National Campaign Against Fees & Cuts

National Demo | 15^th November 2017

 

On the 15th of November 2017, the National Campaign Against Fees & Cuts (NCAFC) are hosting a National Demonstration in London, to achieve ‘Free Education Now’, NCAFC sabbatical officers and members up and down the country have been emailing Students’ Unions in order to gather support for the demo.

 

There has been some discussion as to whether we, as the SU should provide transport to, and support the demo - however I propose a different course of action.

 

This demo is not backed by the National Union of Students (NUS), and in the past, there are a few cases of NCAFC being involved in demos which have descended into violence - notably the November 2010 and November 2014 demo’s - damaging the reputation of students as a collective and also diminishing the effectiveness of protesting as a force for change.

 

Couple this with the recent student wins on support finance and fees, such as the PM agreeing to freeze the rise on tuition fees, the implementation of the Diamond Review by Welsh Government (meaning a much improved finance support package for learners) andsubsequent decision by Welsh Government to reverse the decision to rise tuition fees to £9250 a year, one can see that dialogue and lobbying is currently proving the most effective method by which to pressure decision makers across the UK into listening to the voices of students.

 

As such, I propose an alternative course of action, that this Union should:

• Not provide transport to the NCAFC National Demo in November.
• Continue to work closely with NUS Wales & UK to lobby the UK & devolved governments to ensure that all current and future students are appropriately supported financially throughout their studies.
• Continue to lobby the UK & devolved governments in association with a wide range of partner organisations to reduce the level of tuition fees students are expected to pay, whilst also securing the future of the sector, ensuring a quality tuition for all and a fair tuition system which sees students leaving HE & FE without the burden of being tens of thousands of pounds in debt.

 

A ‘thumbs up’ for this idea agrees not to support the NCAFC demo and to instead support the above alternative points.  A ‘thumbs down’ for this idea areas to support the NCAFC National Demo.