June 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment
We are outraged by the plans of several leading academics to set up an exclusive £18k per year private College in the heart of London. The New College of the Humanities (NCHUM) is a private company, run for profit, whose services will be available only to the wealthy. It embodies the new disgraceful and consumerist disregard for fair access and social worth.
Moreover, a modest amount of research has shown that the access that students will have to high profile academics, representation and welfare – and even the ability to end their course with a degree –is questionable, and borders on mis-selling. NCHUM constitutes an attack not only on the students who study there but on everyone who cares about higher education in the UK.
NCHUM is more than a mere business venture: it is the odious by-product of the Coalition’s policies on higher education funding, policies which have been enacted entirely without a popular mandate. When the processes of democratic accountability fail, direct action becomes a necessary and legitimate form of resistance. Protesters have already made their feelings known at public talks, and unions are already greylisting the New College.
As students, education workers and activists from London and beyond, we reject utterly the plans for the New College. We will support non-violent direct action and boycotts in defence of education – in particular to highlight public discontent to members of the New College professoriat at any possible opportunity of open, public debate.
Michael Chessum, UCL Union Education and Campaigns Officer and NUS NEC
Sean Rillo Razcka, Birkbeck SU Chair, University of London Union VP-elect and NUS NEC
Liam Burns, NUS Scotland President
Clare Solomon, University of London Union President
Ashok Kumar, LSESU Education Officer
Estelle Hart, NUS Women’s Officer
Jade Baker, Westminster SU VP Education and NUS Women’s Committee
Danielle Grufferty, NUS Vice President (Society and Citizenship)
Daniel Cooper, Royal Holloway SU President-elect
Alan Bailey, NUS LGBT Officer (Open Place)
Robin Parker, NUS Scotland President-elect
Joe Oliver, NUS NEC
Claire Locke, London Met SU President-elect
Ariana Tassinari, SOAS SU Education and Welfare Co-President-elect
Edd Bauer, Birmingham Guild of Students VP Education-elect and NCAFC National Committee
Mary Prescott, Coleg Gwent SU President and NUS NEC
Naomi Bain, Bloomsbury Fightback and Birkbeck Unison
Sandy Nicoll, SOAS Unison
Jaqui Freeman, SOAS Unison
Molly Cooper, UCL Unison Women’s Officer
Aaron Peters, Royal Holloway student and NCAFC National Committee
James McAsh, Edinburgh University student and NCAFC National Committee
Greg Brown, UCL Union Environment and Ethics Officer and NCAFC National Committee
Joana Pinto, SOAS student and NCAFC
Catherine Aicken, UCL UCU Branch Executive
Tali Janer-Klausner, student
Thanos Zartaloudis, Bloomsbury Fightback
Milaad Rajai, SOAS SU Education and Welfare Co-President
Patrizia Kokot, Aberystwyth University
Mark Boothroyd, King’s College London student and NCAFC
James Meadway, SOAS SU Postgraduate Students’ Officer
Liam McNulty, Cambridge Defend Education
Mark Barrett, Campaign for Real Democracy UK
James Bloodworth, City University student
Louise Gold, Sheffield Hallam student
Alice Swift, University of Birmingham Student, NCAFC National Committee and Birmingham University People & Planet President Elect.
