Fight for funding not fees
Adam Gillman, Socialist Students organiser
Starmer’s Labour will make already over £9,000 a year tuition fees automatically increase with inflation every year. Tuition fees rose for English students for the first time in over a decade last year. And despite these rises, as well as cuts already made at the expense of the quality of our education, the chair of the Office for Students said that there is still a possibility of high-profile universities collapsing! As if students don’t already have enough to worry about: we face a lifetime of debt, an astronomical cost of living, and are forced to pay high rents for terrible accommodation.
The funding model of our education system is broken and it is students and university workers who are forced to pay the price.
Over 10,000 jobs have already been lost across the sector. Universities have made cuts to courses and university staff and lecturers redundant. We are paying more for less. We need to fight back to save these jobs and fight the cuts at our campuses.
This is why Socialist Students initiated the Funding Not Fees campaign to fight for:
- No fee rises! Scrap tuition fees and cancel student debt
- Living grants, not loans, which rise with the cost of living
- Stop all cuts and closures on campus
- Rent controls in student accommodation
- End low pay and precarious employment
- Divestment from arms and big business – no place for profiteers from war and exploitation on our campus
- A political voice for students that fights to take the wealth off the 1% and for socialism
The money in society is there, but it’s hoarded by the super-rich bosses instead of used to fund things we actually need – like a decent free education. Supermarket giant Tesco made £1 billion in profits last year, just one example of the wealth that the bosses of the big banks and corporations control. We need to take the wealth of the super-rich to fully fund free education for all.
For students that want to fight for the education system we deserve, it’s vital that we build links with campus trade union branches fighting back against job losses and cuts to courses to build a united student-staff fightback.
If you want to join in the fight for free education, for maintenance grants not loans and for a socialist society free from war, poverty and exploitation then join Socialist Students today!
