 50th anniversary of USI. It can claim as victories grant increases, the readjustment of tuition fees to be paid by the taxpayer as opposed to the individual student, and increased representation for students.

USI has informed its membership on a range of issues including equality, disability, politics and social reform, but in modern Ireland the vast majority of students express little interest in these areas. Students are more interested in fast-tracking their education and entering the real world as quickly as possible.

Students are increasingly apathetic, pacified by free education, a minimum wage and their first Opel Astra. USI needs to evaluate quickly what its membership really desires of its national union. It is in danger of becoming wholly irrelevant.

Changes to USI will only be brought about by individuals who are politically motivated - students are simply not interested. If the Minister gets in there first, maybe then students will have a national union that truly represents them in a way that matters.

Steven Conlon has been active in the students' union movement for over seven years. He began in IT Sligo's students' union, and has been involved with USI for four years, serving as LGBT officer and equality officer