Adam Gillman, Socialist Students steering committee
The Socialist goes to print before the Budget on 30 October, when student campaigners around the country have a national day of action opposing Labour’s plans to raise tuition fees and cut education funding.
Socialist Students has launched Funding Not Fees – a campaign that fights for free education, for living grants not loans, to end low pay and insecure employment, and to stop all education cuts and course closures.
Tuition fees are already too high. If Labour’s Budget increases tuition fees, it would put overworked, cash-strapped students, even more into debt.
Raising tuition fees wouldn’t solve the university funding crisis, doing nothing to address the root cause – the marketised model of higher education.
Labour’s budget will cut even more from our already crumbling public services, effecting students from on and off campus, making it harder for them to access mental health services, for example.
No matter what comes out of this Budget, services are being cut, uni courses have been cut, rents are too high, and tuition fees will still be too high. We need to fight back for what we need.
This is why Socialist Students fights for democratic control of universities by students and staff, and the socialist transformation of society to meet the needs of workers and young people.
Cardiff – how profit wrecks our education
John Williams, Cardiff Central Socialist Party
A lecturer and University and College Union (UCU) member told us there’s deep cuts coming, and probable job losses. The anger that’s brewing could mean strikes, which Socialist Students will be behind 100%.
University bosses are using the same rhetoric as Labour prime minister Keir Starmer. “The extent of job losses needed to address a £30 million black hole in its budget is not yet clear”, Cardiff University’s vice-chancellor has said.
In the Cardiff Socialist Students meeting to launch the Funding Not Fees campaign, it wasn’t lost on students that the vice-chancellor is well paid… plus expenses!
And there’s anger at what our tuition fees are being used for. Cardiff University hosted an event with BAE Systems – an arms manufacturer supplying the Israeli military, including components for F-35 fighter jets used to bomb Gaza.
A student from France was bewildered at the higher education system in Britain. UK tuition fees are one of the highest in the world.
The meeting had plenty of personal stories of how the profit-driven system has given them a bad time in education – mostly effecting poorer kids.
A very good question was asked in the meeting – how we could win concessions from Starmer’s Labour on higher education. There’s plenty of money to fund this and more, but the capitalist system means it’s hoarded by a tiny number of rich individuals. Socialist Students wants to link up the student movement and the workers’ movement to mobilise a mass campaign.
As the budget looms, and an increase in fees on the cards, it’s never been more important for Socialist Students to help build the fightback.
Warwick students tell Labour – ‘don’t raise our fees’
Socialist Students has launched our Funding Not Fees campaign at Warwick uni. We were talking to students about opposing any attempt by Labour to raise tuition fees, and arguing for properly funding education, scrapping uni fees, and to make the super-rich pay for it.
14 students bought our Socialist paper. That Socialist paper included our second special student wraparound this autumn, this time launching the Funding Not Fees campaign on the front page.
And when we asked students to donate to Socialist Students, to help us pay for leaflets, posters, and more, and told them we had a card reader, they said “yes”, donating £32 on top, there and then.
This was just before Labour’s budget. So we’ll have even more students stopping by our campaign stalls when Labour’s attacks on students and workers are properly revealed.
On Budget Day, 30 October, we have a lunchtime protest at Coventry uni, followed by an evening meeting at Warwick – plus events at over 20 other unis around the country.
Ian Pattison
South Wales – ‘that’s just wrong’
Calling out to passing students, we had to compete with the roar of earth-moving equipment. The University of South Wales seems to have loads of money for building projects, and very little to spend on students and staff.
Uni bosses have announced 100 redundancies. They’re making students pay extra for anything they can. They even cut back on freshers’ week!
A lot of students coming up to our campaign stall gave us their mobile number to stay in touch. One student, Fatima, told us how things should be before we could even get a word in. “People shouldn’t have to pay to go to uni. That’s just wrong.”
Mariam Kamish
