Which MUN conferences are worth sending students to? A teacher's checklist

Why does every conference need its own check?

The UN’s Model UN FAQ says the UN does not organise Model UN conferences, and that clubs and conferences “operate independently from the United Nations”. It adds: “The United Nations does not recognize, certify or endorse Model UN conferences.”

A UN logo on a conference’s pages, or a line calling it UN-affiliated, is therefore a question, never proof. The FAQ says a Model UN conference may not use the UN emblem in its promotional materials, and that the Secretary-General’s general message to Model UN conferences is not an endorsement, recognition or certification of any conference.

The Getting Started page says several online databases list upcoming conferences, and that with countless held every year, it is important to check that one is legitimate and a feasible option for all members.

This guide names no conference. Its checks apply to any event, ours included. Whether MUN itself suits a student is a separate question, taken up in our guide on MUN and college applications.

What should the school decide before reading any conference’s pages?

This guide suggests the school settles its own terms first, so that each conference is read against them:

• Purpose: a first conference for beginners, practice for an experienced team, or a format the club has not tried.
• Who goes: which students, how many teachers, and who signs off.
• A cost ceiling per delegate, set before any fee page is read.
• A date window clear of the school’s own exams and events.
• Format: in person in the city, residential, or online.
• Who travels with the students, under the school’s own travel policy.

Students in Class 10 and Class 12 check the board’s own date sheet before the school commits to any date. A trip abroad adds the destination’s own visa rules, which this guide does not cover. A Class 11 student asking to go can bring the same list to the teacher.

How are committees sized and countries given out?

A conference’s committee list or country matrix shows which bodies it simulates and how many delegates sit in each. The UN’s page on its main bodies gives the real sizes. All 193 Member States are represented in the General Assembly, the only UN body with universal representation. The Security Council has 15 Members, 5 permanent and 10 non-permanent, each with one vote.

The Economic and Social Council has 54 Members, elected by the General Assembly for overlapping three-year terms. None of these sizes is a rule for a simulation: a conference may seat more or fewer delegates than the real body, and the question for the organiser is how many, and why.

The UN says the Member States a simulation includes depend on two main factors, the agenda topic and the size of the group, and that a Security Council simulation should include its five permanent members: “China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States”.

It also says it is important that economically, politically and geographically diverse Member States are represented, smaller ones included: under the UN Charter, all Member States enjoy “sovereign equality”. A teacher can ask how and when countries are given out, and whether a first-time delegate can join a beginners’ committee.

Which rules and research guides will students work from?

In many Model UN simulations, the UN says, delegates vote on motions under “Parliamentary Procedure” rules, while at the UN agreements are in most instances made by consensus, with voting as a last resort. Its Model UN Guide page notes that many MUNs depart from the UN’s actual rules and practices. This guide rates neither voting nor consensus above the other.

The school can ask for the rules before registration closes and read them with the students, beside our explainer on MUN rules of procedure. The UN’s sample documents page gives real rules to compare: the Security Council’s Provisional Rules of Procedure and the Rules of Procedure of the General Assembly.

Background guides come next. Once an agenda is set, the UN says organisers should assemble a series of basic documents to guide participants’ research, and its research resources page points to research guides, from UN Documentation, on the workings of the General Assembly, Security Council, ECOSOC and Trusteeship Council. A teacher can ask when each background guide comes out and whether it lists its sources.

Who chairs, and how are awards decided?

The chair runs a committee’s sessions. The UN’s sample documents page points to real meeting records of a Chair at work: one shows how a Chair explains the order of proceedings, and another gives examples of the language a Chair uses to start action on a draft resolution and to encourage its adoption by consensus.

No official page read for this guide sets how a conference picks or trains its chairs, so what follows is this guide’s suggestion. A teacher can ask which classes the chairs are in, what training they had, and whether an adult is near each committee room.

Where a conference gives awards, a teacher can ask for the criteria in writing before registration, who judges, and whether each delegate receives written feedback. Without published criteria, the school cannot explain an award, or the lack of one, to a parent.

What does one delegate really cost?

A conference’s fee page is where the cost starts. A price shown as “from” is a floor, never a total. The teacher asks what the lowest figure includes and what raises it.

This guide suggests writing the cost for one delegate as a line with blanks, filled from the conference’s pages and its written answers:

Delegate fee ____ + delegation or school fee ____ + taxes, if not included ____ + travel ____ + rooms and meals, if residential ____ + local transport ____ + a share of the teachers’ costs ____ = cost per delegate ____

Beside the line go what the fee includes, such as committee materials, meals or a certificate, and the refund rule with its dates. Both come in writing, before anything is paid.

What should the organiser say about supervision, consent and data?

These questions go to the organiser, and the answers to the school’s own safeguarding staff and counsel; this guide gives no legal advice. It draws on the Manual on Safety and Security of Children in Schools, developed by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) in 2021, a compilation of twenty-two existing manuals and guidelines. This guide quotes it and takes no view on its legal force.

The manual says children on school outings are to be escorted while they travel, with a female teacher in any group that includes a girl student. Escorts are the school’s own matter, as our guide to starting an MUN club sets out; the organiser can say who is with the students as they move between sessions, rooms and meals.

It also says permission is to be taken from each child’s parent or family member for some activities, giving late-night activities and overnight trips as examples. So the school asks which parts run late or overnight, and what parents will be asked to sign.

Its Child Safety Checklist asks a school about its own arrangements: whether a first aid kit is in place, whether senior staff know the numbers of nearby hospitals, ambulance and fire stations, and whether parents tell the school about their child’s health issues. A teacher can put the same questions to the host venue, as this guide suggests.

The manual says: “Parents must be provided a platform to raise any concerns relating to their children.” This guide suggests asking the organiser whom a parent can reach during the event.

For an online conference, the checklist asks whether a school has “any policy on monitoring the usage of” cameras, including webcams, video conferencing equipment and mobile phones, by staff or children, to keep children safe. A teacher can ask whether sessions are recorded, and who sees the recordings.

On data, this guide’s suggestion carries no legal claim: a teacher can ask how the conference handles the students’ personal data and what it asks parents to consent to, and take the answer to the school’s safeguarding staff and counsel.

What should the school have in writing before it pays?

A phone call is hard to show a parent later, and a parent asked to pay can ask the school for the written answers. This guide suggests the school holds the answers to every check below in writing from the organiser before any payment.

The checklist puts every check on one page. Its middle column, this guide’s suggestion, says where a conference’s own pages usually answer each check; the right-hand column, what to ask in writing if they do not.

One row per check in this guide, in its order. The table names no conference, and the same checks apply to Model G20, which we run.

How can two conferences be compared without a ranking?

A teacher marks each row Yes, No or Not stated for each conference, side by side. The marks are never added into a score. A Yes on awards does not make up for a No on supervision, and the purpose the school set at the start decides which rows count most. A Not stated is a question still open until the organiser answers it in writing.

Some answers give a school reason to pause, in this guide’s view:

• the UN emblem on the conference’s pages, or wording that suggests UN backing;
• a price given only as “from”, with nothing on what it covers;
• committee sizes, countries or rules that appear only after payment;
• no named adult for the days of the event;
• answers that come by phone and never in writing.

How can the school judge a conference afterwards?

The same list works after the event, as this guide’s suggestion: the teacher goes down the rows with the students and notes where the conference matched its written answers and where it did not. Kept with those answers, the note lets next year’s teacher start from a record. The students’ own preparation before the event is the subject of our conference preparation guide.

Where One Young India fits

We run programmes in this area, so weigh this section with that in mind.

Our answers to most of the same checks, for the summit students attend and the edition a school hosts, as our pages state them.

Check	Summit (ours)	School edition (ours)
Who it is for	Students in Grades 8 to 12 who are curious about world affairs, diplomacy and leadership	A school’s own students, Grades 8 to 12, in person or online
Dates and format	Residential, 3 days, on campus in Pune, 36 hours in all. The summit’s page gives the dates.	The school enquires, and we share dates and formats. Exact dates: the page does not state this; ask before paying.
Committee size and tracks	“25 members per group”; working groups across the Sherpa and Finance tracks	We supply the committees and a country matrix. Committee size: the page does not state this; ask before paying.
How countries are given out	Delegates choose their country and committee	A country matrix is supplied
Rules: vote or consensus	Every edition runs the same consensus format	A consensus format: no majority vote, no veto
Research guide before the event	A research pack and a track brief; each delegate writes a position paper before the summit	Background guides and delegate training
Who chairs	The page names advisors and mentors. Who chairs: the page does not state this; ask before paying.	We train the school’s student secretariat to chair
Awards	The page says some delegates are recognised for their position papers and gives no rule for it	Winners qualify for the national residential championship. How they are chosen: the page does not state this; ask before paying.
Fee as published	The summit’s page publishes the fee and what it includes. Transport is not: “Delegates arrange their own transportation.”	No public price; the school enquires. The page does not state this; ask before paying.
Refunds	Refunds follow the policy.	The page does not state this; ask before paying.
Supervision, rooms, consent	Lodging is on campus for the 3 days. Supervision, room arrangements and consent: the page does not state this; ask before paying.	The page does not state this; ask before paying.
Student data	The page does not state this; ask before paying.	The page does not state this; ask before paying.
What the school receives in writing	The page does not state this; ask before paying.	Hosting starts with an enquiry and a conversation. What is confirmed in writing: the page does not state this; ask before paying.
Independence	Our pages call it an independent educational programme, not affiliated with the G20. It simulates the G20 Leaders’ Summit.	The same

One Young India runs one conference of its own: Model G20 Summit, for students in Grades 8 to 12. It includes a year of Learnacy Essential. Learnacy Essential pays for the tools, the courses and the feedback. It never buys acceptance. Model G20 is an independent educational programme, not affiliated with the G20.

A school sending students can ask its questions first: the summit’s interest form, under “Register your interest”, says “No payment is taken here.”

A school can also host its own summit, built around the G20’s agenda and decided by consensus, with no majority vote and no veto. For that, we supply the framework: committees, a country matrix, rules of procedure, background guides and delegate training, plus training for the school’s student secretariat to chair the summit. The students then run it themselves, and it ends in a signed communiqué. Enquire to host.

Before any conference, students can practise with our training game, Clear the Brackets. Using real G20 declarations, it teaches the language that turns a demand into text all 21 members can sign. It has a Classroom mode, and its invented examples are labelled as drafts. Train free: Clear the Brackets.

A school can also join the Learnacy Schools network, “A network, not an association”. It is free: no membership fee, no dues, ever; no franchise. A member school gets priority to host its own edition of a One Young India programme, and its students’ work is eligible for the review board and publication. Publication depends on review and is not guaranteed. Become a partner school.

Common questions

Which are the top MUN conferences in India?

This guide ranks none and names none. The UN says it “does not recognize, certify or endorse Model UN conferences”, so no list carries its backing. The checklist above lets a school judge each conference against its own purpose, ours included.

How much does an MUN conference cost?

There is no single figure, and this guide gives none because it names no conference. The UN says schools and other organisations hold these conferences independently, and that it provides no financial assistance of any kind for students taking part in Model UN events. The cost line in the section on cost above shows what to add to the fee.

What does a faculty advisor do at an MUN?

For a simulation organised at a school, the UN says a teacher may need to serve as an advisor, “especially at the high school or secondary school level”. That line is about a simulation at a school, not a trip to an outside conference. For an outside event, this guide suggests the teacher who goes is the school’s contact with the organiser and keeps the written answers.

Is an online MUN a good option for school students?

It can be, if its organiser answers the same checks in writing. The UN’s Getting Started page says a team can choose a local in-person event or an online one. For an online conference, this guide adds questions on session times in IST and on cameras and recordings, as the checklist sets out.

What is an inter school MUN?

It usually means a Model UN conference that delegations from more than one school attend, whether a school hosts it or another organiser runs it. The checks in this guide apply either way. Hosting one is a different project, with its own questions on staff, rooms, money and safeguarding, set out in our planning guide for principals.

Sources

The UN pages were read on 13 November 2026, and the NCPCR manual on 9 November 2026.

1. United Nations, Model United Nations, Frequently Asked Questions.
2. United Nations, Model United Nations, Getting Started with Model United Nations.
3. United Nations, Model United Nations, Model UN Guide.
4. United Nations, Model United Nations, Sample Documents.
5. United Nations, Model United Nations, Research Resources.
6. United Nations, Main Bodies.
7. National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), Manual on Safety and Security of Children in Schools, 2021 (PDF).
8. One Young India (our own pages): the summit’s page, the school edition’s page, the training game, the Learnacy Schools page, the editions page and the Refund & Cancellation Policy.

Related

• MUN for beginners in India: what Model UN is, how a conference runs and where to start
• Which simulation suits which student: four formats compared
• International relations, a subject in our hub
• Global governance and collective action, a subject in our hub