The government plans to sell off student loans to private companies. To show our outrage, 50 students from Leeds marched around Leeds University and Leeds Metropolitan University, to raise awareness of the situation and get more students involved in the campaign.
Mary Finch, one of the organisers of the demonstration, explained the effects, after years of hard work, to then face extreme pressure to pay off high amounts of debt. Mark Taylor-Batty of lecturer’s union UCU expressed great support for us.
At the rally at Leeds Met, Amy Cousens called on the National Union of Students to bring students across the county together to fight this attack by calling a national demo.
This call was immediately seconded by Piers Telemacque, NUS vice-president elect for society and development. Piers gave a passionate speech on the need to organise not just against the privatisation of student loans but to fight to defend education altogether.
TUSC candidate in Hyde Park and Woodhouse, Tanis Belsham-Wray, explained that the only way to defend education is for students to link up with staff as well as the wider trade union movement.
For many of us this was the first march we’d organised but we will keep fighting until we win.
