Louie Nardini, York Socialist Students

Socialist Students organised a demonstration with the York uni Your Party society, opposing the bursary cut put forward by the university management. The £1,000 cut affects working-class students and others, struggling to keep up with the cost-of-living crisis.

But it also affects medical students and refugee students, who also face severe cutbacks. Refugee students were receiving £3,000, as an incentive for higher education. Now it’s £2,000.

Medical students receiving a HYMS bursary would be getting £1,400 less for every year at university. For students with a residual household income of less than £25,000, they used to be eligible for £2,400 per year. Now it’s down to £1,000. This adds up to £7,000 of student entitlements over five years of study that is now completely missing!

At the protest, we had speakers from the University and College Union (UCU) and York Rent Strike 2025.

We all know that Labour is not going to pay a penny to fund universities, unless it is forced to under pressure. Student protest can build the pressure. So can the struggles of university workers, organised in their trade unions. A new mass workers’ party – fighting for free, fully funded education – would strengthen our fight too.