Prince Rhyus
Spokesman of King Antonio
Taken from Indymedia:
The demands of the occupiers are:
1) The extending of library opening hours until 2am
2) the democratisation of the governance of Sussex University
3) More contact time for students
4) More affordable housing on campus
5) Reinstatement of the Equal Opportunities Unit
6) Decent pay and conditions for all academic and non-academic staff
7) Against the comodification of education and the introduction of tuition fees
Points 1-5 are what I'm going to comment on given that I was at Sussex between 1999-2002. (Points 6&7 are national/international issues that go beyond what is happening on the Falmer campus.)
I personally don't think my degree is worth the paper it's written on. I should not have been in a position where I was using my A-Level revision notes as the basis for the revision notes for my finals. Due to illness I missed most of the autumn term of the final year and many lectures and seminars of the term that followed. It didn't stop me from getting a 2:1 though. Yet given how much contact time I missed and how little time I was able to devote to studying because of my condition, at a half-decent university I would have been lucky to have got a 2:2.
Given the commodification of higher education, it doesn't surprise me that uni campaigns are becoming localised. I hope that students react to the hardships and debt that tuition fees impose upon them by kicking up more of a fuss and not allowing 'redbrick' universities to get away with relying on a poast reputation of 'greatness' as a means of attracting students. As contact time drops, students are going to rightly ask what their tuition fees are being spent on.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4915418.stm
I had about 7 hours of contact time per week in my first year, most of it covering stuff I had done at A-Level. Yes, I do have strong regrets about not being more proactive in terms of moving off elsewhere or doing something more positive, but through the prism of depression and isolation it's never an easy thing to do, especially not wanting to bee seen to have 'wasted' both time and money in dropping out and reapplying.
The democratisation of governance is something that could apply to all universities - especially now that students are financial stakeholders as well as stakeholders by virtue of attending the university. (Apologies for the civil service speak there.) If I'm going to end up with a millstone of a £25,000 debt, I want to make sure that I'm getting my money's worth. With the debts I already have I feel incredibly ripped off by the experience I had at university. If it were on the scale of the 'top up fees generation' I would be livid. The sad thing is that the NUS should really be at the forefront of this issue. Tuition fees are a reality. They may not like it but the reality is that it is unlikely that the policy will be reversed in the near future. Given that this is the case, shouldn't the NUS start campaigning on a 'value for money' ticket and highlight to their membership that students are being ripped off by universities, being forced to pay (especially for arts and humanities students) extortionate fees for very little in return?
More affordable housing in general has always been a problem at Sussex. I spent part of my time writing to various publications about this issue having lived in a property in my second year that was condemned by the council. Brighton's local plan in 2001 states:
4.75 A high proportion of the housing stock in Brighton and Hove remains unfit for habitation6:
• 10% of all private sector homes are unfit compared to a national average of 7%. Unfitness is particularly concentrated in city centre wards where 19% dwellings are unfit;
• The city’s dwellings tend to be older than the national average: 42% of homes were built before 1919, compared to a national average of 24%.
• 30% of Houses in Multiple Occupation do not meet fire safety standards.
See http://www.brightonandhovelocalplan.org.uk/written/cpt4b.htm
These are some of the issues that the NUS could be campaigning on - issues that also resonate with local communities that could break the barriers that are currently building up in some parts of the country where entire wards are struggling to cope with large numbers of short term residents who find themselves there because universities/government have been unwilling to provide enough purpose-built accommodation for students.
There...rant over
The demands of the occupiers are:
1) The extending of library opening hours until 2am
2) the democratisation of the governance of Sussex University
3) More contact time for students
4) More affordable housing on campus
5) Reinstatement of the Equal Opportunities Unit
6) Decent pay and conditions for all academic and non-academic staff
7) Against the comodification of education and the introduction of tuition fees
Points 1-5 are what I'm going to comment on given that I was at Sussex between 1999-2002. (Points 6&7 are national/international issues that go beyond what is happening on the Falmer campus.)
I personally don't think my degree is worth the paper it's written on. I should not have been in a position where I was using my A-Level revision notes as the basis for the revision notes for my finals. Due to illness I missed most of the autumn term of the final year and many lectures and seminars of the term that followed. It didn't stop me from getting a 2:1 though. Yet given how much contact time I missed and how little time I was able to devote to studying because of my condition, at a half-decent university I would have been lucky to have got a 2:2.
Given the commodification of higher education, it doesn't surprise me that uni campaigns are becoming localised. I hope that students react to the hardships and debt that tuition fees impose upon them by kicking up more of a fuss and not allowing 'redbrick' universities to get away with relying on a poast reputation of 'greatness' as a means of attracting students. As contact time drops, students are going to rightly ask what their tuition fees are being spent on.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4915418.stm
I had about 7 hours of contact time per week in my first year, most of it covering stuff I had done at A-Level. Yes, I do have strong regrets about not being more proactive in terms of moving off elsewhere or doing something more positive, but through the prism of depression and isolation it's never an easy thing to do, especially not wanting to bee seen to have 'wasted' both time and money in dropping out and reapplying.
The democratisation of governance is something that could apply to all universities - especially now that students are financial stakeholders as well as stakeholders by virtue of attending the university. (Apologies for the civil service speak there.) If I'm going to end up with a millstone of a £25,000 debt, I want to make sure that I'm getting my money's worth. With the debts I already have I feel incredibly ripped off by the experience I had at university. If it were on the scale of the 'top up fees generation' I would be livid. The sad thing is that the NUS should really be at the forefront of this issue. Tuition fees are a reality. They may not like it but the reality is that it is unlikely that the policy will be reversed in the near future. Given that this is the case, shouldn't the NUS start campaigning on a 'value for money' ticket and highlight to their membership that students are being ripped off by universities, being forced to pay (especially for arts and humanities students) extortionate fees for very little in return?
More affordable housing in general has always been a problem at Sussex. I spent part of my time writing to various publications about this issue having lived in a property in my second year that was condemned by the council. Brighton's local plan in 2001 states:
4.75 A high proportion of the housing stock in Brighton and Hove remains unfit for habitation6:
• 10% of all private sector homes are unfit compared to a national average of 7%. Unfitness is particularly concentrated in city centre wards where 19% dwellings are unfit;
• The city’s dwellings tend to be older than the national average: 42% of homes were built before 1919, compared to a national average of 24%.
• 30% of Houses in Multiple Occupation do not meet fire safety standards.
See http://www.brightonandhovelocalplan.org.uk/written/cpt4b.htm
These are some of the issues that the NUS could be campaigning on - issues that also resonate with local communities that could break the barriers that are currently building up in some parts of the country where entire wards are struggling to cope with large numbers of short term residents who find themselves there because universities/government have been unwilling to provide enough purpose-built accommodation for students.
There...rant over
