Bristol Uni Socialist Students group organise protest tomorrow for tuition fees

The Bristol Uni Socialist Students are organising a protest tomorrow at 3pm outside Senate House for tuition fee refunds.

The protest is part of a wider national effort with protests taking place at 26 other unis around the country.

This comes after the government announced that there would be no in-person teaching for most subjects until May 17th, by which point most undergraduate teaching has finished.

The protest has four main aims: “To refund tuition fees and rent, to build a wider national movement, to make the government and the wealthy pay for it, and fight for a socialist alternative to capitalism”.

On the Facebook event, organisers said: “There is no reason this country should be forcing students to pay for what richer, poorer and equally-wealthy countries can all provide for free. International students in particular face ridiculous costs for university education in this country.

“Education is a right, and we should not be charged for what is necessary for us to contribute to society. We also demand tuition cuts or refunds to reflect the poor quality of education we have received throughout this pandemic – £9250 is not a cost reflective of what has effectively been a Zoom subscription for most students.”

Organisers of the protest told The Bristol Tab: “We will be protesting outside Senate House with the intention of showing our demand for government-funded tuition fee refunds for the past year, for students nationwide. Without the support of the universities that charge us the fees, we cannot hope for the government to take up the issue, but right now UoB management doesn’t seem to care.

“We are also in support of cutting rent on student accomodations, another critical issue that has been exacerbated by the pandemic, that the university has failed to fully address despite consistent rent strikes.”

Featured Image credit: Bristol/ UWE Socialist Students

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