Camping in the quad

Another thirty six hour demonstration began this morning at 6am, this time on St Salvador’s Quad. This is the third of a series of protests that have been staged by students in opposition to next year’s increase in tuition. They will be camping out for 36 hours because the average cost for a university is increasing to 36,000 GBP.

This protest was staged on a University open day, right where the prospective students convene (welcome to St Andrews!). The idea was that these are the first students who will be affected by these increased fees. When asked, the protesters said that they felt that they were reflecting positively rather than negatively upon the University because it helps break the image of St Andrews as a posh institution. They also noted that most of these parents went to university when protests were more common and therefore would not be offended by this demonstration.

The protesters complained about a lack of transparency within the decision making bodies of the University and said that they will continue to stage protests until their demands are recognised (this might take a while…). They described it as a “campaign of last resort” and suggested that their protest may change in style in the future, although they did not say exactly how. In regards to that, James Hopkins, a third year International Relations student, did say “We reject any tactics that would disrupt education at this university. However, we are willing to disrupt those who have made the decision.”

While they have yet to make any progress in response to their demands, the protesters remain optimistic about their demonstration. They believe that they have been gaining support and that the protest has increased in size from a few weeks ago.

At the end of the interview, the protesters were joined by a friend carrying a bag of brownies, crisps, and sandwiches. No cupcakes, but they said that they would do their best to make sure that there were cupcakes included in their future demonstrations.