Tuesday February 21st. 6:30pm
King’s College London (Strand) WC2R 2LS, Room S-1.27

Howard Hotson, London Review of Books; John Holmwood, co-author The Alternative White Paper; Liam Burns NUS President; Andrew McGettigan, journalist and blogger @ Critical Education; Jim Wolfreys, author of Universities for Hire; Kate Tunstall, No Confidence in Willetts Campaign; John McDonnell MP.
The government’s decision to withdraw its Higher Education Bill appears to indicate weakness and retreat. Yet most of the reforms outlined in its HE White Paper are being implemented anyway, from the new admissions market and fees regime to the escalating audit culture and creeping privatisation of the sector.
University admissions figures for the coming year have fallen dramatically in some institutions, while competition between universities and other providers is intensifying.
How do we prevent the restriction of student choice imposed by the new university admissions market, and the growing inequalities it is creating between higher education institutions?
What are the prospects for private providers finding a way into higher education now that the HE Bill has been postponed?
The aim of this forum is for staff and students to assess the latest developments in government policy for higher education and to have a strategic discussion about how best to resist it.
Initiated by the Education Activist Network
Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/261268643945344/

Last November following a peaceful sit-in in an unused gate house at the University of Birmingham, university managed acquired a draconian injunction banning all “occupational protest action” for twelve months. The injunction was condemned by Amnesty International and others. Birmingham Guild of Students alonsgide EAN, NCAFC and Defend the Right to Protest are campaigning to get this injunction lifted and call on all concerned peoples to rally at 1pm at the Guild of students on the 15th of February to increase pressure on the university to drop this flagrant attack on democratic rights.

February 21st, 6:30pm  - Public forum at King’s College London initiated by EAN - After the HE Bill: What next in the fight for Higher Education? Participants so far: John McDonnell MP, Howard Hotson, Andrew McGettigan, John Holmwood, Kate Tunstall, NUS Speaker, Jim Wolfreys, UCU speaker

Sunday March 4th – EAN Co-ordination meeting in Central London

The co-ordination meeting will bring together UCU members, student anti-cuts groups, student’s unions and education campaigners to facilitate, share experiences and discuss the way forward for the NUS week of action and UCU strike in mid-March

March 10th – Defend Public Education Conference

The UCU will be holding a major conference on the defence of public education in London on Saturday 10 March 2012.

Its aim is to bring together unions, students and organisations with an interest in defending our education system from cuts, privatisation and the institutionalisation of social inequality.

March 12th – 16th – NUS Week of Action

The Education Activist Network is fully behind NUS’ week of action and will be calling local meetings and assemblies in order to build for that week.

March 14 – NUS National Walk-Out

The Education Activist Network will maximize the turnout on the day

March 26 – Justice for Alfie Meadows: Drop all charges now (Kingston Crown Court)

The Education Activist Network alongside Defend the Right to Protest will be holding a solidarity demonstration outside of the court hearing. 

facebook event

March 28 – Coordinated strike action (PCS, NUT, UCU)

April 18th – NUS National Lobby of Parliament

Education Activist Network is calling on all other education groups, SUs and individuals to join a feeder march from outside ULU on that day – More details to be confirmed

EAN’s call is supported by: ULU, LSE SU, We are London Met

National Autumn Demonstration – date to be confirmed

some Student’s Union Officers and activists have set up the following blog whcih calls on NUS to call a national demonstartion in the Autumn.  http://students4autumndemo.wordpress.com The Education Activist Network supports that call

For more info on local EAN groups:
Essex Education Activist Network

Exeter Education Activist Network

Kent Education Activist Network

Manchester Education Activist Network

Goldsmiths Education Activist Network

Kingston Education Activist Network

Sheffield Education Activist Network

Oxford Education Activist Network

Teesside Education Activist Network

Leeds city-wide Education Activist Network

Woodcraft EAN

University of East London Education Activist Network

wanna start an EAN group e-mail educationactivist@gmail.com

According to the Daily Telegraph: “The decision to drop the legislation is a major blow for Mr Willetts who has given his wholehearted backing to the reforms. He had pledged to introduce legislation this year.”

Cameron, Clegg and Willetts do not want to see a repeat of the mobilizations that took place in November/December 2010. One of the reasons the vote is being ‘indefinitely’ postponed is that the government faces significant resistance – UCU’s continued strike action over pensions, the Campaign for the Public University, the No Confidence Campaign as well as growing opposition to the NHS Bill. This shows two things: first, that the struggles for public services such as health, education and the welfare state are linked. Secondly, that when broad alliances are forged, our movement can be very effective.

As the government backtracks, it is time for us to seize the initiative and call for the scrapping of university tuition fees. The HE Bill was first and foremost designed to ensure that the fees regime worked – this announcement clearly shows that it will not.

Rather than showing how strong Willetts’ position is, this announcement exposes its weakness. Willetts may not have the confidence to push through the HE Bill but – regardless of what happens in parliament – changes are taking place outside of the legislative framework. Numerous individual institutions will try to implement the recommendations of the HE White Paper anyway. At London Met, for example, the outsourcing of administrative posts is happening regardless

As the Times Higher Education puts it: “[M]any of the other reforms that have already been implemented, such as the increase in the tuition fee cap to £9,000 this autumn and the ‘core and margin’ and AAB plans, which will see student places removed from general allocations and thrown open to competitive bids, will not be affected.”

The chaotic and haphazard dismantling of the existing university system continues.

We need to continue to build opposition to the trebling of tuition fees, the debt regime and 100% funding cuts to Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, whilst at the same time forming the kinds of alliances that have the social and economic power to reverse these devastating neoliberal reforms.

This will be a relief to those who have campaigned against a set of policies that proposed opening the university system to corporate marketisation and making profit, not education, the priority of Higher Education institutions.

We need to be vigilant, since government will no doubt try to introduce many of its proposed changes via existing legislation, just as they did November 2010 with the parliamentary vote that raised fees to up to £9000 per year, leaving generations of young people in a lifetime of debt.

The battle for universities continues. But this is a partial victory that shows that collective resistance can bring about the right results.

The full Telegraph article can be viewed here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/9034279/American-backed-private-universities-plan-dropped.html 

It joins other major unions NUS, NASUWT, PCS and UNITE in rejecting current proposals.

The government plans to impose in reforms in April anyway.

The UCU motion calls for an escalation of industrial action with other unions in February, involving rolling strikes at regional and national level where appropriate, and invites other unions to join.

Thursday 1 March is the proposed date for coordinated national strike action to continue the fight of 30 June and 30 November.

Education Activist Network will be at the forefront of the struggle for fair pensions for present and future generations. 

facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events/256165881107455/#!/events/256165881107455/
Weds 7 December, 5pm – 6.30pm. Assemble outside the main entrance of King’s College London – Strand Campus, WC2R 2LS

Conservative Future are organising a ‘Back Boris Student Bootcamp’ where the Tory Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, will be telling students how they can support his bid to get himself re-elected in May.

Join Occupy LSX’s ‘BOOT OUT BORIS’ protest outside the event from 5pm-6.30pm.

The Tories are seeking to destroy the lives of young people. Youth unemployment has rocketed above 1 million, EMA has been abolished, tuition fees are soaring and even more attacks are on the way from cuts to public services & jobs to attempts to privatise education. Come along and let Boris Johnson know what you think of his party’s record in government.

Assemble 5pm Wednesday 7 December outside the main entrance of King’s College London, Strand Campus London, WC2R 2LS. The closest tube stations are Embankment and Temple.

They write:

Occupy Essex calls for a day of action in solidarity with the pensions strikes and against the HE White Paper on Tuesday 6th December. This is the day we will be challenging our management’s cut backs to accommodation services and the creeping privatisation that caused it. We call on all students to take action on that day, however small, to stand alongside us, and stand united against the Government’s plans for Higher Education.

Please add your occupation group or anti-cuts group to this call!

Occupy Essex facebook occupiedessexuni@gmail.com 07855928749

Brighton University Occupation facebook 07984315352

UWE http://uweagainstcuts.blogspot.com Twitter @uweagainstcuts Facebook

Sheffield Occupation facebook

Occupy Warwick facebook

Liverpool University Occupation  facebook occupyliverpooluniversity@gmail.com

Occupy RHUL facebook

Solidarity messages to: info@saveueamusic.org

petition

twitter (@SaveUEAMusic)