COVENTRY UNIVERSITY management have threatened students that if they don’t pay their fees by 1 February they could be excluded from all classes, university computers, libraries etc. They tell us: “You will not be able to make progress on your course.”
Tim Lessells, Coventry University Socialist Students
Drop-out rates from universities are already very high. This is especially true at former polytechnics like ours, which have a large proportion of students from working-class backgrounds.
At some universities as many as one in four students drop out. Much of this is down to finance. Why should any student be denied an education because of their financial position? Coventry University Socialist Students are campaigning to defend all students who haven’t paid from exclusion or any other penalty.
In the weeks leading up to 1 February, we will be working hard to build a defence campaign involving students who can’t pay or won’t pay. If it’s big enough, we hope to defeat university management and give new stimulus to the national campaign against fees.
We will hold stalls and other activities, as well as calling on the Students Union to support action against exclusions. We’re also calling on local trade union branches to condemn university management and back the campaign.
Coventry’s three Socialist Party councillors will also support our campaign. We are the only group organising to defend free education. We hope that this campaign will get many more involved in the fight.
- Don’t pay up! Don’t drop out!
- Organise mass defence of all non-payers!
- Occupy! Stop the exclusions!
- Abolish tuition fees, restore the student grant!
Protest urgently at these attacks to: The vice-chancellor, Coventry University, Coventry CV1 5FB or fax 024 7688 8083.
