The Federation of University Conservative and Unionists Associations (FUCUA) was set up in the late 1940s to act as a bridge between the student movement and the Conservative Party. The students were organised not in the constituency associations but in separate branches of the Federation based on universities and colleges. It was renamed the Federation of Conservative Students (FCS) following the recommendation of its General Purposes Committee on 18th February 1967. Following its controversial swing to the right, it was closed down in 1986 by the then Party Chairman, Norman Tebbit, for bringing the Party into disrepute.

The Conservative Collegiate Forum (CCF) replaced the FCS as the national student organisation of the Conservative Party, holding its inaugural meeting on 13th January 1987. From 1990 the organisation was widely, but unofficially, known as Conservative Students. The organisation existed until 1998 when it was merged with the Young Conservatives and National Association of Conservative Graduates (NACG) to create Conservative Future as part of a series of major reforms introduced by William Hague, then Party Leader.

The National Association of Conservative Graduates (NACG) was officially founded in 1969, its inaugural meeting taking place on 26th July 1969. Prior to this, a handful of Conservative graduates' associations had existed from as far back as the mid-1930s, including Oxford, Cambridge, London Universities, and Combined English Universities associations. In 1968 it was agreed that the functions of the graduates' associations should be merged into one national association with a regional structure and representation at the Area level of the National Union, creating NACG. Objects of the organisation, as stated in its constitution, included to further the Conservative cause amongst graduates, to advise the Party on matters relating to graduates, and to publish a journal at least once a year on matters of political and professional interest to members. The organisation was merged with the Young Conservatives and CCF to become Conservative Future in 1998.