Students demand free education

THOUSANDS of students gathered in Malet Street, Bloomsbury for a protest march to Parliament Square to demand free higher education, to be paid for by taxing the rich.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has backed the students’ demands and called for free education “from the cradle to the grave”.

Corbyn went into last June’s the general election promising to abolish tuition fees in England but came under intense pressure in the weeks after the vote in relation to a pledge to “deal with” historic student debt. Labour insisted this did not amount to a vow to write off the existing stock of debt and stood by its plan to cancel fees for future students.

On Wednesday Corbyn sent a message of support to organisers of the demonstration, which has been called by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts.

“Everybody should have access to high quality education from the cradle to the grave, without being forced into debt and anxiety,” he said.

“No one should be shut out. That’s why I support the demonstration for free education on the 15th November organised by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts and backed by students’ unions and Momentum. Together we can build a movement to demand high quality education for the many, not the few. And in government, Labour will deliver it.”

Last month Theresa May cancelled the £250 rise in tuition fees, freezing the charges at £9,250, and announced a review of the entire student finance system. The measure was derided as “desperate” by Labour, which has seen its popularity soar among young people.

The march had support from all the major trade unions involved in education. Unison at the University of Bath sent a message to the protesting students: “Tuition fees hurt us all: students, staff & education itself. Fees are an integral part of marketized Higher Education & universities behaving like businesses, prioritising surpluses over students. We need Free Education. Full support to all at #FreeEdNow demo today!”

Caroline Lucas, MP for the Green Party sent a message: “Solidarity with NCAFC UK who are marching for free education today. Tuition should be paid for from progressive taxation, it's simple really – and has been Green Party policy for many years.”

The organisers also arranged a DemoHQ to enable those students who could not travel because of disability or for whatever other reason to take part in the event.

National Union of Students disabled students Officer, Rachel O’Brien, says that DemoHQ is a vital part of any demonstration: “It gives people who can’t march – be that for disability reasons or otherwise – a place to go and do essential work for the Free Education Demo. It makes our labour visible, and gives it equal value to the labour of the people who are marching.”

Students march for free education

by New Worker correspondent
 

MORE THAN 15,000 students, lecturers and college workers marched through London last Saturday  from Park Lane, past the Houses of Parliament, to Millbank to demand free, quality further and higher education, accessible to all.

Their key demands were:

• To invest in our FE [further education] colleges and sixth forms, and stop college mergers;

• To write off student debt and stop private education companies profiting from student fees;

• ·        To scrap the Higher Education and Research Bill, halt the rise in tuition fees and bring back maintenance grants.

The National Union of Students’ (NUS) protest was actively supported by the college lecturers’ union UCU in response to what the NUS says is the wake of the biggest attacks to the education sector in modern times.

The union estimated this was the biggest student protest in London for years. Approximately 60 coaches brought students from across Britain, with a special mention going to Orkney College, whose students set off at 4am the previous day from the Northern tip of Scotland and travelled over 700 miles to take part.

The march concluded with a rally at Millbank featuring rousing speeches from Sally Hunt (general secretary, UCU), Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady, Amelia Womack (deputy leader of the Green Party), NS President Maila Bouattia and other student leaders,and Darletta Scruggs, a Chicago-based activist from the Black Lives Matter movement.

They delivered the message that free, good quality education is a right for all, regardless of ability to pay and more than at any time before we have to fight for that.

FE colleges have been cut to the core, with huge job losses and course closures, and a desperate need for investment that simply isn’t being provided.

In higher education (HE), tuition fees are rising and the Government is forcing universities to run like businesses. Students are facing higher debt than ever before with maintenance grants and NHS bursaries scrapped, student loan terms changed and tuition fees set to reach £12,000 by 2026.

They protested against Government plans in the Higher Education Bill for an ideologically led market experiment that would open up HE in Britain to the likes of Trump University and leave students facing escalating fees.

Before the march Professor Stephen Curry, a structural biologist from Imperial College London, wrote in the Guardian: “The Higher Education and Research Bill has to be amended before it undermines the autonomy and vitality of our universities and the UK research base.”

Earlier in the week the Government tabled amendments to the Bill but failed to address critics’ key concerns relating to private providers and fees. The Bill will introduce a teaching excellence framework that will rank universities by quality and allow the best-performing institutions to raise their fees in line with inflation.

The proposals will also make it easier for new institutions, including for-profits, to gain a university title – a label that can significantly boost applications from overseas students and that currently takes decades to achieve.

Malia Bouattia said the plans would damage quality and leave students in even more debt: “The Government is running at pace with a deeply risky, ideologically-led market experiment in further and higher education, and students and lecturers, who will suffer most as a result, are clear that this can’t be allowed to happen.

“This week, before the Bill has even been properly debated in Parliament, let alone passed, universities are already advertising fees above £9,000.”

Don’t ban the Hare Krishna free food

STUDENTS at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), part of the University of London, are protesting at a ban by the college authorities on the Hare Krishna free food provision for students – because it undermines the profits of the official franchised college eating places.

The Hare Krishna people have been providing plates of free vegetable curry to students and people in the Bloomsbury area for the past 15 years.

They also turn up on progressive demonstration in cold weather to provide free, good quality hot food for protesters.

They come to SOAS 6 days per week and serve nearly 700 people with a heart-warming smile. It is very disappointing that SOAS and the University of London prioritise their business interests over free and healthy Hare Krishna food, which many students and others rely on.

The alternative food options at SOAS are very expensive and not particularly healthy. The students want the Hare Krishnas to stay on the SOAS campus, where they have always been.