tagged w/ Tuition Fees
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A protester from the student anti-cuts march that took place in London on November 9th has posted a video on YouTube showing the arrest of another demonstrator.
The footage shows a handcuffed man being led away from the main protest while undercover officers try to keep other demonstrators out of their way.
The police have been accused of using excessive force in this instance. Do you agree? Let us know your thoughts by submitting your comments below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_kCB54oi04A protester from the student anti-cuts march that took place in London on November 9th... more
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Police have threatened to use rubber bullets in the event of any violence at a student march against funding cuts, taking place in London today.
Around 10,000 people are expected to attend the demonstration, which comes a year after a similar protest ended with violent scenes at Conservative party headquarters at 30 Millbank, Westminster.
University and college students are protesting against government plans to reduce funding for higher education and triple tuition fees. Scotland Yard has announced that police will use baton rounds, also known as rubber bullets, to deal with any violent outbreaks, increasing concerns that trouble will occur.
Police have also revealed this week that they have sent letters to anti-cuts activists to warn them of the consequences of attending the protest.
UPDATE: Metropolitan police state on Twitter that 'At present there is no intention to use baton rounds on today's demonstrations.'
For latest updates on the student tuition fees protests visit The Guardian live blog.
Source: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-24007734-police-pre-criminalise-student-demo-with-cynical-rubber-bullets-threat.do
Police have threatened to use rubber bullets in the event of any violence at a... more
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The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) has called for an apology and retraction after the Huffington Post this week featured, on its home page, an article titled, “Sex For Tuition: Gay Students Using ‘Sugar Daddies’ To Pay Off Loan Debt.”
GLAAD called the post, authored by Amanda Fairbanks, “one of the most trite, stereotype-peddling articles we’ve seen in a long time” and denounced the Huffington Post for standing behind it.
WHOOT! Go get that editor! How did this every get by?! As if no HETEROSEXUAL has ever done this. it is a GAY ONLY Practice?! Yeah right!
http://tinyurl.com/3mwqvu3The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) has called for an apology... more
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A video showing a police officer dragging a disabled man across a road after he had been tipped out of his chair during the student protests sparked outrage today when it was posted on YouTube.
Jody McIntyre, 21, was pulled across the street to the fury of the watching crowd outside Parliament who can be heard shouting at the police to stop.
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police confirmed that an internal investigation was underway into the wheelchair incident. Mr McIntyre has contacted a lawyer and is considering pressing charges.
Mr McIntyre said he was twice dragged out of his chair by police officers during the protest about rises in student tuition fees.
On the first occasion he was lifted out of his chair and carried 100 yards 'for his own safety'.
Half an hour later, in the video posted on YouTube, the political activist was dragged across the road by a policeman towards the opposite kerb.
Mr McIntyre, who is not a student, has been disabled since birth with cerebral palsy and can stand but cannot walk more than 100 yards. His 16-year-old brother later reunited him with his wheelchair.
A video showing a police officer dragging a disabled man across a road after he... more
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The son of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour apologised today for climbing the Cenotaph during the student protests, saying he was "mortified" by his "moment of idiocy".Gilmour's son Charlie was spotted by snappers yesterday as he was swinging from the Union Jack attached to the war monument. The pictures were widely publicised yesterday and and today and sparked fury across the country. In a statement published today he said that he would like to "express his deepest apologies for the terrible insult to the thousands of people who died bravely for our country".Charlie Gilmour, hose father is worth £80million, claimed he did not realise the monument was The Cenotaph and said: "I would like to express my deepest apologies for the terrible insult to the thousands of people who died bravely for our country that my actions represented. "I feel nothing but shame. My intention was not to attack or defile the Cenotaph. "Running along with a crowd of people who had just been violently repelled by the police, I got caught up in the spirit of the moment."I did not realise that it was the Cenotaph and if I had, I certainly would not have done what I did."I feel additionally mortified that my moment of idiocy has distracted so much from the message yesterday's protest was trying to send out."Those who are commemorated by the Cenotaph died to protect the very freedoms that allow the people of Britain the right to protest and I feel deeply ashamed to have, although unintentionally and unknowingly, insulted the memory of them."Ignorance is the poorest of excuses but I am sincerely sorry."
The son of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour apologised today for climbing... more
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When Elizabeth Walz ran for student government last year, she built her campaign around an issue she knew would resonate with her peers at UC Davis: the cost of textbooks.
For days, she stood in the quad polling students on their textbook-buying habits.
"A lot of the responses were, 'I don't even buy my textbooks – they're too expensive. I only buy the ones I absolutely need. I go to the library, I use the ones on reserve,' " Walz said.
Like college tuition itself, the cost of textbooks has been soaring. From 1990 to 2009, textbook prices rose four times faster than inflation, according to the Student Public Interest Research Group. Today, the average college student spends $900 a year on textbooks.
Students can save some money buying used books or electronic versions, and many campus bookstores have started renting popular texts. But a new option is emerging: open-source textbooks that can be read for free online, or printed at relatively low cost.
The main difference between open-source texts and traditional texts concerns copyrights. Traditional textbooks are copyrighted, so students must pay the publisher's price. Open-source texts have limited rights – they can be shared freely and, in some cases, altered by the people who use them.
Open-source books make up just a sliver of the textbooks being used on college campuses today. But interest is growing.
The Center for College Affordability and Productivity in Washington, D.C., recently listed the expansion of open-source books as a key way to cut college costs. The Student Public Interest Research Group says open-source materials could save students 80 percent of what they spend on textbooks and is encouraging professors nationwide to sign a pledge declaring their preference for open-source texts. More than 2,600 professors so far have signed.When Elizabeth Walz ran for student government last year, she built her campaign... more
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Photos and text by Rachel Bevis
I knew it was going to be busy when I cycled past a bus from North London that was carrying lots of students with placards singing protest songs but I didn't expect what was about to come. As I approached Trafalgar Square (I'd seen on facebook that's where the main group of students would be meeting) I heard a lot of shouting and cheering.
I quickly changed out of hi-vis and donned my beanie hat to blend in and headed over with my camera to see what was going on. At first it just seemed like a lot of teenagers who had taken advantage of the opportunity to take the day off school. I took a few photos and thought about leaving.
Then like a herd of animals, or in this case sheep they started to descend off of Nelson's column onto the street down to Whitehall. This is when things started to kick off as they decided to stand in the road shouting and blocking traffic. I witnessed the first signs of aggression from the Police as they tried to clear the way for cars to pass. This only seemed to fuel the students and they began running in big groups down to Westminster. I don't think they had any plan at all for when they would get arrive at Parliament Square, they didn't even manage to make it that far as within minutes they hit a barrier of officers ready and waiting for them.At this point everyone seemed to be a bit confused, shouting abuse and singing protest songs, shaking placards. No one was leading them in anyway.
After about 20 mins I noticed a man who was gesturing for everyone to turn around and head back to Trafalgar Square, but the Police were ready for this. As the crowd had moved forward from Trafalgar Square, the Police had followed and set up another barricade behind them. They were locked in, or at least soon to be.
The Police at this point seemed very passive, very calm. Then some young male protesters spotted a parked Police van with no officers inside or surrounding it, a bit unusual seeing as there were no other Police vehicles close by. It was only a matter of seconds before a couple of the young men started writing slogans on the side and minutes before they were on top of it jumping up and down and hitting it with the stick of the placard they had been wielding.
The Police still remained passive, with the barricades on both ends slowly approaching, I sensed some unease inside of me. I sat and watched for a good hour or so, nothing seemed to be changing. I thought about walking back to my bike and when I went to make a move I heard cheering and shouting. Protesters had started to smash the front window of the van.
I ran over to get a closer look and there was a big group of press trying to capture the violence. It has been reported that there was a young woman trying to stop the young men smashing up the van. I saw her try and put herself between them and the vehicle, to try and reason with them to stop, but they wouldn't. The problem seemed to be that half of the students there seemed to not even know why they had come, they just wanted attention and perhaps a fight.
People started to notice rust on the back of the van and slowly it clicked that it was a decoy, the van hadn't been in use for some time and was put there as a deliberate target for those intent on causing trouble. It was too late though, it had worked and now Police had been filming had enough evidence to charge these people with criminal damage.By 14:30 I had seen enough. I started walking back up towards Downing Street. It was starting to get cold and I had only a jumper on as I hadn't planned to stay long. A mini raved in the bus stop entertained people, it felt like a mini festival with a dark undercurrent. I walked 50 metres and then hit a wall of people, I tried to push past but all I could hear was 'they're not letting anyone out'. I was hungry and thirsty, when I get like that I am not in a good mood at the best of the times! I realised they had kettled or rather detained us. I walked the 50m back to the Police van to try and get out that side. The officers there sent me back the other way and so on and so forth for the next hour. They were starting to lose control, the crowd were starting to react to be caged like wild animals.
By 4pm I was not feeling great. It was cold. People started making fires out of the placard wood and posters to keep warm. There was no water, no where to use the toilet. People were urinating in the street. It was a strange atmosphere at this point. Half of the people had given up and just wanted to go home, but because the other half were intend on causing trouble, no was going anywhere. Worried parents were calling their children who were protesting and the Police just ignored parents pleas to be allowed to pick their children up from school.Where I was standing on the right towards Trafalgar Square, everyone was waiting patiently to leave. On the left however, I could see people starting to scale the walls to try and get out, some writing graffiti as they went, the words 'revolution' and 'tory scum' in bright purple now adorn one of the buildings.
It was getting dark, at 5pm we were told by Police that they were going to start filtering people out but they as we leave they would take our photo as a record to try and catch the people who were intend on causing trouble. I waited. As time went on it became apparent we still weren't going anywhere. Behind the barricade at Downing Street, new protesters had come down from Trafalgar Square and had hit a wall of officers waiting for them who were also holding us in detention. We were stuck. I tried the other end, but no luck.
By this point many of us had sparked up friendly banter with the officers we were squashed against. It seemed they didn't have a clue how long we would be there for and there was a lot of miscommunication from both sides. Earlier on I had though about faking an illness such as diabetes that required medication in order to escape but to be honest was not in my best acting mood so decided against it. In the end, once I realised it was make or break, I faked a pain from my 'old injury' in my leg. I could see they're suspicion but they had no choice but to let me leave. I was escorted by a Police medic and asked if I knew why we had been detained. At this point I said 'yes' but I didn't know. I just wanted to go home, I couldn't feel my toes and I was dehydrated. I believed at that point that they're whole system of trying to control the violence had back-fired. As I walked out parallel to the new clashes I felt like I was watching it on TV, in slow motion. My body was shutting down, from the cold and lack of food and water. I hadn't eaten or drank for 10 hours. It was 7pm at night, 5 hours they had detained me, had I not lied my way out it would have been much longer.No one seemed to know what right the Police had to hold us there. The phrase 'common law' was used a lot but no one knew what that meant, I don't think even the Police knew.
Photos and text by Rachel Bevis
I knew it was going to be busy when I cycled past a... more
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Lines of police are holding back thousands of student protesters in central London, in a wave of protests against higher tuition fees and university budget cuts.A police van, marooned in the protest on Whitehall, has been attacked.There have been clashes as police try to contain surges from demonstrators.Students are staging occupations at universities including Royal Holloway, Plymouth, Birmingham, London South Bank, UCL, Essex and UWE Bristol.Marches, walkouts and protest events are also taking place at universities and colleges in Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Bristol, Southampton, Oxford, Cambridge, Leeds, Newcastle, Bournemouth, Cardiff, Glasgow and Edinburgh.School pupils have walked out of lessons in Winchester, Cambridge, Leeds and London.Students are protesting against plans to increase tuition fees in England to £9,000 per year and to withdraw public funding for university teaching budgets for many subjects.
Lines of police are holding back thousands of student protesters in central London,... more
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It's good to hear the reaction from the crowd in this video - it should silence the people who say that all students that were at Tory HQ that day were irresponsible thugs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAGNJMQD1rAIt's good to hear the reaction from the crowd in this video - it should silence... more
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Tory blogger Guido Fawkes is offering a £1,000 reward to anyone who can name the student protester who threw a fire extinguisher off the roof at Wednesday's demonstration. "The fire extinguisher went very close to two territorial support group officers," said Peter Smyth of the Metropolitan Police Federation.
"It went down the back of one officer and grazed the knees of another. Clearly, that is a very serious offence and we are attempting to bring the person who did that to justice."Blogger Paul Staines – who writes the Guido Fawkes site, wants anyone who knows the "thug" in the photo who is holding a fire extinguisher on the roof of Millbank Tower, London, which houses Conservative Party headquarters, at police officers below to email him, and said ""Your information will treated as in confidence and you do not have to give your name…"Not that we think a lot of Tory informants were at the protest...
Tory blogger Guido Fawkes is offering a £1,000 reward to anyone who... more
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The New Statesman has listed the best slogans at today's student protest. We have listed our favourites here:
LGBT caucus: We're here! We're queer! We can't afford nine grand a year!
Hoodie-wearing sixth former with sign: forget university, I can't even afford college anymore. Where's my future?
Man wearing a wig and suit made entirely from monopoly notes: do I look like I'm made of money?
Bath students: We are bath! We will march! (This one needs a bit of work).
Socialist students: Tories! Putting the N in cuts!
Emo kid with sign: is this the queue for Justin Bieber tickets?
London teenager with a placard: Fuck this, I'm moving to Scotland!
Polite hand-drawn slogan by Bath university student: I very much regret voting for the lib dems!
The New Statesman has listed the best slogans at today's student protest. We... more
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Student's today stormed the Conservative party's Millbank headquarters setting signs on fire outside the building and breaking windows and furniture inside the building.
Police were struggling to contain the large number of students that showed up and two police officers are confirrmed to have been injured. Several protesters have been arrested according to the Metropolitan Police.
The Conservative staff in the building has been evacuated and were given police escort in order to escape the building safely.
At noon today the biggest demonstration since the coalition governemnt came into power went underway - it's estimated that over 50,000 students and lecturers showed up in central London to protest over the coalition's plans to almost treble tuition fees in England to £9,000 per year.
The demonstraion started in central London and finished at Houses of Parliament, passing the Tory HQ on 30 Millbank.
Surprisingly there was no extra security put in place outside the party's HQ, despite the fact that the demonstraion route was publicised well in advance.
24,034 students have pre-registered to take part in the 'Fund Our Future' march and latest figures by the NUS estimate that 55,000 have turned up.The largest student contingent is expected to come from London-based universities, which are anticipating more than 5,000 marchers to show up. About 3,200 students from other universities in the south-east have said they will attend, with more than 4,500 students signed up from the West Midlands, Yorkshire and Humberside.
The march is organised by the National Union of Students (NUS) and the lecturers' union, the University and College Union (UCU).The coalition government says its plans are "fairer" than the current system, but it is expected to face the largest show of opposition in today's demonstration to its drastic cuts since it came to power. National Union of Students president Aaron Porter says the Liberal Democrats face an electoral "wipeout" if they break their pledge to vote against higher fees.A big delegation is expected from Sheffield, where student's anger and frustration with their local MP and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is intense due to his previous support for scrapping tuition fees.
Students put calls out on Twitter and Facebook to make Clegg's west London home the target of a spontaneous "flash mob" rally last night and a group of students did indeed turn up with banners in the early hours of last night. Aaron Porter, the NUS president, said: "This is the largest student protest in the UK for at least a decade […] which goes to show the huge extent of discontent with this government's short-sighted plans, which will effectively privatise large parts of higher education and remove support for many college and adult education learners."Research published by the University College Union shows the annual cost of a degree has risen by 300% in two decades.
Protestors will assemble at Horse Guards Avenue from 11.30 and the march will begin at 12.30 heading through central London and past the Houses of Parliament.
Student's today stormed the Conservative party's Millbank... more
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In this on the sofa discussion with Professor of Education Dennis Hayes, a group of students worry about: standards; getting their money’s worth; job prospects on graduation; putting non university options on an equal footing and debt. Professor Hayes argues university is not retail therapy, although a therapeutic culture has degraded the pursuit of knowledge. He suggests frugality is futile and tells us that while you don’t need a degree to be a postman, a postman is also a human being and everyone can benefit from the best possible university education.In this on the sofa discussion with Professor of Education Dennis Hayes, a group of... more
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English universities will be able to charge tuition fees of up to £9,000 per year, as the government shift the cost of higher education from the state to students.
Fees will rise to £6,000, with an upper tier of £9,000 if universities promise access for poorer students.
The new student fee is three times higher than the current maximum fee of £3,290 per year, a sum already proving hard for many students to meet.
The new rise in fees will replace funding cuts from universities that were outlined in last month's Spending Review.
Universities Minister David Willetts said this was a "progressive" reform but Labour's Gareth Thomas said the fee increase represented a "tragedy for a whole generation of young people".
The National Union of Students (NUS) dubbed the plan "an outrage", and their president, Aaron Porter, said Liberal Democrat MPs who were going to ditch their election pledge to vote against any rise in fees should be "ashamed of themselves" and said that the proposal will “saddle a generation with huge debts before they have even got on their bikes to find work".
The worry is that the new proposals could transform English universities, creating a two-tier system in which the most competitive universities charge higher fees.
When presenting the plans to the House of Commons today David Willetts said that universities charging the highest fees will have to show support for widening the access to students from poorer backgrounds. In reality this does not mean quotas for students from poorer homes but merely constitute the type of outreach programmes many universities already carry out, such as summer schools and targeted scholarships.
If approved by parliament, the new proposal will mean that students will start repaying their loans at 9% of their income at a real rate of interest when they earn £21,000, up from the current £15,000 threshold, with outstanding loans written off after 30 years.
The changes in tuition fees will apply to universities in England. Scottish students studying in Scotland do not have to pay any fees. In Northern Ireland and Wales, fees are currently charged up to a maximum of £3,290.
aEnglish universities will be able to charge tuition fees of up to £9,000 per... more
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Students are calling on the government to rule out suggestions that tuition fees in England will be increased to £10,000 per year.
The National Union of Students says such an increase would make degrees "unviably" expensive.
Reports have claimed Lord Browne's review will recommend an increase in fees, plus a levy on higher earners.
A government spokeswoman said it would be premature to comment before the review had been published.
Next month Lord Browne will deliver his recommendations on funding higher education in England - including how much students will be expected to pay.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11419172Students are calling on the government to rule out suggestions that tuition fees in... more
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With the new school year about to commence many New York area Jewish parents will have to find a way to fund their children's day school tuitions. In my June 10, 2010 article I shared my interview with Mindi Wernick and Malkie Grozalsky in which they speak of having made financial sacrifices to send their children to a Jewish school. In my interview with Nassau County residents Keith and Cindy Hamada, Keith speaks of day school tuition as a form of birth control that limits the sizes of Jewish families.
Although Keith and Cindy belong to an Orthodox synagogue and my wife Shoshana and I belong to a Conservative congregation, I was struck by how similar our levels of observance are, which teaches us that labels don't tell the whole story.With the new school year about to commence many New York area Jewish parents will have... more
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Tomorrow George Osborne will be revealing his budget, which is said to contain the cuts the Government will make, leaving mixed views on if it'll help or hinder the recovery. Some fears result towards large scale job loses, with counter fears focusing on public finances collapsing like Greece or Spain.
It was reported last night, The National Union of Students will be demonstrating in different locations to call for protection from cuts or stop rises in tuition fees.
"If he fails, hundreds of thousands of young people he represents now – and millions in the future – will face an increasingly US-style market in higher education. That could mean starting their working lives with debts of £50,000 or more. "I've got a hell of a lot on my plate," he admits."-Guardian
The Guardian artcile focuses on the current NUS president Aaron Porter (25) why he's protesting and the politicians who started out ad NUS presidents.
"The Sutton Trust education charity has published research showing four out of five young people in England and Wales expect to apply to university, but it warns that two-thirds would change their mind if fees doubled."-NUS
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/10355042.stm
http://www.nus.org.uk/en/News/News/Fee-hike-will-deter-students-from-going-to-university-says-research/Tomorrow George Osborne will be revealing his budget, which is said to contain the... more
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Would you vote for this lot? In this second episode of WORLDbytes’ Royal Society of Arts award winning series, election campaigners and parliamentary candidates from lesser-known political parties get a grilling at a local café in London’s East End. On the menu are unemployment, education, housing, free speech and voter apathy. The Green candidate advocates building on the green belt, the Respect rep says free speech should be qualified and the English Democrat chap says they’re not for profit. The arguments dished up suggest there is no right or left anymore. Watch it and let us know your thoughts.Would you vote for this lot? In this second episode of WORLDbytes’ Royal... more
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I think If a government wants an educated society then they should pay or heavily subsidise it.
This week's pre-Budget report has dramatically changed the nature of debate over what should happen to university fees - potentially one of the more explosive issues at the next election as we head towards 50% of all young people expecting to go to university.
Just as Lord Browne's independent review of student finance began its work, the outlook for future government spending on universities took a sharp turn for the worse.
While schools were picked out for protection in the chancellor's statement, universities now see their future funding draining away.
As Mr Darling highlighted schools, hospitals and Sure Start as the areas to be protected from the general funding squeeze, the implications for other areas of public spending began to sink in.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8408955.stmI think If a government wants an educated society then they should pay or heavily... more
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After the UC Regents approved the 32% hike in tuition fees yesterday, Berkeley students are taking action:"About 50 to 100 student demonstrators have taken over Wheeler Hall, a major building on the UC Berkeley campus, in protest of Thursday's 32 percent student fee increase passed by the UC Board of Regents.
Two students were arrested this morning at around 6 a.m., said Will Heegaard, a sophomore peace and conflict studies major and one of the protest's organizers. He said one of their immediate demands is for the police to free those students, and for the campus to rehire the janitors who were fired this school year. UCPD could not be reached for comment.
Heegaard, 19, said that he and others moved into the building shortly after 9 p.m. Thursday night, using ropes, a car ratchet and other gear. Calling from his cell phone at around 9:30 a.m. Friday, he said that the police's attempts to enter the ground floor, using wedges and crowbars, had forced the demonstrators to move to the second floor of the building...." A live blog of the event can be followed here at dailycal.org
http://www.dailycal.org/article/107611/protesters_in_wheeler_hall_say_activists_are_stayiAfter the UC Regents approved the 32% hike in tuition fees yesterday, Berkeley... more
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