A “United for Education” demonstration, led by the National Union of Students (NUS) and University and College Union (UCU), will take place in London on Saturday 19th November, with a CUSU-supported Cambridge contingent set to attend. 

Alongside other students and staff from across the UK, they will demand improvements in the accessibility of further and higher education, calling for the reversal of recent reforms such as the proposed Higher Education (HE) Bill and an overhaul of current student finance policy. 

NUS has outlined its key policy demands, including: increased investment in FE colleges and sixth forms; halting the rise in tuition fees; a reintroduction of maintenance grants; and an end to private education company profit from student fees. They aim to “send a clear message to Theresa May”, while showing solidarity for international students and staff “suffering disproportionately in this post-Brexit climate of heightened xenophobia.”

CUSU have provided £540 for the hire of coaches to London, splitting the costs with staff and students from Anglia Ruskin who will also be in attendance.

Representatives from CUSU are also due to attend, including Education Officer Roberta Huldisch and CUSU-GU Welfare Officer Sophie Buck, as is Dr Waseem Yaqoob, Branch Representative for Cambridge UCU.

Speaking to Varsity, Yaqoob said that the demonstration is critical in “showing the government the breadth and depth of opposition to its education policy,” as both students and staff will protest together against the “unprecedented threat” posed by the proposed HE Bill. 

He claimed that almost unanimous opposition to the bill from universities across the UK had been ignored, threatening the introduction of “a system that has already proved disastrous in the US, lowering the overall quality of higher education – think Trump University – and pushing students further and further into debt.”

“We are being asked to believe that the decreasing social mobility caused by high tuition fees and indebtedness can be addressed by the entry of poor quality, deregulated commercial businesses masquerading as ‘universities’.”

Yaqoob also expressed his concerns regarding the ‘Teaching Excellence Framework’, a proposed measure of teaching quality reliant on criteria such as graduate salaries, deeming it part of a wider “short-sighted, market-oriented view of education”, rather than an understanding of education as a “vital public good”.  

Buck also expressed her support of the demonstration on behalf of CUSU, raising concerns about the research-proven “negative effect worrying about finances has on mental health.” 

On Wednesday evening, CUSU and Cambridge Defend Education (CDE) held a banner making and discussion session in preparation for Saturday. 

Reflections on the Revolution in London

NUS aim to prove that dissatisfied students and academic staff alike are a “force too powerful to ignore”. Saturday’s march is only one part of a series of student-led events occurring globally this month.