Cambridge Education

Cambridge students occupy Law Faculty in solidarity with Gaza

28-01-2009 17:38

On Friday the 23rd of January, over 100 Cambridge University students occupied the Law Faculty as a protest against the actions of Israel in Gaza. The action is in solidarity with similar occupations at more than a dozen British Universities across the country, at which students are making demands of their institutions. These include: scholarships for Palestinian students, donation of educational materials to rebuild the Palestinian education system, divestment from the arms trade, and full access of humanitarian aid to Palestine.

The students have started a blog to tell their side of the story, and there is a facebook group and photos on flickr. Incidents have included a "soup war" and a visit from Craig Murray (a former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan). Many statements of support can be read on the campaign blog.

Update 29/1/09: The occupation ended today at 11 am.

Campaign blog | Newswire reports: Occupation 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Photos 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Solidarity in town | Craig Murray 1 | 2
UK feature on other university occupations

E.ON withdraws from careers fairs due to persistent protests

12-11-2008 18:54

E.ON has withdrawn from University Careers Fairs run by AIESEC following a string of protests around the country. E.ON did not show up at Birmingham today (12th Nov). The protesters object to E.ON wanting to develop new coal fired power stations, such as at Kingsnorth - the target of this summers Climate Camp. However E.ON cannot avoid the protests by avoiding careers fairs - expect more fun during 48 hours of action against E.ON and new coal on the 28/29 November.

Students have visited careers fairs to protest about the presence of parts of the arms and fossil fuel industries. Climate chaos related companies targeted include RBS (the oil and gas bank), BP and Shell. The arms industry representatives include the Army, B.Ae, Qinetiq and Rolls Royce. Careers fairs have been targeted in Aston, Birmingham ( 2 ), Bristol, Cambridge ( 2 | 3 ), Durham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Imperial College London, Kings College London, Leeds, Liverpool, Loughborough, Manchester ( 2 | 3 ), Nottingham ( 2 | 3 ), Oxford ( 2 ), Sheffield, Southampton, Warwick and York. More reports are available from People and Planet.

Community use for the Howard Mallett centre?

15-12-2005 19:37

Aiming at making effective community use of the soon to be empty Howard Mallett centre, a group has been set up to put forward proposals for the space.

The centre, in Cambridge’s densely populated Petersfield ward on Sturton Street, has a long history of community usage and features a gym, radio recording room, café area and further office and community rooms. However, it is soon to be vacated by current lease-holders Dawe Media and the new tenants, charity Citylife, will take a long time to carry through their plans of knocking the building down to construct a ‘social innovation incubation centre’.

The new group is connecting with people with ideas for how the space should be used, which so far include a range of community media, arts, youth, sport and soup kitchen proposals.

New group list: hmcwg@wereallneighbours.co.uk
and their website

Indymedia articles on the Howard Mallet Centre: [ 1 | 2 | 3 ]

Cambridge University Debates Full Fees

28-11-2004 23:53

The University of Cambridge has now made policy to charge the full amount of fees (around £3000 per year) starting in 2006. A debate followed in the Senate house, where it was (mildly) criticised by accedemics and the student union.

A report from the Council on the arrangements for University Composition Fees from 2006-07 is available along with some discussion here.

Highlights of the discussion (probably also happening in a University near you) can be read by clicking the Full Story link...

Uni Teachers & Students Demonstrate Over Pay and Fees

28-02-2004 14:36

With the ongoing controversy over the Labour government's plan to introduce top-up fees for university tuition rumbling away in the background, lecturers represented by the Association of University Teachers (AUT) went on strike this week over pay reductions, working conditions, proposed changes to union representation of lecturers, and differential treatment of staff based on where they work rather than the jobs that they perform. The Cambridge AUT has called upon students to campaign with them for better pay, and have pledged their support for student campaigns against variable top-up fees.

Meanwhile, at Essex University in Colchester, students occupied the boardroom of university boss Ivor Crewe, a high-profile advocate of fees, and called for a protest movement that can "force a shift in society's priorities, away from warfare and greed and towards satisfying human welfare and need." Occupations have also occurred at Oxford University and in Sheffield, where the Town Hall was taken over by students. Direct actions against threatened closures of the chemistry, philosophy, development studies, sociology and anthropology departments at Swansea University are planned for the 10th of March.
[Video: Cambridge AUT & CUSU pickets] [Cambridge AUT Ballot on Industrial Action] [How to Occupy Your University]

Top-up fees and the university system in the UK are usually discussed as if Britain was a lone island of turmoil in a wider ocean of calm worldwide. Within the mainstream press, there has been little recognition that a systematic, consistent set of structural reforms is being implemented around the globe by proponents of what might be called a "neoliberal", "marketized" approach to education. Here is a sampling of what is going on in:
[Argentina] [Australia] [Canada] [Germany] [Pakistan] [Russia]