Socialist Students

Starmer’s Labour government has confirmed its plans for university tuition fees to go up every year. Left up to Labour, our fees will rise to well over £10,000 by 2029. That’s after fees have already gone up this term – the first rise in almost a decade.

Meanwhile, cuts to our education keep coming. Over half of universities are set to record ‘deficit budgets’ this year. Uni bosses have announced 15,000 job cuts in the last year, destroying thousands of courses and even entire departments in dozens of universities.

Why should we pay the price, at a time when the rich have never been richer? The FTSE 100 biggest corporations in Britain have been paying out around £85 billion annually to their shareholders. Students and staff need to unite in a movement that could put that wealth in our hands in order to fully fund education. That would include making education free for all, by abolishing tuition fees and providing maintenance grants that actually cover students’ living costs.

Socialist Students initiated the Funding Not Fees campaign as a means to get students organised alongside staff in a movement for fully funded, free education. As well as holding protests on dozens of campuses, and supporting workers striking back, a key part of the campaign has been lobbying MPs – fighting for our movement to have a political voice.

That fight could be massively boosted by the existence of Your Party, launched by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana. Over 800,000 signed up to find out more within a week of its announcement.

When Corbyn was leader of the Labour Party, his anti-austerity, anti-war policies enthused hundreds of thousands of young people. A major reason for that was his policy for free education in the 2017 and 2019 general elections.

Now students have the chance for there to be a mass party that will fight fees and cuts, and fund education by making the super-rich pay.

Just the prospect of a new party fighting ‘for the many, not the few’ has Labour under pressure. At the same time as raising fees, the government has been forced to announce the reintroduction of maintenance grants for tens of thousands of students. While this is far from adequate, it is nonetheless a concession to the anger of millions of working-class and young people, who are desperately looking for a political alternative to Starmer’s war and austerity agenda.

Socialist Students members are joining Your Party and will do all we can for it to fight for free education, and a real socialist alternative to the misery that capitalism means for working-class and young people.

 Ben Golightly, Open University student

The issue of disability cuts may have dropped a little from current consciousness, following a major, if partial, retreat from the government, and the announcement that PIP changes will come only after the Timms review is “co-produced” by disabled people. We are all waiting to see exactly what that means.

 However, every indication so far is that the review is being rigged beyond even the most pessimistic estimates. This year, disabled students will have to organise to defend PIP, a benefit that supports and enables many.

 This may be a slow burning campaign, culminating in Autumn 2026, rather than a repeat of the pitched three-month battle over disability cuts that humbled the government in July. However, with time to prepare properly, it could be even more significant.

 The NUS so far has provided no lead at all. Socialist Students, as a campaigning organisation fighting to get students building the maximum fightback to this Labour government, can play an important role and support the development of Universities Against Disability Cuts (UADC).

 Socialist Students societies can start preparing now, in advance of the start of term, to link up with other societies, pass student union motions, and hold meetings on campus, led by disabled students, but also involving socialists, campus staff and trade unions, linking in all of the wider issues: university funding crises, rent and housing, fees, low pay, war, defence of trans students, an analysis of capitalism, the crisis in working class political representation, and the need for socialism.

These are already common ideas for many disabled people, and we want those people to be part of Socialist Students in fighting for a socialist world that meets the needs of everyone.

On Thursday November 28^th, Tuesday 3^rd and Wednesday 4^th December further education workers in the National Education Union (NEU) will be taking industrial action in sixth form colleges for funding and pay. NEU members voted overwhelmingly to take strike action. 97% voted in favor of taking this action with a 62% turnout.

Socialist Students understands the importance of workers taking action to fight for better pay, funding and conditions. Socialist Students sends solidarity to the NEU and all workers taking strike action on college and sixth form campuses. Socialist Students members will be on the picket lines speaking to workers about their dispute. We call on all students to support staff and lecturers on strike.

These conditions that our staff are teaching us in are also our learning environment, with crumbling buildings, overworked staff and high fees for further education students who are 19 before the start of their course. If you want to fight for funding, not only to get better conditions for our staff but also to fight for free education, student grants and a safer learning environment, then join Socialist Students. Link in bio for more information

Leicester Socialist Students

Socialist Students at De Montfort University (DMU) in Leicester have been campaigning against the vice-chancellor’s plans to make cuts in academic staff and increase tuition fees. The vice-chancellor Katie Normington emailed staff to inform them that she “cannot rule out” redundancies in the light of financial difficulties, only two years after the last round of redundancies. She has warned that if voluntary redundancies are not forthcoming then there would be ‘formal’ (i.e. compulsory) redundancies. Her salary is £249,000 in 2022-23 according to DMU’s own annual accounts

Cuts in academic staff could mean fewer courses on offer and/or an increase in workload for the remaining staff.

DMU is claiming that its spending will be greater than its income, and it will have to use cash reserves to balance the books. Socialist Students says ‘open the books, let’s see how much is in the cash reserves and where money is being spent’. University and College Union (UCU) members are claiming that DMU has invested in an expansion of operations in London and Dubai. It is thought that around £10 million was invested. DMU has also invested in Cambodia and Kazakhstan.

The Leicester Mercury quoted one UCU member as saying that the university has turned into an “unrecognisable corporate franchising operation”.

But why should education be run like a commercial business? Britain is the sixth-wealthiest nation in the world. Education should be fully funded and free to students. Education workers, students and the wider working class should decide how universities are run and funded.

DMU Socialist Students will be stepping up the campaign to scrap tuition fees, cancel student debt and replace student loans with living grants. We will also be contacting the UCU and the students union to suggest a joint campaign to defend jobs and against a rise in tuition fees.