Don’t have a house party, you might get kicked out of uni

Angry students have lashed out against the uni’s plans to punish them for their off campus behaviour.

The new rules mean noise complaints from a house party could not only get you in trouble with your neighbours – but could ruin your degree.

Now students are speaking out against killjoy uni bigwigs, slamming the rules an “absolute joke”.

Paige and Lydia’s response

Bores at the Student Conduct and Discipline Committee (SCDC) amended the regulations on punishing students for off campus behaviour earlier this year.

But after breaking the news to people on campus the response was of shock, outrage and even disbelief – and most of them weren’t even aware of the new discipline.

Second year Ben Bish said: “How have the uni not made more effort to warn us about this?!”

Lydia Morton, who is studying Linguistics in her third year was equally bemused.

“The committee don’t get punished for what they do off campus and neither should we. Having the music on a bit too loud on a Saturday night shouldn’t warrant a deductions on my degree.”

Third year Criminology & Law student Paige Tully, said: “The whole idea is an absolute joke. What we do in our spare time is nothing to do with them.” She even slammed the uni on Twitter.

That’s it lads, you’re out

#bloodyridiculous

Fuming Gabriella El-Chamaa, who is studying Geography in her final year, thinks the it’s all one step too far.

“It’s ridiculous to integrate all aspects of our lives together. How do decisions made in our private lives reflect our academic performance.

“I was always under the assumption that our grades reflected our intelligence and our criminal record reflected our ability to live by the law. I don’t understand why these two things should be integrated?!

“If someone gets themselves into trouble due to a moment of weakness or a lack of common sense, how does that mean that they lack the ability to study Economics or geography? How are we benefiting from it? If I left Manchester with a degree are employers expecting it to reflect my behaviour as well as my ability to study hard?

“This new rule is annoying as a stupid mistake made by a student could affect the rest of their lives. I’m guessing that the University of Manchester will have bitten off more than they can chew, as they’ll have to come up with a way to fit the punishments to the crimes committed, which will inevitably waste a lot of the universities time and money and will just create a bureaucratic system that serves no purpose. It’s just stupid.”

Gabiriella’s clearly not impressed either

The SU have spoken out about the killjoy committee, slamming the new policy as “misconceived and unsubstantiated” and. They also said: “It overlooks the fact that students are also victims of anti-social behaviour themselves.”

SU GenSec Charlotte Cook said: “I’m very disappointed that the Off Campus Discipline policy passed at Senate. Students bring great things to this city and it is important to us that their autonomy as citizens and community members, outside of their academic identity, is protected. 

“Despite the policy passing we are now working with the University to create a partnership Community Engagement Strategy to improve relations within the community, with an end goal of repealing the policy.”

In the new amendment the SCDC says: “A student may be liable for disciplinary action in respect of conduct that damages the University’s relationship or reputation with its local communities, as evidenced by substantiated complaints from residents, resident’s groups, local authority representatives or the police.”

Before the change in rules, the university’s policy for misconduct mainly applied to students behaviour on campus or if they were doing activities directly linked to the university. The only exception was if a criminal offence was committed by a student off campus or if their behaviour was extremely threatening towards others.

The SCDC felt the previous regulations suggested a “lack of commitment to tackle serious off campus anti-social behaviour undermined the good work and volunteering of those students positively engaged within the community.”

If you feel your off-campus life should stay off campus, then sign the petition.