Protester on a demonstration against education cuts
Wren, North London
Due to the massive cuts to education by past Tory and now-Labour governments, many schools cannot afford to support every student that needs it.
This includes at my secondary school, where the number of both support and teaching staff has been cut drastically. In Year 7, I had a Learning Support Assistant (LSA), who helped with making sure I understood the content of the lesson, dealing with panic attacks and much more. However, in Year 8, she was fired and since then more LSAs have also lost their jobs.
There are now only around two LSAs per year group. This has put a massive strain on the school and has led to certain students being left behind because they are ‘high functioning’ and therefore do not ‘need’ support. Teachers either ignore those students because they do not speak in lessons, or they are deemed insolent and given detentions for asking a classmate a question that they would have asked their LSA if they had been there.
Staff shortages
Another example of how Labour’s cuts have impacted schools can be seen in how many classes are not even taught by the class teacher. Many of my classes are taught by a supply teacher, not because my teacher is not in, but because there are simply not enough teachers to teach every class. The English department in my school, along with many others, is horribly underfunded and understaffed with over half my lessons being taught by a substitute because the GCSE and A-level students have to have a teacher. This leads to many students being unable to learn the content that they will be using in their GCSEs because they are not taught by a subject specialist, or the supply teacher is sent the incorrect lesson content.
On top of that, students are overwhelmed with homework. GCSE students in my school sometimes take three different practice papers home from almost every class that are due in the next day or two to “fill in gaps in learning”.
Students overworked, taught incorrect content, and left behind because of staff shortages, because of Labour’s cuts to education. Students pay the price of these cuts, finding it harder to get jobs and suffering stress and depression as a result.
Socialist Students fights for:
A fully funded education system from schools to colleges and universities. Take the wealth off the super-rich. Pay teachers and school staff wages they can live on
End all academisation and kick private profit out of our education system
Democratic control of education by representatives of staff unions, student organisations and the community
The following is the text from a letter sent from the Socialist Students steering committee to Alex Stanley, Vice President Higher Education for the National Union of Students (NUS), on Wednesday 9th April.
Dear Alex Stanley,
As you will know, there is a major funding crisis in higher education which is hitting students, staff, and local communities. Over 5000 redundancies have been planned by the vice-chancellors this academic year, with up to 5000 more to come according to the University and College Union (UCU). Students continue to suffer from a devastating gap between our living costs and maintenance support, and our futures are stalked by uncertainty in a volatile world of increasing war, climate crisis and poverty.
In response to the funding crisis in post-16 education, UCU has launched the ‘Stop the Cuts’ campaign, which includes a national demonstration in London on Saturday 10th May. Socialist Students will be rallying as many students as we can to the UCU demonstration, because we think this event – organised by the largest trade union in higher education, as part of a national campaign against the crisis of marketisation – can be a vital staging point for building a united student and worker movement for fully funded, free education. But that is also why we believe NUS must do everything it can to seriously build for this demonstration.
We call for:
NUS to encourage all students’ unions to arrange free or low-cost transport to Central London on Saturday 10th May, including financially supporting students’ unions to do so if necessary
NUS to issue the call to all students’ unions to actively promote the UCU demonstration among its members – including: emailing details of the demonstration to students; organising leafleting sessions; and postering across campus
NUS to produce a public statement in solidarity with the UCU ‘Stop the Cuts’ campaign
NUS to hold a national online meeting, open to all who wish to attend, on the topic of, ‘How students can unite with staff for fully funded, free education’
We recognise that NUS has begun campaigning around funding for education, and welcome the ‘A Fair Deal for Our Future’ campaign, which includes the demand for better maintenance support. However, we believe student leadership has to go much further in raising what is needed for a genuinely fair and free education system for all. Socialist Students has launched the Funding Not Fees campaign this year, raising the following set of demands:
No to Labour’s tuition fee hike – scrap fees and cancel student debt
Living grants, not loans
Stop all cuts and closures on campus. End low pay and casualisation of staff
Divestment from arms and big business – no place for profiteers from war and exploitation on our campus
We would appreciate the opportunity to discuss further what ideas and strategy are needed to mobilise students alongside staff in a movement for free, fully funded education. To this end,please could we arrange a meeting at the earliestpossible convenience between NUS representatives and members of the Socialist Students steering committee?
In solidarity, Socialist Students steering committee
Hannah Ponting, Socialist Students candidate in Liverpool student election
Student union elections provide a great platform to voice socialist ideas on campuses. At Liverpool university, we collaboratively created a manifesto focusing on socialist policies, and subsequently selected a candidate who could put forward these policies, and represent socialist ideas in this election. I am very proud to have been that candidate.
The first of our main policies was fighting against Labour’s recent tuition fee hike, and for free education. The increasing cost of university should not be a barrier to young working-class people pursuing higher education. We based this policy around the Funding Not Fees campaign, launched by Socialist Students nationally.
The increasing cost of living is a significant concern to students. Funding life at university is becoming increasingly difficult. We focused on fighting to expand bursaries and reinstate the university’s food pantry, which was previously scrapped.
The university’s night bus is another service which was previously scrapped, although was reinstated due to campaigns led by Socialist Students. We said, expand the night bus to more areas in and around Liverpool, and to increase its frequency to every half an hour.
There has been a recent crisis of violence towards women and girls on campus. We believe that it is necessary to fight for all students to have a genuinely safe, reliable, and affordable way home.
Fight job cuts
Cuts are occurring at universities around the country. Liverpool uni refused to be transparent with the University and College Union (UCU), when pressured about its own job cuts.
We said the university must open its books and have financial transparency. This also extends to fighting for divestment from arms companies.
We held campaign stalls, and other leafleting and postering. We got a brilliant response from both students and workers on campus, with discussions about the cost of living and cuts to disability benefits.
We also held a public meeting. It provided a brilliant chance to explain our policies, and allow for any questions to be asked.
I spoke at endorsement meetings of other societies, such as Labour Students, to advocate socialist ideas to more students.
We achieved 151 first preference votes, rising to 192 when transferable votes were added. 9th place out of 24 candidates. The top four were elected.
There is an appetite for socialist ideas on campus. It’s our job to direct the frustration that young people are increasingly feeling – with the capitalist system and Labour government –into an organised movement.
Adam Powell-Davies, Socialist Students national organiser
The University and College Union (UCU) held a parliamentary lobby and rally to launch its ‘Stop the cuts: fund higher education now’ campaign on 18 March.
Shocking redundancies
This was the first national campaign initiative in the ‘stop the cuts’ campaign, less than a week after the shocking announcement of 632 planned redundancies at Dundee University. UCU estimates that up to 10,000 jobs could be cut this year alone – 5% of staff.
The event was attended by UCU branches from across the country, with rally speakers from as far afield as Lancaster and Bangor, reflecting the enthusiasm for a trade union response to the cuts devastating higher education.
The rally showed that there’s a discussion taking place within the union over the best way forward in this fight, with a range of different opinions expressed. Several speakers called for coordinated, nationwide strike action, linked to the battle over staff pay and conditions.
I spoke to bring solidarity from Socialist Students to the rally, highlighting the need for students to link up with campus trade unions in the fight for full public funding for education, paid for by taking the wealth off the rich – not more fees, cuts and cost-of-living crisis.
Joining UCU activists was suspended Labour MP John McDonnell. He spoke of the need for “a parliamentary voice” to the struggles of university staff, saying the lobby was an opportunity to “recruit MPs as allies of the UCU”.
Funding Not Fees
Socialist Students groups are organising lobbies of local MPs, under the banner ‘Funding Not Fees’. This brings together students and staff, as well as trade unionists, anti-war activists, community campaigners, and more in the fight for political representatives who will give a voice to all the struggles of working-class and young people, under this pro-big business Keir Starmer government.
While Socialist Students continues to build Funding Not Fees on campuses, we hope to link up with the UCU ‘stop the cuts’ campaign – including mobilising the maximum student turnout to the UCU’s national demonstration in London on Saturday 10 May.
Coventry’s fight for free education
Frank Hammond, Coventry Socialist Students
United against attempts to break down our educational infrastructure, workers at Coventry University protested on 15 March. Perfectly planned to clash with the uni’s open day, they were supported by students, other trade unionists, and attendees of the Socialist Party’s national congress taking place in the same city.
And what a turnout for the protest. Over a hundred slowly passing by, holding signs; trade unionists, workers and students pumping their fists, clutching their wooden sticks from placards we all built to tell the bosses we aren’t accepting these attacks lying down.
Our placards held our campaign slogan: “Funding not fees! No redundancies!” The Funding Not Fees campaign aims to build a resistance to the many attacks on uni students and workers – the university bosses’ motives being a symptom of the failing system.
Speaking at the protest, former Labour MP Dave Nellist said the ‘fire-and-rehire’ scheme was being used as psychological blackmail against the staff. 66% of UK universities face deficit budgets this year. If Coventry University succeeded, many other universities would use the same tactics, he said. Clause 22 of the Employment Rights Bill declares ‘fire and rehire’ to be grounds for automatic unfair dismissal. But, with a 174-seat majority in the Commons, Labour, if they wanted to, could have immediately declared the practice illegal last July to protect workers from these attacks. But they didn’t.
Students and workers
My much-loved lecturer and vice chair of Coventry’s University and College Union (UCU) branch Monika Koehler-Ridley was interviewed by BBC news. I was delighted that she has attended a Socialist Party branch meeting to talk about the campaign. Students and workers have a common enemy. We’ll fight for free education, fight to end privatisation, fight for a society where we feel secure in our futures and do our part in pursuing the liberation of the working class.
Breaking news at Cardiff uni
A massive 83% of University and College Union (UCU) members have voted to strike. This is in response to 400 planned job losses.
86% voted for action short of strike, up to and including an assessment boycott. 64% voted in the ballot.
Students and workers protest against Cardiff uni job cuts. Photo: Cardiff Socialist Party
The vice chancellors have ramped up their offensive on university students and staff this year. More than 2,000 new redundancies have been planned since the start of 2025 alone. This figure will rise even higher in coming weeks, as a number of institutions are yet to confirm the scale of their announced cuts. At several universities the planned redundancies amount to 10% or more of the workforce.
For students, the threat of mass course closures comes on top of an ongoing cost-of-living crisis, as well as a tuition fee hike next year that will do nothing to resolve the crisis in higher education.
Socialist Students is serious about fighting to end the uni funding crisis, by mobilising students to demand no course cuts, no job losses, and for free, fully funded education.
Workers in the University and College Union (UCU) have responded to attacks by balloting for strike action in at least a dozen university branches so far. And Unison is currently balloting tens of thousands of its members in higher education. Socialist Students groups will organise for the biggest-possible student attendance at picket lines, and build for solidarity action.
But students should not limit ourselves to an exclusively supporting role in the struggle. We can propose our own initiatives, within which we invite the trade unions on campus to play a leading role. That way we can show that students are serious about fighting and pro-active in our determination to fight shoulder to shoulder with staff. That is the most inspiring kind of solidarity that students can give in this fight for the future of higher education.
For Socialist Students groups, this means putting forward a plan of action that can organise staff, students and working-class people locally in a campaign to fight back as soon as any cuts are announced. We can build for mass meetings, hold protests, organise lobbies of MPs, collect signatures for an open letter or petition – there is no shortage of options.
A plan of activity can bring people together. But what transforms a series of gatherings into an effective movement is a clear political programme of demands to fight for. Socialist Students has launched the Funding Not Fees campaign as a way of putting forward the ideas we think are needed to build such a movement.
Socialist Students says:
No to further fee increases – get organised on campus to fight for free education! Cancel student debt, replace student loans with living grants tied to the rate of inflation. Make the super-rich pay!
No cuts and no closures! Build democratic student organisations to link up with campus trade unions and the wider working class to fight for the funding our universities need
Kick big business off campus! End marketisation of our education. Open up university finances to democratic oversight and control, including by elected students’ representatives and campus trade unions, with the power to terminate all contracts and research tied to war, occupation, profiteering and exploitation, while guaranteeing jobs and funding
Students need a political voice. Build a new mass workers’ party that will stand up for students and workers and fights for socialist policies
Fight for socialist change. For democratic public ownership of the banks, monopolies and major industry to provide us with a future
Cardiff Uni – pressure wins £19 million from Welsh government
Aris Prevost, Cardiff Socialist Students
On top of 400 jobs cut at Cardiff Uni, 200 job cuts have been announced at Bangor Uni and 90 at University South Wales. Having previously said that there is no more money, and under popular pressure and protests, the Welsh government has announced £19 million investment into higher education in Wales.
However, this does not mean a final victory. A one-time £19 million cash injection will only partially stem the tide of cuts. Cardiff University alone faces a £30 million deficit. It’s £15 million at Bangor and £20 million at USW (see below). But this additional money will not solve the funding crisis. In fact, it remains unclear where this money will go, and what strings are attached.
We demand an immediate end to all cuts, and that pressure is put on governments in Cardiff and London for adequate funding.
The fightback at Cardiff Uni is clearly working. The uni bosses’ position is growing weaker by the day. A unified student and staff pushback can force the university to halt all cuts.
As part of the fightback, there was a demo organised by music alumni on 22 February, where they played a public concert outside city hall. The concert loudly highlighted the cultural impact that music in Cardiff has. Cardiff has many independent music venues and cultural roots which have been under attack, including the closure of the beloved venue The Moon.
Other events are being planned, especially targeting uni open days as well as organising further marches and rallies.
Moving forward, we need to push for an alternative funding model to fix higher education. It is only by running education as a public good rather than a commodity to be sold that we will be able to end this crisis and save jobs. We need a new workers’ party that fights for free education, fully publicly funded by making the super-rich pay!
Uni South Wales students build cuts resistance
Suzie Matthews
Following in Cardiff University’s controversial footsteps, the University of South Wales (USW) announced on 17 February its plans to axe around 90 jobs, including entire courses.
In response, Rhondda Cynon Taf Socialist Party held a campaign stall in opposition, and student support was immense. Under the hypocritical shadow of a crane building a shiny new block, more than half of the students who passed by stopped to sign the petition.
There was the distinct sense that something ought to be done. Three students left their details to find out more about joining the Socialist Party, one suggested organising a protest. The atmosphere isn’t yet one of anger – though that can change when cuts to specific courses are announced.
We have been campaigning at USW for a while now. Staff and students have told us about cuts to Maths courses and professional services, fearing that what is happening at Cardiff would arrive at their doorsteps. It is difficult to view USW as an institution struggling for money whilst a new building is being thrown up. Students and staff are concerned about where these cuts will fall – many assumed that they will be primarily directed at the arts and humanities.
40% of students at USW are international students, a group that is hideously overcharged. Uni managements have blamed a drop off in international applicants for their budget deficits. But we can’t stand for cuts and job losses, we must fight for higher education fully funded by government.
Brunel Uni – workers strike against cuts
Ryan Leonard, Brunel Socialist Students
Staff at Brunel University were informed in October last year of a planned “significant academic resizing programme”. The plan was to make 130 redundancies of full-time academic staff and 79 profession service staff, a 14% reduction in staffing levels. It goes without saying that students were left in the dark, we were only informed of the university management’s plans by our lecturers.
Lecturers in UCU have announced a calendar of 16 strike days, escalating over a period of six weeks, beginning on 28 February. Socialist Students will be building student support for the strikes.
The vice chancellor of Brunel is Andrew Jones, a Labour councillor. He lists on his LinkedIn page “business planning” and “strategic thinking” as skills he’s gained from his role at Brunel. Just last year the university hired 139 academic staff… incredibly strategic.
For the last five years, Brunel has exploited international students, who can be charged far higher fees, as a source of income and despite being warned consistently over the last two years that the law around student visas would change, senior leadership continued on this path.
Students are rightly frustrated. Some of the people I study with have lost their tutors during their dissertations, which is terrifying. Planned redundancies don’t include the 69 members of the executive team, all earning over £100k. Nor the vice chancellor, earning £267k a year.
Our uni is not the assorted renovations that Brunel has carried out, totalling five times the savings made by sacking staff. Our uni is the educators, the students and the relationships between us. All of which will suffer if Brunel’s redundancy plan goes ahead.
Liverpool Uni – standing in SU elections to fight cuts
Hannah Ponting, Liverpool Socialist Students
After the numerous job cuts announced at universities across the country, lots of us were worried about similar cuts occurring in Liverpool.
The University of Liverpool has followed other unis and enacted a plan of ‘voluntary redundancies’ of staff. However, uni bosses are being extremely vague about the number of job cuts, despite pressure from the UCU for transparency.
This news comes only 17 weeks after the Labour government’s tuition fees hike. Job losses will have a negative impact on students as well as staff, emphasising the importance of uniting Socialist Students work with the demands of the trade unions.
Students Union officer elections are coming up. We are taking this as an opportunity to stand a socialist candidate in order to give a platform to our ideas. I am very proud to be that candidate, and to stand on an anti-cuts platform, aiming to build the Funding Not Fees campaign, as well as amplifying the voices of the uni workers.
In these times of increasing cuts at universities throughout the UK, it is increasingly important to keep socialist ideas visible on our campuses and to build the Funding Not Fees campaign, as part of our work as Socialist Students.
Coventry Uni bosses threaten ‘fire and rehire’
Frank Hammond, Coventry Socialist Students
Over 90 full-time staff members are set to be cut at Coventry University, with a further 200 staff re-enrolled under a subsidiary called Peoples Future Limited (PFL). A familiar fire-and-rehire fiasco is underway with whole courses set to terminated along with lecturers’ jobs.
Uni bosses argue the recent tuition fees rise will still not cover the uplift of National Insurance contribution rates, and that their contributions to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme is ‘unaffordable’. The bosses’ solution? Fire and rehire to remove staff from the scheme.
It should be noted that Vice Chancellor and CEO of Coventry University, John Latham, was reported to have received an £80,768 bonus on top of his £312,617 salary during the financial year ending March 2023. Furthermore, only five days after this decision was announced from the university in December 2024, Latham was named as a non-executive director of the Labour government’s Department for Business and Trade.
A lecturer within the university has personally expressed fear for their living situation to me as a result of the unacceptable decision; not originally from the UK and coming from a country that’s fought a war throughout the last few years, redundancy is one of the scariest words to throw around. Workers are once again being exploited, threatened and neglected. And yet, we receive nothing but silence or excuses from the ones in charge. Another example of “desperate times calling for desperate measures”, as per the standard under Keir Starmer’s Labour government.
Opposing the decision, Coventry Socialist Students has called a public meeting, working to spread the word to students, lecturers and unionists alike, in the interest of exposing unjust cuts. It will hear from a UCU trade union rep. We want to open a discussion of what can be done and ultimately making a shout to the bosses that this decision is not being accepted.
Hard-working people are currently at risk of being punished with seemingly no remorse from the staff at the top. Students kicking up a fuss is a warning to the higher-ups to heed as we continue with the Funding nor Fees campaign.
Socialist Students conference
Over 100 students came together for the Socialist Students national conference on 8 February. We discussed motions proposed by the national steering committee and different groups, and voted on whether or not these match the common consensus of those attending for us to put in the action in the coming year. My first year attending, as a delegate, has allowed me and many more another opportunity to see light at the end of the dark tunnel of austerity.
Students travelled from north, south and all about to have their say in where we go as a movement next, to share concerns and opinions, and ultimately lend their hand in the fight for a fairer system.
To witness a strong crowd of young people who weren’t afraid to speak up, defend their morals and intelligently respond to ignorant criticism is rejuvenating and should strike worry in the hearts of the capitalists and ruling class. Support for the cause is indeed rising, people are seeing the petrifying portrait being painted by Starmer’s Labour government and want better. The experience has gifted me hope and strength to continue fighting for a socialist future.
Alongside many issues, a consistent offender echoed in the anecdotes of students were job cuts in universities across the country. I was able to use one of my contributions to give my own account of seeing cuts in higher education.
We remain determined to defend teachers and students, to fight for free education, and for socialist change.
Resist Bradford uni course and nursery closure
Tom Gibson, Bradford Socialist Party
Bradford university is laying off 300 staff, shutting down chemistry and media courses, and also shutting the university nursery. These are deep cuts that will take away the livelihoods of hundreds of hardworking people, who are either educating students or looking after children. These cuts will lock out many potential students who need the nursery to look after their children while they study, reducing access to education for those with young children.
Our campaign stall was warmly received by students and staff who were very concerned about these cuts. This is part of a wider effort by the Socialist Party in Bradford to combat cuts.
Unis being run as if they are profit-seeking companies has led to this funding crisis, downgrading of the quality of education. We will fight alongside staff and students for a publicly funded and free university system that is fair and accessible.
Cardiff students rally against job cuts. Photo: Rhydian Witts
Aris Prevost, Cardiff Socialist Students
Cardiff Students Against Cuts hosted a rally outside of the Main Building at the Cathays Campus on 12 February to demand that Cardiff uni vice-chancellor Wendy Larner and the University Executive Board stop the 400 proposed job cuts.
Preceding the rally was a town hall meeting between students and the vice-chancellor, which was predictably a farce. Larner over run in her initial speech, dodging every single question that was asked, and left 15 minutes early.
While Larner showed the cowardice of the higher-ups in the Cardiff uni management, the rally showed the resilience and solidarity that the students, staff, and trade unions have. While it was a cold and slightly wet affair, over 100 people turned up, with several speakers including students and staff from courses being cut completely. It also heard from the Vice President of the Cardiff University and College Union (UCU) branch, as well as representatives from Unite and the Trades Union Council, who are both Socialist Party members. A strong theme running throughout the rally was how vital the cut courses were for Cardiff, especially music in the Wales, the ‘Land of Song’.
Staff-student solidarity
Socialist Party member Dave Reid rounded off the speeches. He urged students to fight back against the cuts through solidarity between the students and the workers, backed by the trade council.
Cardiff UCU is balloting for industrial action. It is vital that if and when they go on strike, that us students stand on the picket line with staff. It is only through class solidarity that we can mount a fightback and stop these cuts.
Only the beginning
This rally is only the beginning, we are having weekly meetings hosted by Cardiff Socialist Students to decide our next steps campaigning.
We demand that Cardiff University stops the 400 job cuts, for the vice-chancellor and executive board to be sacked and replaced with workers who understand the day-to-day workings of the University. We call on the Labour governments in Cardiff and Westminster to treat education like a public good and to fully fund higher education.
We demand:
No job losses, no course closures at Cardiff University
The university board to use available reserves to plug the current gap and demand sufficient funding from the UK government to maintain courses and departments at Cardiff University
Open the books at Cardiff University to see where the income is being spent and the investments made
End the commercialisation of university education – return it to a public service rather than a profit-making business
Democratise the university. For a board to be elected by university workers, students, the local community and trade unions. And for the vice-chancellor to be on the same wage as a head of department.
Proper funding for all universities, take the wealth off the super-rich
Eliminate tuition fees, and reintroduce maintenance grants for all
End low pay, job cuts, and ‘casualisation’ of higher education workers
“Since capitalism benefits from perpetuating gender inequality, individuals are constantly being bombarded with ideas that reinforce sexism and misogyny. Sexism is a systemic issue, and requires systemic solutions.
Socialist Students recognises that the fight to end sexism and misogyny is not separate from the fight to bring an end to the capitalist system as a whole and for the socialist transformation of society.“
Liverpool Socialist Students members on a ‘Reclaim the Night’ march last term
Roza Kwiecinska, East London college student
Universities might champion themselves as places of liberal freedom and advocate for human rights and feminism. But the experience of staff and students is very different. When it comes to providing fair job opportunities for everyone, regardless of gender, and protecting women from sexual assault, universities still fail.
On campus, sexism is a problem that takes many forms. From unfair grading of assessments based on gender, to comments about women students’ appearance, clothing and makeup. There is no inherent biological advantage for male students, but there is a huge underestimation of women students.
Education has the third-highest gender pay gap out of all the UK sectors, worse than manufacturing, mining and retail. Although women make up around half of university lecturers, they are significantly outnumbered in higher academic positions. Only 24% of professors are women. Even fewer women hold top roles, with just 18% as vice-chancellors or principals.
Women students also experience shockingly high levels of sexual harassment and sexual violence, both on and off the university campus. From ‘casual’ teasing to online trolling, harassment and physical attacks.
Campus should be a safe space for all students, no matter their gender, sexual orientation or race. It should not only be a place of learning, but also a place of integration, friendships and discovering yourself.
One terrifying statistic is that 97% of young women (18-24) in the UK have been sexually harassed. Many of these incidents happen in education and learning environments. This shows that right now, for many people, university is not that safe a place.
Research by the Young Women’s Trust found that young women who endure sexism in the UK are “five times more likely to suffer from clinical depression” and that “younger women who had experienced sexism were more likely to report greater psychological distress even four years following a sexist experience.”
University is a place where students are not only stressed about grades, additional jobs they have to do, finding an apartment, but where women are exposed to sexism, leaving long-lasting impacts, including on mental health.
Universities are not doing enough to tackle sexism and sexual harassment. 72% of students don’t know or are unsure about where to report or seek support. When women are brave enough to speak out, many find that it backfires. Women face diminishment or silencing: it is disgraceful that universities in England have used non-disclosure agreements to silence those who have experienced sexual harassment and violence.
Procedures for reporting sexual harassment should be managed by committees led by trade unions and students. This would ensure that the processes are effectively implemented and accessible to those who need them, fostering a zero-tolerance policy for harassment and abuse on campus.
For too long, the universities have overlooked survivors, enabled a ‘rape culture’, and prioritised profits over the safety of students. There has to be increased funding and support for student services, and a commitment to taking action against violent behaviours.
Seemingly small things like improved lighting around campus and housing at night, and accessible transport links to campus are important too. The safety of women students is priceless and should not be compromised. We need a fully funded, free public transport network, so that people can get home safely. Socialist Students has led campaigns to fight for these measures, such as the campaign to save the Liverpool night bus.
It is mindblowing that students not only have to pay huge sums of money for education, but also are exposed to harassment and sexism. Building a movement for free education is essential – scrapping fees and debt and introducing living student grants. We fight for full government funding to provide a safe and free education for all.
These problems are not new. In 2010, the National Union of Students (NUS) published a report finding: “One in seven respondents had experienced a serious physical or sexual assault during their time as a student, 12% had been stalked while at university or college, and 68% had been a victim of one or more kinds of sexual harassment while they were at university.”
Following the report, NUS strategy focused on promoting ‘zero-tolerance’ policies in students union bars. But like the ‘Ask for Angela’ scheme, unions have been accredited without investing in the training for staff and bouncers, or staffing levels, to make it enforceable.
There has also been a focus on educating students about consent, often working alongside university management.
It is essential to focus on education and training; we must confront prejudices, gender stereotypes, and sexist behaviour whenever we encounter them. Though who delivers it and how is important.
However, education alone has clearly not been enough to solve the problem. One problem is that strategies based on ‘raising awareness’ can reduce the issue to just an individual problem or behaviour. Socialist Students understands that individual behaviour is influenced by the broader economic and social system we live in, which is capitalism.
Since capitalism benefits from perpetuating gender inequality, individuals are constantly being bombarded with ideas that reinforce sexism and misogyny. Sexism is a systemic issue, and requires systemic solutions.
Take social media, for example. We live in a world where the impact of social media is massive. Misogynistic messages are targeted at boys and young men. Social media has been monetised to make huge profits for social media companies as well as individual ‘influencers’. Individuals like Andrew Tate or Ben Shapiro have made millions from using sexist rhetoric to explain the economic crisis and ‘crisis of masculinity’. And they prefer to blame minorities, immigrants and women for the effects of a capitalist world – propping up capitalism through reactionary ideas.
Additionally, access to online pornography has left children and young people, especially young men, with a misguided representation of women, men, and what sexual relationships look like. Porn created under a capitalist system reinforces harmful stereotypes and objectifies women and doesn’t show the act of consent, which is crucial in any relationship. As much as 90% of it is violent – normalising sexual violence against women.
Education can cut through these ideas, but it won’t stop them being promoted in the first place. Socialist Students calls for the social media companies to be brought into public ownership to remove the profit incentive behind the spread of misogynistic and divisive ideas, and for them to be run and controlled democratically. For example, by subjecting algorithms to scrutiny by trade unions, young people, educators and others. The same goes for all of the major corporations and businesses that also profit from sexism.
This is why Socialist Students recognises that the fight to end sexism and misogyny is not separate from the fight to bring an end to the capitalist system as a whole and for the socialist transformation of society.
Manchester Socialist Students members protesting alongside trade union campaigners last term
Robbie Davidson Manchester Socialist Students
The University of Manchester has announced that the rents will more than double at three student housing complexes in Fallowfield: Oak House, Owen’s Park, and Woolton Hall.
Following the success of last year’s student rent strike in Manchester, rents in Fallowfield were reduced by 30%, standing out against the cost-of-living crisis.
The complex also hosts the cheapest venue for students in the city by far, Squirrels Bar. Squirrels will also be demolished, chipping away at our ability to socialise affordably.
Labour disgrace
Combined with Labour’s disgraceful hike in tuition fees, the rent hike means students in Oak House will pay almost £5,000 more per year. This is amidst already brutal conditions for many young people, with average expenditure far exceeding student loans.
Food bank use amongst students stands at record highs, as do the rates of self-harm and suicide. But the bosses at the University of Manchester are using the people they are supposed to look after as a tool to close the funding gap left by a decade and a half of austerity.
Socialist Students is demanding that rents are not doubled, and that they remain at a fixed, stable rate. We believe that high-quality, affordable housing must be made available to all, overseen by a democratic body of students, staff, and the community, who decide how our homes are priced.
The rent rises will come after the student blocks are redeveloped. Regeneration of the complex is necessary, it is falling apart. Students face regular infestations, broken amenities, and share a few dozen washing machines between thousands of people.
Multimillion privatisation
Regeneration, while keeping rents stable, is not possible with a multimillion pound contract with a private construction company. But a nationalised building service, under the democratic control of working people, would be able to do that.
We demand that Squirrels, and other affordable venues, are protected, allowing students to relax and socialise, without further straining our cost of living.
This attack can only be fought by a unified response, bringing together students, trade unions, and campus activist groups. To achieve this, Socialist Students is calling for a general meeting that everyone can attend to discuss the fight back – not just to protect a few blocks, but to fight for the funding our universities need, out of the pockets of the super-rich.
Manchester Socialist Students meeting: How can socialists fight the housing crisis?
Wednesday 29th January, 4pm University of ManchesterStudents’ Union, Room 2.1
Following years of financial decline amongst universities in the UK, it appears that bosses are facing a new low. The uni regulator ‘Office for Students’ is projecting economic trouble for nearly three-quarters of universities by 2025-26.
While the propaganda arm of the capitalist class acts as if this is a shocking new development, students and workers have been experiencing the consequences of this downturn for a long time, with growing class sizes, wage cuts, course closures and redundancies. All of which are set to escalate, unless we fight back.
This downturn hasn’t been felt in the pockets of management. But ordinary young people have been hit with a rise in tuition fees and the worst student cost-of-living crisis in history.
Rents, students working alongside their full-time degree, student food bank use, and the percentage of students dropping out, are all at their highest rates ever. Now we are being threatened with further course closures and university mergers to make ends meet.
The answer is clear, and is resonating with many on campuses. It’s time our education, and our future livelihoods, were run in our interests – paid for by the £21 trillion in new wealth that the richest 1% worldwide got their hands on in the last four years alone.
This is why we have taken to the streets raising the demands of our ‘Funding not Fees’ campaign, and received a positive response. Few students disagree with an end to tuition fees, grants not loans, cancelling debt or fair pay to all, and many will be prepared to rally against the university bosses when more attacks come in the future.
We are required to take on tens of thousands of pounds of debt to receive a university education, an education that politicians like Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves never had to pay for
After paying ridiculous amounts, we enter into university and are faced with budget cuts and course closures.
Like many other young people, until this July, a Conservative government was all I had ever known and all I could remember.
This July, despite my best efforts, I deep down had a little bit of hope that maybe things could get better. But let me be clear, my hopes, and hopes of all students across this country, were shattered. Not three months into power, this government broke their election promises and raised tuition fees.
We don’t just stand against this latest rise in tuition fees, we call for all tuition fees for both university and college students to be scrapped, and for student debt to be cancelled immediately.
We call for the reintroduction of living grants not maintenance loans, and for them to rise properly with inflation each year.
We also stand in solidarity with university workers to end low pay, job insecurity, and bad working conditions.
At the end of the day, what we call for and what students need is for universities to be properly and democratically funded, paid for by taking it from the super-rich, not by raising the bill for students.
Socialist Students 