HIGHER EDUCATION IN A POST-FEES WORLD – BEYOND TUITION FEES #1

Posted on April 6, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged academics, activists, Beyond Tuition Fees, Bright Green, consumerism, cost of living, democracy, diversity, education, employability, featured, Free Education, future, government, HE policy, higher education, jeremy corbyn, Labour, Lib Dems, marketisation, mental health, NUS, postgraduate tutors, progressives, representation, sexual harassment, social justice, social mobility, strike action, student activism, student debt, student experience, student life, students, students' unions, Tories, trade unions, tuition fees, UCU strike, uk, universities, university staff, utopianism, welfare.

By Bradley Allsop and Calum Watt

It is a time of extraordinary potential for change in UK Higher Education. Labour’s promise to end tuition fees has defied the critics and united many behind Corbyn’s political project. But what will the implications for universities be if this comes to pass? And what can we do to leverage this progress? In this new series, the Norwich Radical and Bright Green are bringing together perspectives from across the sector to explore these questions.

Politics is in a very different place than a few years ago. Radical change feels possible, tangible, close. The Labour Party’s pledge to scrap tuition fees is one of many signs of this – welcome, and necessary to salvage higher education from the marketised juggernaut it has become. But just abolishing fees is not enough to fix all of higher education’s problems.

CHALLENGING MISCONCEPTIONS IN THE CAMPUS FREE SPEECH DEBATE

Posted on January 18, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged academia, activism, campaigning, controversy, democracy, depoliticisation, featured, free speech, government, grassroots, hate speech, HE policy, higher education, jo johnson, marketisation, media, mental health, neoliberalism, no platforming, politics, power, protest, racism, representation, state, student welfare, students, students' unions, transphobia, universities, university finance.

by Bradley Allsop

Over the last 8 years, higher education in the UK has been subject to some of the largest and most invasive reforms in its history, guided by a deliberate, neoliberal project with the aim of crafting a marketised sector. This has set a new bar for invasive reforms that is now extending into the murky realms of the ‘free speech’ debate, with recently departed universities minister Jo Johnson proposing the illogical and frankly dangerous step of imposing fines on universities whose students’ unions fail to support free speech on campus.

WE CAN’T JUST WAIT FOR FREE EDUCATION – NCAFC WINTER CONFERENCE

Posted on December 23, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged #FreeEdNOW, bigotry, boycott, conference, Cut the Rent, democratic education, demonstration, direct action, education workers, fascism, Free Education, free speech, GE17, HE policy, higher education, history, jeremy corbyn, KEF, Labour, Labour manifesto, left wing, living grants, local campaigns, marketisation, NCAFC, no platforming, nss, NSS Boycott, NUS, Picturehouse, Picturehouse strike, progressive taxation, protest, REF, Research and HE Bill, solidarity, strike action, student activism, student media, student movement, students, students' unions, tef, terfs, trans liberation, tuition fees, UCL, universities.

by Lewis Jarrad

On the 9th-10th December, the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC) put on its 2017 Winter Conference in Liverpool. Taking place less than a month after their national demonstration, which advocated for free education and universal living grants funded by taxing the rich, the conference was a chance for student activists across the UK to strategise and discuss where we can go next in the fight for a free and democratic education system. Campuses represented included Liverpool, Manchester, UCL, UAL, KCL, Warwick, Sheffield, Abertay, Oxford and Cambridge. As a first year UCL student who was involved in the national demo, I went along to learn more about NCAFC and how I could get more involved in the campaign.

BLINDED BY IDEOLOGY – TWO YEAR DEGREES REVISITED

Posted on September 15, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged career focus, class, class divide, competition, cuts, economics, education, fast track degrees, first time buyers, Free Education, free school meals, government, grades, HE policy, higher education, ideology, interest, isolation, lower socio-economic backgrounds, market economics, mental health, mental health services, middle class, minority government, module diversity, money grab, overwork, state funding, student debt, student finance, student loans, student support, student welfare, students, teaching, teaching quality, The Student Room, time pressure, Times Higher Education, Tories, tuition fees, two tier system, two year degrees, underfunding, wealth inequality, working class, working class students.

by Robyn Banks

Back in March, the MinoriTory government announced the idea of running fast track two year degree courses in the hope of saving students money. Last week the Times Higher Education supplement revealed that surveyed students from lower socio-economic backgrounds would be more likely to take this option up if it existed. Could the Tories’ apparently hare-brained scheme in fact be justified?

THE RIGHT ARE RUNNING SCARED – A RESPONSE TO TOM WELSH

Posted on August 4, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged academia, academic work, academics, access, alternative facts, capitalists, career, Chris Hanretty, City AM, commentary, education, elitism, experts, free market, GE17, general election, graduates, HE policy, higher education, historians, hyperbole, hypocrisy, inequality, Institute of Economic Affairs, jeremy corbyn, King's College London, Labour, left wing, marketisation, Michael Gove, no platforming, Oxford University, policy, private universities, privatisation, research, right wing, safe spaces, sensationalism, socialism, student debt, Taxpayers' Alliance, The Telegraph, Times Higher Education, Tom Welsh, Tories, tuition fees, u-turn, UEA, uk, universities, voters.

by Robyn Banks

In the midst of right-wing confusion about Jeremy Corbyn’s continuing support amongst the young, following a supposed u-turn on his flagship policy to scrap student debt, Tom Welsh of the Telegraph has unveiled a new thesis: the left will continue its resurgence so long as too many go to university*. His argument is as ridiculous as the title makes it sound, and his article is full of claims that are absurd, patronising and completely unsupported.

THE PARADOX OF TORY EDUCATION POLICY – STUDENTS AND THE ELECTION #7

Posted on June 7, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged #GE2017, conservatives, cuts, education policy, employment, EU, EU students, exports, general election, HE policy, higher education, immigration quotas, international reputation, international students, manifesto, marketisation, migration, NHS, non-EU students, nurse bursaries, politics, racism, reputation, rights, skilled graduates, snap election, student numbers, student politics, student vote, students, Students and the Election, tuition fees, universities, university funding, university league tables, university rankings, voters, voting, xenophobia.

by Alex Powell

In the midst of multiple crises faced by students, universities and schools, the outcome of the snap general election will be a major indicator of the future of the UK education sector. Each week until the vote we are featuring perspectives from our regular contributors and guests on what the election could mean for students.

There is a severe dissonance between the conception of higher education that the Conservatives purport to support and the policies presented in their 2017 manifesto. In order to show this I have to work from within the Tory understanding of the purpose of higher education, and the role international students play within achieving that. Despite my adoption of this form of argumentation, I wish to make it clear that I do not subscribe to the idea that higher education is purely about reputation, financial stability, or the production of an effective workforce. Further, I do not accept the idea that international students are valuable only in terms of what they can offer to either educational institutions or the UK more generally. The current treatment of international students, and the blatant disregard shown for their welfare, is one of the most indefensible aspects of modern higher education policy.

HE policy

CHALLENGING MISCONCEPTIONS IN THE CAMPUS FREE SPEECH DEBATE

WE CAN’T JUST WAIT FOR FREE EDUCATION – NCAFC WINTER CONFERENCE

BLINDED BY IDEOLOGY – TWO YEAR DEGREES REVISITED

THE RIGHT ARE RUNNING SCARED – A RESPONSE TO TOM WELSH

THE PARADOX OF TORY EDUCATION POLICY – STUDENTS AND THE ELECTION #7

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