THE occupation by University of Birmingham students of the Aston Webb building is continuing in defiance of the High Court Injunction secured by the management on Monday.
And it has been joined by a resumed occupation of University of Sussex, to which it has sent its greetings.
Hattie Craig, Birmingham’s Vice President of Education at the Guild of Students, told News Line yesterday: ‘the occupation is continuing in defiance of the injunction which came into effect at 5pm on Monday.
‘People in there are risking arrest because they feel it’s so important. The way things are going with education it’s worth doing.
‘There are no plans of leaving any time soon unless the university negotiates on our demands.
‘These are around tuition fees, paying workers a living wage, free access to the occupation because at the moment we are under seige as they won’t let people in, and against the privatisation of the student loans.’
The Birmingham occupation sent a message of support to the resumed University of Sussex occupation: –
‘The current occupation by Defend Education Birmingham would like to express our solidarity with the students occupying the Bramber House Conference Centre for the second time, as part of their ongoing fight against the privatisation of their university.
‘We support the use of direct action in their attempts to open a dialogue with the management of the University of Sussex, and we applaud their persistence in the face of a stubborn refusal to negotiate.
‘We all share in a common conviction: the main purpose of the higher education system is the education of its students and the research of its academics, not lining the pockets of the management, or acting as a profit-making machine.
‘As the Occupy Sussex movement has rightly identified, the preference for privatisation that the management of many universities have shown has now been taken to a ridiculous extreme.
‘The management of both of our Universities has failed to challenge the government’s recent decision to sell off the student loan book.
‘In addition to the demonstration today on the part of Unison, GMB and Unite trade unions, other students are engaging in action like this, proving that this is not merely the stance taken by an
