Students protest debt sell off in ‘largest stunt of the year’

Protesters filled the square on Thursday afternoon with angry voices and a whole heap of bright red boxes to protest against the proposed selling off of student debt.

Photo courtesy of Cadi Cliff

The boxes, which symbolize the already eye-watering fees students face and the burden it puts on graduates, were later used to make a huge ‘wall of debt’ filling the LCR dancefloor.

In case the boxes didn’t make enough of an impact, members of UEA Stop The Privatisation of Student Debt also passed an open letter on to the university explaining their disgust at the Chancellor George Osborne’s plans.

Students, including members of UEA People & Planet, UEA Young Greens, UEA Defend Education, UEA Labour and the UEA People’s Assembly, gathered to protest after George Osborne confirmed the selling off of student loans. The loans, taken out between 1998-2012, will be sold off to private companies for a bargain price of £160m. The debts are in fact worth over £900m. This could mean a huge increase in interest on loans and more repayments for already cash-strapped graduates.

Features Editor Maisie taking part in the protest.

Chris Jarvis, one of the events organisers, called the protest “amazing”. He said: “It is important to organise against the selling off of our debt, not only because of the danger of retrospectively increased interest rates and the profit of private companies at the expense of the taxpayer, but also because of the emblematic status of this policy as part of the introduction of market forces into higher education”

But the campaign doesn’t stop there! The red-box campaign is part of a national week of action against the privatisation of loans which over 50 universities from across the country are involved in.  There’s also an open #stoptheselloff meeting on Wednesday to discuss further campaign action.

UEA Stop the Privatisation of Student Debt has set itself even loftier goals by opposing the sky-rocketing price of higher education all together. They say, “The end goal of free education is still in sight”.