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Cambridge University Students Occupy Senate House Lawn.

Cameraboy | 14.03.2011 15:36 | Education | Social Struggles | Cambridge

On Friday March 11th, students from the local activist group Cambridge Defend Education occupied the front lawn of Senate House, part of the admistrative centre for Cambridge University.

This was in response to the Vice Chancellor deciding to ignore students and employers to save Bursaries, which financially support students with their studies and allow them to continue attending Cambridge University.

A now familiar sight in Cambridge...
A now familiar sight in Cambridge...

Keep off the grass..? Nah!!
Keep off the grass..? Nah!!

"Non Placet" = it does not please: used in casting a negative vote.
"Non Placet" = it does not please: used in casting a negative vote.

Senate House... a tinderbox for dissent.
Senate House... a tinderbox for dissent.

Pitching tents on the lawn, but it's no picnic.
Pitching tents on the lawn, but it's no picnic.

Often the most effective form...
Often the most effective form...


This news comes in the light of a recent decision by Oxbridge colleges to raise Tuition Fees to the maximum allowable amount of up to £9,000 per academic year, meaning that anyone from a less affluent background is unlikely to be able to study at these institutions, effectively setting the clock back to the nineteenth century, when only those whom were rich could get an education.

It's also worth considering that Cambridge University is one of the richest of them all in the UK, with an annual turnover of up to £1 billion per year, and yet the VC cannot find it in his heart to fork out a bit of these profits to support future generations of his own potential customers.

Instead it would seem on the face of it, he would rather pursue privately generated research based profits (sponsors include Microsoft and Rolls Royce), at the expense of the very people that this institution is supposed to serve - the students.

This also comes at a time when many Comprehensive schools are either considering or are already 'opting out' to become privately run Academies, so even at secondary school stage there is no escape from the capitalists' clutches.

Chesterton Community College, also in Cambridge, is currently one of those for which the Academy route is currently being considered.

It would seem that a Tsunami is afflicting us right here in the UK, one which is destroying our education system from the inside out...


A TSUNAMI OF SELFISHNESS AND GREED.


For more background on this story, visit the site listed below.

Cameraboy
- Homepage: http://www.defendeducation.co.uk/

Additions

Correction...

14.03.2011 17:50

Typing error: "students and employers" should of course read "students and employees", i.e. the lecturers.

Cameraboy