“MORE POWERFUL THAN LANDLORDS CAN POSSIBLY IMAGINE” – THE SUSSEX RENT STRIKE

Posted on December 22, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged access, ACORN Tenants' Union, activism, Birmingham Student Housing Co-op, campaign wins, campaigning, community action, compensation, democracy, direct action, Edinburgh Student Housing Co-op, exploitation, landlords, living conditions, living costs, Norwich Association for the Co-operative Housing of Students, power, profit, profiteering, quality of life, renfell tower, rent, rent strike, Sheffield Student Housing Co-op, standard of living, strike action, student accommodation, student housing coops, Students for Co-operation, Sussex Cut The Rent, UEA, university management, University of Sussex.

Last week, students living in accommodation at the University of Sussex staged a rent strike, and successfully achieved their goals in the space of three days. The university has capitulated and agreed to £65,000 of compensation for the students who live in the halls due to the appalling state they are currently in.

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SHIFTING THE SPOTLIGHT IN THE VC PAY DEBATE

Posted on September 29, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged academia, academic staff, BAME, BAME academics, diversity, George Holmes, government, HESA, homogeneity, ivory tower, jo johnson, Louise Richardson, media, overpaid, Oxford University, pay, phD, research, researchers, salaries, Southampton University, standard of living, student activism, student life, underpaid, VC salaries, Vice Chancellors, wage gap, wages, women, women academics.

Throughout the summer the debate around vice chancellor pay has continued to play out. Government and media figures have joined students in their long standing expression of outrage at absurd rates of pay, whilst the VCs themselves have come out to defended their salaries, some with a remarkable lack of self-awareness. Oxford VC Louise Richardson recently joined the fray with this startlingly uncaring remark: “My own salary is £350,000. That’s a very high salary compared to our academics who I think are, junior academics especially, very lowly paid.”

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POVERTY LOANS: THE FORGOTTEN FIGHT?

Posted on February 14, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged access, Brexit, campaigning, cost of living, higher education, income inequality, maintenance grants, maintenance loans, means testing, postgraduate, postgraduate loans, rent, rent strike, social mobility, standard of living, student activism, student poverty, students, tuition fees, UCL, universities.

Disclaimer: in what follows I am not suggesting that tuition fees are acceptable, nor that we should stop campaigning against further fee rises and for their complete abolition. But I think that we should put as much effort into campaigning on another, more pressing issue, which is often sidelined in the discourse around the marketisation of education. We need a maintenance loan settlement which works for all students and, crucially, higher postgraduate loans, to truly improve access to education.

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