on may 7th at great george street, london, just off parliament square, Universities UK and the Association for University Research and Industry Links are holding a conference to discuss the marketisation of UK universities and higher education. They want to charge up to £10,000 a year to create a fees market, introduce a real rate of interest on student loans (effectively turning them into commercial loans) and to invite businesses to help determine academic research and to profit from it, taking away academics freedom to direct their own studies.
There is a picket at the conference called for 10am- we will keep you updated on how it goes!
solidarity from the UK
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Report (written by an activist in the UK)
On the 7th May, Universities UK (the university management umbrella group, UUK), the Association for University Research and Industry Links (AURIL) and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) held a conference with the title "How universities can help businesses through the economic downturn." It was an unabashed celebration of, and planning session for, making profits out of universities and turning universities into places which turn out obedient and efficient workers to make the most profit possible (their document "Standing Together" [http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/Publications/Documents/StandingTogether.pdf] makes particularly enraging reading). Not satisfied by the billions of pounds poured into bailing out the banks, they want to use our universities to bail out businesses in a crisis created by capitalism itself! Our universities should be about learning, not profit-making, and they should be a democratically run, free public service. The conference was the antithesis of all this; businesses have no right to decide the future of our education, and the damage that they could do is scary.
The group that met to discuss education issues within the April 18th Student Co-ordination meeting decided to act. Starting from that meeting, we organised direct action to disrupt the conference. We registered ourselves as delegates, and on the day we snuck in (dressed as business students!) and took our places in the hall. Just before Diane Warwick, head of UUK and advocate of doubling fees, was about to take the stage, we took her place at the podium. The shock was deliciously evident, and we got around two minutes to speak before they cut the microphone. We outlined our reasons for disrupting the conference - that students were not being consulted, that businesses have no place in education, and that our universities belong to us - before the security guards appeared. We sat down, still continuing with our speeches, as a journalist was forcibly dragged away from us. They were forced to clear the entire room, at which point we left with dignity, shouting "Education not for sale!"
We joined a small picket of around 30 people outside, which had been forced to gather further down the road by the police. They had done an excellent job of leafleting delegates as they arrived. After some jubilant chanting, we left to join the London Met strike rally.
The rally was well attended, with several big-names speakers joining the grassroots activists. We led some chanting - and singing! - before the speeches kicked off. An interesting moment was when Wes Streeting, NUS National President, declared solidarity with the prospect of a UCU national strike over cuts, despite his previous assertion that students need UCU strike action "like a bullet in the head". Well, Wes, we hope you'll stick with the solidarity message! There were speakers from UCU, of course, the local FE college and the NUT, all of whom asserted their determination to fight these cuts together. A speaker from London Met UCU told students, "There's one thing that I can't tell you to do, and that's occupy But if you were to occupy, we would support you!" Sure enough, 5 days later students occupied a building.
The struggle goes on around the country. UUK were rattled by
our actions, and we have to make it clear that we will not give away our
education to business or profit - the fight against cuts, fees and
marketisation is the fight for free, democratic education. We won't give up!