Several colleges have now passed motions to support student attendance at the national demonstration against tuition fees in London, following a similar move by Balliol JCR last week.
Hertford, Worcester, Regents’ Park, and Harris Manchester have passed the motion to send students to the demonstration, while Exeter, St John’s, Wadham and Somerville, amongst others, will vote on similar motions on Sunday. However, not all colleges have accepted the idea. A motion in Jesus College, which would have granted the JCR’s support to OUSU’s £200 involvement in the Free Education Demo failed, with eleven people voting against.
Alexander Proudfoot, Vice-President of Jesus JCR, said, “we discussed the motion in a fair amount of detail and the prevailing opinion, although some did disagree, was that whilst the JCR supports many sections of the [OUSU] motion and a lot of the sentiment behind it, the wording was too loaded on many issues and the motion had too much bound up in it for us to agree with it in its entirety.”
He added, “we made a note, and voted in support of this note, that although we do not support this OUSU motion we are critical of the current fee system, current government policy towards higher eduction, and are supportive of student activism.”
Hertford, meanwhile, will be donating £150 towards travel costs from its political campaigns fund to take students to the demonstration on November 19th, up one-third from the £100 originally requested in the motion.
The motion, proposed by second-year English student Charlie Jarvis, cites a recent decision abolishing tuition fees in Germany in comparison with speeches by several MPs and Andrew Hamilton, the University Vice Chancellor, calling for uncapped or raised fees, arguing that that, “either our system is going to continue down the road towards an American-style model of private universities with uncapped fees, or we can take it closer to a German model of free, public and accessible education.”
The motion, which is being used in many colleges, characterises the NUS’s policy as “a campaign for a new deal for education, that is free, publicly-funded, accessible, and funded by greater progressive taxation and clamping
down on tax avoidance”, and claims that, “in order to fund tuition fees, the Government can now expect to loan in excess of £10 billion per year, much of which it will never recover. Fees act as a deterrent to access, making education seem unaffordable to some.” It also points to recent successful campaigns by the NUS, such as last year’s cancelled sale of the student loan book.
Hertford JCR President Josh Platt explained, “We had a brilliant debate in our JCR meeting about free education on Sunday, in which absolutely loads of people were able to express their views. I think this shows how important it is for JCR representatives to have proper consulation with their members before going to OUSU Council; I now have a much clearer idea about the stance Hertford wishes to take, and I’m looking forward to presenting those views to the rest of the student community at the University. Hertford’s JCR is very keen to send a strong message to the government; the status quo is not acceptable, and whether it be through free education or a different funding formula for higher education, there is now a need for major change in higher education policy in this country.”
Charlie Jarvis, who proposed the motion, said, “It is crucial that we join the fight against the marketisation of our education system, and I believe the NUS are the right people to lead us in this. It was fantastic to see such a huge turnout at the meeting, and the debate was really lively and inclusive. A good £150 was pledged to support students attending demo on November 19th, and two of Hertford’s three votes at OUSU will be used to support the policy when it is debated again at Council next week. Despite a difference in opinion on the details of the motion itself, what appeared unanimous was the dissatisfaction with the path down which the current government is heading with regards to higher education.”
OUSU Disability Officer James Elliot, who first put the motion to OUSU, said, “I’m delighted that several more JCRs have joined the fight for free education by pledging support. This is a great time for Oxford students to be discussing how education should be funded, its place in society and how we fight to scrap the current system of fees, privatisation and debt.”
