Bradford Students Protest Against Resit Fines
Published:
November 18, 2009 23:55
by
formersab
Neighbourhoods: bd7 bradford
Today over 100 student gathered to protest against the introduction of a fine for those who are unable to attend or hand in assessments by the deadline without mitigating circumstances. Student who already pay anything from £3000 to £10,00 pound and are punished with a lower grade if work is in late were told that the fine was necessary to encourage students to comply with the regulations.
Despite management admitting that the numbers were very small and unable/unwilling to provide evidence that the number of students re-taking would be reduced by fine they were voted for by the Senate.
These proposals come about becuase HEFCE (the England Funding Council for HE) has changed the policy for funding students who "drop out". Previously students who have dropped out of their whole degree or failed to progress are reported in the HERA (The uni returns to HEFCE) and the university losses the money for that student in the year that they dropped out. Now HEFCE have said that in the HERA universities must report a non-completer as anyone who has failed to complete an assessment by the required date (ie failed to turn up to an exam, or missed a course work deadline) on the first attempt without a pre-arranged mitigating circumstance. This means that students who fail to turn up or hand in work on time (ie bus late, printer broken, kids feeling ill etc) will be classed in the HERA as non-completer (this is even if they have completed all their other assessments) and not be funded for the year.
This means that many Universities are having to look at how to make sure students turn up. While not many students are against the idea that students should be supported and encourage to turn up. Bradford has decided that it will fine students who fail to turn up or hand in essays without a PREARRANGED mitigating circumstance. This would reflect the loss of income (£7,000 for home and EU students) that the Uni will face.
Students were told that that Bradford is one of the first Unis to react to these new regulations and this move is pretty scary.
The Uni bi-passed all the usual committees which have students and administrator representatives on it (the administrators are against it as they feel it will create more unnecessary work). They informed the student union only on Monday that today at Uni senate they would vote on the fines.
Within 24hours students organised a student protest in which over 100 students marched to the VC office to protest. They then lobbied outside of senate and spoke with our 8 student reps in senate against the proposals.
The banners and placards Education not for Sale and Second attempts not for sale were raised above the senate meeting entrance and the chants from outside "Education not for sale, re-sits not for sale" could be heard throughout the 3 hour meeting in which most students stayed as part of an ongoing protest.
After over an hour debate just on this issue the senate voted to introduce fines but at "only" £100 for the first year significantly less than proposed. The corridors were occupied by students and when the VC came to address the students, feelings where heated with shouts as well as a debate. By the evening student numbers had reduced and they went home to re-group.
Although we managed to reduce the fine significantly with the support of administrators and lectures we were unable to win the principle argument.
We are not disheartened - we gave speeches about actions happening around the world and the link to marketisation of education and a General Meeting has been called for Tuesday 6pm Horton Building, Uni Bradford.
Today over 100 student gathered to protest against the introduction of a fine for those who are unable to attend or hand in assessments by the deadline without mitigating circumstances. Student who already pay anything from £3000 to £10,00 pound and are punished with a lower grade if work is in late were told that the fine was necessary to encourage students to comply with the regulations.
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This was part of world wide protest today
The faculties of Applicable Arts and Georgraphy have been occupied at the University of Belgrade [Serbia] for the past few days! ;)
website: http://studentifpu07.blogspot.com
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::: OVERVIEW of ACTIONS TODAY [confirmed so far] :::
[any further reports are most appreciated - feel free to call: +49 1522 4561 455 or send a mail to united.for.education@gmail.com]
:: Switzerland ::
* Demonstration in Geneva with 250 people; good spirit and noisy. After the protest they attempted to occupy a lecture hall, but the majority inside the hall reject to squat it.
For thursday [Nov.19th] a big plenary meeting is planned!
* 300 - 400 people began to occupy a lecture hall at the University of Bern.
* 500 students in Zürich began to occupy a lecture hall today, after staging a "Bologna kindergarten" in front of the uni. All seminars inside the largest lecture hall of the university were cancelled in advance by the administration as a measure to prevent students from squatting a space.
[Students in Basel have been squatting lecture halls at their university for the past few days already.]
:: Germany ::
* 90,000 lecturers, pupils, students, parents and workers across Germany protested against the increasing commercialisation and privatisation (as well as the implmentation of the "Bologna Process") today.
* 3,000 protesters on a demonstration in Essen; police attacks demonstration:154 temporary arrests [http://lerex.de/essen-17-11-bildungsstreik-2009]
* Further demonstrations took place in the following cities (with the number of protesters in brackets): Aachen (2,000; pix: http://img121.yfrog.com/i/rft.jpg ), Wiesbaden (10,000), Berlin (25,000; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IknGnNqzh6s ), Heidelberg (2,500), Munich (10,000), Mainz (3,000), Darmstadt (500), Osnabrück (2,000; pix: http://www.robinfeder.de/?p=565 ), Düsseldorf (4,000), Potsdam (1,000), Jena (1,500), Bonn (2,500), Bochum (700), Hannover (1,000), Cologne (3,000, pix: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dende_/ ), Regensburg (1,000), Freiburg (5,000; report: http://www.badische-zeitung.de/5000-studenten-und-schueler-demonstrieren-friedlich-in-freiburg ), Karlsruhe (500), Duisburg/Essen (3,000) and Nürnberg (5,000) = a total of ~ 83,200 protesters
* Lecture halls were occupied by students today in Germany at the following institutions: College of Education in Weingarten, Georg-Simon-Ohm University of Applied Sciences (Erlangen; pix: http://nuernberg-brennt.de/?p=27 ), University of Nürnberg-Erlangen (largest lecture hall "Audimax" in Erlangen), University of Applied Sciences in Kaiserslautern, University of Bonn [but evicted by police force shortly after tonight; pix: http://img27.yfrog.com/i/qgkl.jpg ], University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam, University of Augsburg [pix: http://yfrog.com/j1vezj ], University of Erfurt, University of Münster [re-occupied after eviction on Nov.6th], University of Jena [although police was using pepper spray on campus], Academy of Fine Arts in Nürnberg, University of Passau, University of Paderborn, University of Cologne, University of Tübingen [re-occupied after eviction on Nov.11th], University of Trier, Otto-Friedrich University of Bamberg, University of Karlsruhe, University of Siegen, Technical University of Braunschweig and Academy of Arts in Braunschweig
:: U.S. of A. ::
* Strike continued at the University of Illinois: http://uigeo.org
* Universities in California (especially UC Berkeley) got ready for the strike beginning on Nov.18th: http://ucstrike.com - http://aucwithoutstudents.wordpress.com
Democracy Now! also reports: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Eyn0lpH_Vc
* Message recieved by email earlier today:
"This is just to let you know that there was a student demonstration and rally protesting state budget cuts to education and tuition hikes at the City College of New York today. Sponsoring organization was Students Educational Rights."
* Further reports from other cities are expected soon.
:: Italy ::
* According to Unione degli Studenti [http://www.unionedeglistudenti.net/sito/index.php?/latest/giornata-studentesca-mondiale-uds-e-link-universitari-150000-in-piazza-in-italia.html] (UdS) 150,000 pupils and students in more than 50 cities across Italy took to the streets to protest education reforms and the increasing commercialisation and privatisation of public education.
* The following list of cities (and number of protesters in brackets) was published by UdS: Rome (10,000), Turin (15,000), Genoa (5,000), Naples (10,000), Bari (7,000), Lecce (2,000), Florence (3,000), Cosenza (3,000), Salerno (8,000) and many other cities.
* News report on protests in Milan and Turin [in Italian]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXGq3b_2gjQ
:: Indonesia ::
* Various groups united under the name "Gerbang Revolusi Makassar" protesting during a demonstration together in Makassar (South Sulawesi).
* Reports from other cities in Indonesia are expected soon!
:: Austria ::
* 2,000 people gathered at a rally in Vienna.
There were general assemblies in more than 20 institutions within the University of Vienna.
Apparently close to 300,000 people gathered across Europe to protest for free and emancipatory public education!
* Smaller protest actions took place in various other cities like Linz, Innsbruck and Graz [setting up huge banners; street theatre (auctioning lecturers; pix [http://www.kleinezeitung.at/steiermark/graz/graz/multimedia.do?action=showEntry_detail&project=7187&_vl_backlink=/steiermark/graz/graz/2205026/grazer-freiheitsstatue-bildungskrawatte.story]), disrupting a meeting of local politicians and distributing leaflets, presenting demands during a cabaret show].
:: France ::
* Pupils in more than 26 cities across France were involved in Demonstrations. Close to 3.000 high schools were involved.
* The following list of cities (and number of protesters in brackets) was published by "Front de Lutte pour l'Education" [http://www.revolte-lyceenne.moonfruit.fr]: Rouen (1,000), Grenoble (500), Rennes (400), Quimper (250), Dimard (150), and many more. Further details are expected soon.
* Bigger protests are expected on Nov.24th, when students and pupils unite in their actions.
:: Poland ::
* The following report was sent in by mail:
"At Gdansk University today (17.11) a rally was held to celebrate the International Student's Day and to protest against changes planned by the government. The proposed changes include further cuts on education spenditure, introduction of official corporate sponsorship over public education facilities, and extending tuition fees (now in function only for extramurals) onto s.c. stationary studies. The rally was concieved by Democratic Students Association and was joined by anarchist students from the OKUPE Comitee and other supporters of free education and education-related debate. We visited several faculties of the University as well as the Uni Library, calling fellow students for getting organised, and indicating our conception of education as a common wealth and not an object of commercial trade. Some of the listeners actually came to talk to us on politics, which unfortunately is already a big success, while the University Administration got us spied on by their guards. A press release in Polish is on the OKUPE website: http://www.okupe.blogspot.com"
* Further reports from other cities are expected to be available soon.
Reports from protests in Sierra Leone, Republic of Macedonia, Hungary and Bangladesh are expected within the next few hours and days!
This dynamic on a global level is amazing and gives all of us a very unique opportunity to finally unite in our struggle internationally and globally!
It is up to us!