“To everyone at the Roscoe Occupation

Staff from Philosophy would like to express their support for the
peaceful demonstrations by University of Manchester students against
the proposed cuts to Higher Education funding. We, the undersigned,
oppose the removal of government funding for the teaching of the Arts,
Humanities and Social Sciences. We believe that the proposals will
have detrimental consequences for Higher Education Institutions in
Britain and that they seriously misrepresent the value of Arts,
Humanities and Social Sciences in fostering independent and critical
thought. We also believe that the raising of tuition fees will place
unfair financial burdens on graduates and that this is likely to
increase social inequality.  We support our students in their
resistance the government’s proposals and in their occupation of the
Roscoe Building.

CatharineAbell
Chris Daly
Julian Dodd
John O’Neill
Joel Smith
Thomas Smith
Graham Stevens
Ann Whittle”

DEFEND EDUCATION FOR ALL- Statement of support

“We sent a statement of support for the students peacefully occupying the Roscoe Building and would like to add the following names to the list:

Dept of Sociology

Prof. Chris Allen, Prof. Scott Poynting, Dr. Christian Klesse, Patrick Williams, Dr. Susie Jacobs, Dr. Andrea Hollomotz, Jac Eke, Liz Cain, Rob Ralphs, Dr Joanne Massey, Dr. Kathryn Chadwick

Dept of Politics and Philosophy

Dr Keith Crome, Dr Mark Sinclair, Amir Barik, Dr Gary Banham, Dr Ullrich Haase, Dr. Steven Hurst, Jonathon Rodwell, Dr Mike Tyldesley, Dr Janet Mather, Don Milligan

Dept of History & Economic History

Dr Melanie Tebbutt, Prof. Neville Kirk, Dr. Tony Adams, Sam Johnson, Prof. David Nicholls.

Obviously the result on Thursday 9^th December 2010 on tuition fees was disappointing, however, it did highlight how divided the Liberal Democrats are and what an unpopular bill tuition fees has been.  We would therefore urge you to continue to support any cuts in education whether in Higher Education or elsewhere.   Newspapers have stated that revenge is a dish best served cold and this will no doubt be true when the next General Election happens

Yours in solidarity

Staff in the Faculty of Humanities, Social Science and Law at MMU”

&

Further and Higher Education Students who have opposed fees hike and abolition of EMA

Congratulations on your occupation of the Roscoe Building at Manchester University.

The recent demo’s on DayX and Day X3 in London and the demonstrations around the towns and cities of on Day X2 have been large, vibrant and impressive.

The colossal rise in University Fees from £3,000 a year to £9,000 a year is unacceptable and will definitely deter students from more disadvantaged backgrounds.

This UNISON Health branch is appalled at the shocking rise in fees and the level the coalition government has gone to in terms of it’s austerity measures.  The proposed and recent cuts in higher and further education, reduction in teaching staff and closure of many subjects limits access to higher education and also seeks to establish education as a means to future earnings potential rather than a way of learning.

We need the whole of society to come together and fight the austerity measures being imposed against us and students have lead the way to show us how to do this.

It is of course extremely disappointing that the coalition won the vote last Thursday but we must remember that it is possible to defeat legislation after it has been passed through Parliament.

The abolition of EMA will without doubt be destructive to the chances of many young people not only to go to University, but indeed to continue any education after leaving school.  The Government are wanting all young people to remain in education until 18 years of age yet taking away their lifeline to doing so.

This branch would like to offer support to all higher and further education students leading the way against the struggles and also to offer a financial donation of £500.

We need education provide us with qualified Doctors, Nurses and Allied Staff in the Health Service for decades to come and also for the health and well being of future generations.

In Solidarity

Manchester Community & Mental Health UNISON

For just over 16 days students have occupied Roscoe B lecture theatre in Manchester University.  From the beginning we issued national demands seeing the point of being there as a base from which to build the biggest possible campaign against cuts, against fees and against attacks to EMA.  Using this space we held alternative lectures discussing how we can beat the cuts and what education should really be like.  Societies as diverse as the hiking club and socialist worker student society held events in our space.  Perhaps most importantly we used the space to design many different posters and leaflets and held mass organsing meetings bringing in around 300 to the biggest.  We also received messages of support from hundreds of academics at the University and many other people beyond.  We sent speakers out to trade union branch meetings across Manchester and in return got donations of over £1500 to send people to London marching against fees as parliament voted.  Overall the occupation has massively increased the profile of the anti cuts movement across Manchester repeatedly getting students onto local radio and put a spark of hope in many who were downbeat about the cuts.

Following on from the vote this week it is clear that our movement is not over, however we do need to pause and regroup our movement for a longer battle.  Following on from a mass organising meeting on Friday evening it was decided to leave the occupation for the time being.  Students will be meeting next week to plan action to stop the bill in the Lords and show the lib demo betrayers what we think of them.  We also decided to call a anti cuts teach in early next term to get everyone back together and plan our next steps.  The lecturers will be balloting for strike action then and it is vital we support them in their fight as they have supported ours.

We would like to thank everyone for their messages of support, money and food.  This is not the end of our fight, keep following the blog, keep marching in the streets we can still win this fight.  There will be a meeting of all occupiers, wannabe occupiers and supporters at some point in the next week to plan our next step and so we can finally have a drink together.  As they said in 1968 La Lutte Continue.  We will keep up the fight till the government has fallen and until education is free for all who want it.

“Dear Dr de Groot,

Thank you for your correspondence about Tuition Fees. I have delayed responding to you because I wanted to see what the possibility is of the Government being defeated on this issue. What is clear is that Labour and all the other Opposition parties will vote against the trebling of Tuition Fees. However, it would require the Liberal Democrats, not simply to abstain, but to vote in significant numbers themselves against these proposals. As that now seems to not be the case, this originally Conservative policy is de facto being supported by every single Liberal Democrat MP who doesn’t vote against this legislation.

Such high fees are not necessary. They are going up so much because the Government has chosen to cut funding for university teaching by 80%. This will put Higher Education and access to Higher Education in serious jeopardy.

The Government will provide concessions to the poorest students, but students from quite poor or modest income households are likely to be the worst affected by these proposals. These high fees are not fair because graduates will now have to pay much more over a longer period. Graduates will be forced to pay the whole cost of most degrees (to replace the cut in funding), instead of sharing the costs with the state. As a result, graduates will pay much more overall, and pay back for up to 30 years. The talk of generous fixed rates of repayment is nonsense as real commercial rates of interest are being introduced.

None of this can remotely be justified even on the most spurious grounds on the state of the economy, as by its very nature and in the short term, it will increase indebtedness in our society.

With best wishes,

Yours sincerely,

Tony

Tony Lloyd MP
Manchester Central”