An Introduction

BIRMINGHAM

No Cuts

!FightFees

Introduction to defend educationEducation for LiberationWhat is happening in educationTimelineWhy our uni is particularly badKeeping the bigger picture in mindWorker’s rights/trade unions: why we support themHow we organise, Why we wear red and yellow squares

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Contents

This booklet will tell you more about our campaign, what's happening to your education and what you can do about it.

Defend Education is a group of students brought together by a commitment to fighting for a free and public education system that is accessible to all, regardless of class, wealth, gender, ethnicity or any other background or characteristic. We are affiliated to the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts and play an active part in the national student movement. Our group has grown over the past few years in the face of increasing attacks to the education being delivered at the University of Birmingham, and in the wider contexts of Higher Education cuts, privatisation, and rising student debt.

The government, university managers, and the economic elite are united in pushing for an education made to serve only the interests of profit. The University of Birmingham management are at the forefront of this agenda with our Vice Chancellor, David Eastwood, sitting on the Browne review that led to £9,000 fees being implemented nationwide. The past few years have seen them shut down and decimate entire courses and departments from Sociology, to Archaeology, to Nursing, as well as attacking the pay and conditions of staff and stepping up unnecessary monitoring of international students.

The only way we can defend ourselves against this is by organising. The government and the university will continue to act in such a way if it thinks it can get away with it. Defend Education exists to fight against the attacks of government and management, and to advocate for an alternative, seeking to redress the balance of power in favour of students and staff. This booklet should give you a better sense of who we are, what we believe in, what is happening in higher education and how you can do something about it.

An Introduction

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We are a campaign for free education, available to all, pursued for social good and not private profit. We believe education should be democratically controlled and funded by taxing the rich.

Education is a social good. Imagine a world in which nobody has been taught how to build bridges, speak foreign languages, make art, practice medicine or programme computers. That is a very poor society, in every sense of the word. Simply seen from this point of view, the idea that higher education is a commodity for students themselves to pay for, and a matter of indifference to those who do not go to university, is ludicrous. Education is a social good and should be funded by society – first of all, by those who have the most money to pay, regardless of whether they attended university or not.

Education is liberating. It allows an individual to develop to their fullest potential and to engage with the world around them creatively and consciously. Regardless of the job that one takes during or after education, this is liberating: it frees individuals from ignorance, and from a narrowness of vision or lack of confidence which is paralysing and confining. As much as were the eight hour day, the abolition of child labour, or the weekend, the demand for access to education is a question of human freedom.

In fighting for education we can play a role in fighting for the broader liberation of humanity. We oppose sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia and disablism within our group, our campus and beyond, and recognise that these oppressions cut across all of the campaigns we organise.

The French revolutionary Robespierre wrote that “the secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant”. Education is not only liberating for an individual, but also for whole classes of society: it allows them to become conscious of themselves and to decide collectively to take control of their destiny. Naturally the rich and the ruling class tend to favour restricting access to education to themselves. The struggle for access to education in Britain’s history, like the struggle for the vote, has been a fight for political and social emancipation.

Education for Liberation

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The idea and point of higher education in the UK are under unprecedented attack. The government has overnight entirely changed the way that funding is allocated to higher education. This new system means that the majority of money a university receives is dependent on the number of students it is able to attract. This has meant that universities are spending more on their image, advertising, and overseas recruiting centres in order to compete in a marketised system, whilst at the same time cutting courses, module choices and contact hours. Education is now seen as a product to be bought, with emphasis on making it appealing to students as consumers.

In addition, we are starting to see private providers enter the system. These are for-profit companies interested in the amount of money they can squeeze out of students as opposed to the quality of education they provide. In a marketised system, students are treated as sources of income with profit as the main focus rather than students themselves.

The changes to funding were supposed to make higher education “cheaper” for the government, by shifting the majority of the bill onto students. But their own projections of the amount of and rate that loans would be paid back are ridiculously ambitious and unlikely. Most graduates loans will not be paid back anywhere near in full. Higher education is now costing the government more.

What is happening in Higher Education?

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People could end up paying far more than they ever expected to pay at a rate which is unaffordable. This has already happened in New Zealand, with the interest rates on student loans being increased. A recent freedom of information request revealed that the government is already looking at ways to sell off student loans, allowing private companies to profit from student debt.

One of the only things that could potentially stop the government enacting these changes is the fear of the response of a strong national student movement. This is one reason why it is so important that students continue to campaign and mobilise around higher education over the coming years.

This means that it is highly likely that the government will change the repayment scheme. Changes can be applied retrospectively to those studying now and do not have to be debated in parliament.

november 10th 2010

NATIONALDEMO Millbank

STORMED

DECEMBER 9th 2010RISE IN TUITION FEESVOTED THROUGH PARLIAMENT323 votes to 302

MARCH 26th 2011

FORTNUM& MASON

NORTH GATE OCCUPATION23rd-25th November 2011A number of students occupied

North Gate house for a few

OCTOBER 2012-january 2013DEFEND JOSE NAFAFE CAMPAIGN

days in opposition to the profit-oriented strategy of university management - which was seeing ever poorer quality of education at higher costs to students. This occupation witnessed considerable violence from security, as well as

A campaign defending a vital Socredundancy and protecting the teabrought together BEMA and Doccupation of University HR thatbetter terms.

JUNE 2012-March 2013

SAVE THE IAAA long campaign opposing the closure of the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity, and the compulsory redundancies of 19 members of staff. This campaign ended when, following the threat of strike from UCU, many of the demands were met.

NATIONAL DEMOAT SUSSEXAGAINST PRIVATISATION

MARCH 2013

SAVE THE

361campaign

DEFEND EDUCATION

TIMELINE

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NOVEMBER 24th 2010

OCCUPATIONOF ASTON WEBBAGAINST RISING TUITION FEES & CUTS

This occupaton is an iconic moment for Defend Education - and our first campus-based action as an organised group. A group of 50 stormed the Aston Webb in the early hours in the morning and battling with University management while a flashmob if iver 400 students danced, chanted and marched outside. Made local and national news. Lasted around 12 hours.

MARCH 26th 2011

FORTNUM& MASON

11 Defend Education activists - and 145 people in total - were arrested at a national anti-austerity demonstration, when hundreds occupied Fortnum and Mason store. This was a landmark case that signals the beginning of attempts by government to intimidate activists into inaction and apathy. Only 1 ocf the 11 was found guilty; all came away with an even stronger commitment to activism

NCAFC NATIONAL

DEMONOVEMBER 9th 2011

PROTEST THEPROTEST BANFebruary 15th 2012

Following North Gate occupation the University took out an injunction against the students inside, banning them from protesting on campus for 12 months. This was deemed a breach of human rights by Amnesty International and widely condemned. Only 1 student was identified, who was subjected to disciplinary. On this date Defend Education organised a huge demo, with hundreds of students from across the country attending - defending Simon and protesting the protest ban. The disciplinary was dropped.

A campaign defending a vital Sociology lecturer faced with redundancy and protecting the teaching of Ethnicities. This brought together BEMA and DE culminating 5 in an occupation of University HR that helped win Jose much better terms.

UCU THREATENS TO

STRIKE!DEMANDS MEtMARCH 2013

ampaign opposing the closure of the Institute of logy and Antiquity, and the compulsory ncies of 19 members of staff. This campaign hen, following the threat of strike from UCU,

SAVE THE

361campaign

The University threatened 361 members of support staff with redundancy unless they accepted cuts to pay and hours and agreed to move to casual contracts. DE threatened to call national demonstrations on University open days, alongside members of UNISON balloting for striking action and all campus unions holding a May Day demo. The campaign ended in unparalleled success with no staff being forced onto shift work, no compulsory redundancies, and greater protection for staff already on shift work

APRIL MAY 2013WhatNEXT?

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Whilst government changes outlined earlier have put many universities in a difficult situation, the decisions of university management cannot simply be blamed on the new funding system. Senior management are purposefully taking action to turn Birmingham into more of a business than a university.

Our Vice-Chancellor, David Eastwood, sat on the Browne Review which led to the introduction of £9,000 fees and increased marketisation. He pushed for uncapped fees and has since been shaping Birmingham in the neo-liberal ideal which the Browne Review set out. His salary last year was £409,000, making him the second highest paid VC in the country. In addition, there are 111 members of staff earning over £100,000.

At the same time, they have spent the last few years cutting a number of successful courses, pleading financial troubles. Sociology, Archaeology, Nursing, Physiotherapy and Biological Recording have gone through serious restructuring, losing staff, module choices and in some cases, ceasing to exist. The real reasons for these changes are a combination of short-termism and the idea that some courses do not fit with their research strategy or the image of prestige that the university is trying to create.

They also attempted to radically alter the pay and working conditions of around 361 support staff, some of the the lowest paid in the university. It was only thanks to successful campaign led by Defend Education and Unison that significant concessions were granted. The way they treat their academic staff is also appalling. Birmingham is one of only 2 Russell Group universities to feature in the bottom 20 for staff stress. 88% of staff work more than 40 hours, 44% more than 50 (the highest in the Russell Group) and it’s the 4th highest university in the country for employment tribunal claims.

The University’s attitude to the right to protest is another cause for concern. In 2011, following an occupation of an empty building for three days, the University took out an injunction which banned “occupational-style” protest on campus for a year, leading it to be condemned by Amnesty International, Liberty and Index on Censorship.

why our university is particularly bad

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Many people think that in order to change things you need to abandon so called ‘unrealistic’ demands and ideas, but really the link between smaller, concrete demands and larger, systematic ones is key to effective campaigning. Here’s why we do not abandon, or stop talking about, our beliefs:

Higher education is being completely restructured to serve the interests of an economic elite. Instead of academic freedom and knowledge for the improvement of society we get research tailored to the needs of profit; instead of improving people’s lives we have education which maintains the privilege of the elite. The system itself is broken and needs changing; we cannot simply advocate for demands within it, and so we should advocate for demands that lead to further campaigning.

It doesn’t help anyone, either yourselves or the people you are trying to convince, if you hide your beliefs. You change people’s minds not by triangulating close to what they think, but by saying something that they might never have heard or considered before. Education is under unprecedented attack, and if we do not make the case that students are not consumers and that education is a right, then no one will.

What is happening in education does not occur in isolation from the rest of public services and the rest of society. We need to be showing people the connections between struggles for education and other struggles, so that students campaign after university. Fighting for better conditions of life for everyone is a fight for better conditions for students.

Without some sense of an ultimate goal or broader framework it is not possible to create a good strategy. There are demands and methods of campaigning that may seem positive but in fact weaken our position overall. For example it might seem justified to advocate for protecting mental health workers’ jobs at the expense of other support staff, but this divides staff and student organisation, allowing the university to attack us more. People also do not get inspired and sink time and effort into campaigning on shorter waiting times for feedback. Campaigning can be hard at times; unless we keep in mind the bigger picture and the kind of struggle we are part of, we will just stop doing it.

the bigger picture

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Fundamental Change is needed

We Don’t Hide Our Beliefs

Links with other struggles

Strategy

Some of the most successful of our campaigns in the last few years have been when we were collaborating with workers and workers’ unions. Working with ,and supporting worker’s organisation, is principally the right thing to do because they are exploited by the university management, but it is also necessary that we stand together with allies if we are to achieve what we want to see.

While the university management are giving themselves ever larger pay rises, the real wages of the majority of workers have been declining in real terms for several years. Increasing amounts of teaching and research at the university is done by students doing their PHDs or academics on temporary contracts. In most cases these workers are paid for far less than the hours they actually work, and are under constant pressure that their contract will not be renewed or that they will never be able to get a secure full time job.

Supporting Trade Unions

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Workers are the fundamental thing that determines the quality of education at a university. By supporting their struggles against redundancies we are ensuring better courses, administration, and support. By fighting for their pay and conditions we are fighting for less stressed, and happier workforce, and therefore a more effective university.

It is important that we understand struggles in education in the context of a wider picture; by standing in solidarity with workers we strengthen a wider struggle for wages and conditions. In this sense by standing with workers we are fighting for our own working conditions after we leave university. We hope that the experiences of workplace organisation that we gain while students will help us when we have to defend our own rights at work.

The lowest paid staff at the university earn less than the living wage and the university is trying to change their contracts so that they must work whenever their manager tells them to do so. These sorts of casualised contracts and antisocial hours have been proven by numerous studies to lead to higher amounts of workplace stress and difficulties balancing other commitments.

workers rights andwhy they matter.

strike occupy resist!

How we organise

You may see people who are involved with Defend Education wearing a red or yellow felt square. The red square comes from Quebec, and shows support for free education. In spring 2011 the government of Quebec tried to raise fees for university, in response students went on an indefinite strike, that forced the government to hold another election, which they lost. The red square was worn by people involved in the strike as a symbol that they not only wanted to stop the rise in fees but also to go further and achieve free education. It comes from the french saying “carrément dans le rouge” or squarely in the red (debt).

The yellow square originally comes from protests taking place in Sussex 2012/13, and signifies opposition to privatisation. The management threatened to outsource 10% of the workforce at Sussex and there was a large (and at the time of writing ongoing) campaign to prevent this. This led to a 55 day occupation and a national demonstration at sussex campus with over a thousand people. Since then the yellow has been adopted by other students around the country fighting privatisation.

Defend Education is a democratic group who’s sovereign body is our weekly meeting. In the meetings we primarily use a system called consensus decision making. This means that we try to get everyone in the group agreed on decisions and that we use a set of hand signals designed for this. We do not use full consensus as occasionally we will vote on a decision. Signals used as part of this system include: putting your hand up to make a point, silent applause (jazz hands) to agree with something someone has said, putting up two hands to make a direct point (should be used rarely), making a P with your hands for a proposal, and making a T with your hands for a technical point. For more information on consensus see http://www.seedsforchange.org.uk/consensus

how we organise

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Red and Yellow Square

Want to talkDirect response Clarify Point of

order

AgreeDon't agree Oppose Block

Working with students, academics and support staff to create a

university where education is placed before neoliberal

reform.

BIRMINGHAM

Weekly Meetings 6pm Nuffield Learning Centre

www.facebook.com/defendeducationbrumwww.defendeducationbrum.org

@defendedbrum