Last November's protests against education cuts left students with a bad reputation for violence. Image: Lewishamdreamer/Flickr
Students have always been a vocal bunch when it comes to politics, especially so when it comes to things we don’t quite like. But with a new National Union of Students-backed protest march planned for this November, aiming to “derail the government’s Higher Education white paper”, are we making good use of our right to protest, or simply wasting our time?
The NUS thought the latter earlier this year when it voted against endorsing another protest, but after reviewing the suggested changes published by the Government, the NUS executive council changed their mind in favour of action.
Those involved with the protests claim that the Higher Education white paper will “dismantle and privatise universities”; making HE institutions more like businesses than academies of knowledge. This is certainly a bold, but understandable, move when we consider the merits of the last student movement.
The protests last November dominated the news for over a week. The student community came together to voice their disapproval of the cuts to university funding – and voice it they did. After all, nothing gets the message across like trying to jab Prince Charles with a stick.
But jokes aside, did it really do much good? The violent few who hijacked the protest saw students demonised as nothing more than scrounging vandals; a petty lot who went to London to throw their metaphorical toys out of the pram because things weren’t going their way. And we’re about to do it again.
Even if the troublemakers stayed home and the media reported the protests as a perfectly polite affair, would we have been any closer to changing anything? Did the 2010 protests do anything to change the minds of our legislators? If not, why bother protesting at all?
For many people this is a flawed line of questioning, as the end result would be to abstain from any political participation whatsoever. But surely we have to draw a line between protestation and practicality?
No doubt the witty signs and chants were a source of great embarrassment for the Liberal Democrats, who got a bit flustered when people brought up that pre-election pledge they signed.
Perhaps the protests played a role in the 21-strong Lib Dem rebellion, or in the more surprising actions of the six Tory rebels. But even if we discount this statistically small circumstance – amounting to only seven per cent of the house – the proposed changes were still brought to the attention of the nation.
The protests likely ensured that everyone will remember this particular policy when the next general election comes round, and you almost begin to feel sorry for the Lib Dems.
Unfortunately, even considering the positive impacts of rebellion and publicity, I think I might be ready to accept defeat over the fee rises and cuts.
After everything the student community has done, everyone sort of gets the idea we generally don’t support the Government’s changes, and if we have to hold London hostage to say the same thing all over again, I reckon that everyone’s going to get a bit bored of us.
Especially if it gets violent again: let’s not forget that a lot of people think of students as lazy state-scrounging cretins.
If we give them an excuse to add ‘violent yobs’ to that list its unlikely that the rest of society, who are also competing to avoid cuts, will give us much sympathy.
Like it or lump it, the government that we sort-of elected has voted the fee rises through Parliament, and I’m not so sure that this Government is going to do a U-turn on that no matter how many people turn up on November 9.
They might tweak a few things in their wider Higher Education reforms, but my guess is the bulk of it is going to pass anyway.
Of course, it’s important for us to express our political opinion; we live in a democracy after all. But we’re better off saving our energy for the next general election.
Cuts are already inevitable with the current government and they seem quite set on their path of austerity.
Economists and academics might argue that cutting Higher Education is a fundamentally stupid thing to do, but if not cutting university funding, they’d be cutting something outside of our little student bubble. Either way someone isn’t going to be happy.
Everyone might be looking if we try to poke a second royal with a stick, but I’m not so sure the Government or the rest of society will be listening.
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