[Educationforall] Student protests in England too

[Justin Akers Chacon]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/nov/07/tuition-fees-jon-snow-kate-middleton


Students are revolting – and about time too
This week's protests about the rise in tuition fees are long overdue

 
Barbara Ellen
The Observer, Sunday 7 November 2010 
Article history

There's to be a national student demo through London on Wednesday about fees and cuts. Finally. Hallelujah. I've been wondering why they weren't rioting, sitting in, getting all "Vietnam" and direct action about it – nothing violent, some gentle eggings perhaps. Students are traditionally in the vanguard of protest, the heartbeat of righteous fury, so recently you couldn't help but wonder: where are they, where's their fire gone? Now something is happening and not before time. 
Broadening debates is very wise. However, I'm not sure I agree with the persistent, well-meaning attempts to put tuition fees "into context" with other devastating cuts. Isn't there a risk that too much "putting things into perspective" plays into the coalition's hands, effectively running their smear campaign against students for them?

Basically it's saying: "Look at this much needier, much poorer person, and how they're going to suffer. Now look at this privileged student – yes, facing a huge hike in fees and cut in services, but also young, healthy, flying high, getting a university education and better prospects for life. Harrumph! I know who I feel sorry for."

What's this – the top trumps of compartmentalised empathy? "I did feel sorry for students, they were one of my best cards, but now I see this other group has got more Suffering & Hardship points, so they win." Just possibly we're elastic enough to feel sympathy for other victims of cuts, while appreciating that students have been given a raw deal.

And a raw deal it is. Will the increased fees scare off poorer candidates? Duh. I definitely wouldn't have bothered in these circumstances and frankly I would have been no great loss. However, this doesn't mean other more deserving people aren't going to miss out unjustly. It doesn't even make sense that the payback starts when students are earning around the average wage. Isn't the whole point that graduates earn significantly higher than ordinary mortals? The payback point should reflect this (£40-50K?). Otherwise, graduates are effectively being penalised for earning an average wage, which, being average, non-graduates would presumably earn without getting into debt.

A major problem here is that the coalition leaders are rich, with small children. They do not comprehend the paralysing terror of a sum such as £9,000 (and the rest). How the psychological effect of incurring such debt could be like twine around the ankle, tugging personal ambition down into the deep. At the same time, they have zero insight into "launching" teenagers. Getting into university is complex, exhausting and expensive – travelling, train fares, endless form filling, Ucas statements.

It's bad enough for the oft-mocked, "sharp-elbowed" middle classes. Without strong parental back-up, it's a miracle any of the poorer, less-supported kids navigate their way through what amounts to a chattering-class firewall and secure a place. They would already have shown immense character and fortitude – only to get kicked in the teeth at the end.

This is the point. Don't fall for the coalition smear campaign: students are not an elite no one should feel sorry for. But this legislation could make them so. After all, the people who always went to university will still go to university. It is the others, for whom university was never a given, who will end up missing out, creating a them-and-us forcefield around higher educational opportunity that will scupper generations.

This much is obvious and surely worth anyone's disgust and focus next Wednesday. So yes, I've been questioning the apparently feeble student response, wondering if any sense of brio and protest had been bred out of the wusses. Now here is a march, one hopes a big, juicy, righteous march. Spiritually, if not, physically, we should be walking every step of the way with them.

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