Free Education: Student not consumer

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hatever we, as students, decide the meaning of our experience at university to be it should always be more than a particular form of consumption.

Consumerism is the absolute opposite of education. When we buy something we are not engaging in a critical approach to it, we are trying to get our money’s worth. We have all bought a Primark t-shirt, despite knowing that the conditions that allow us to save money are the same conditions which impoverish low paid workers. This is because being a consumer robs you of your critical insight into the way the commodity you’re buying has been formed. It makes you compliant, it makes you selfish, it makes you a mechanic part of a system of exchange rather than a person. If we want education to be an experience that encourages a critical understanding of the way society is organised, if we want knowledge to be freely available to all of society not just those who can afford to pay for it, if we want education to be a positive source of social change, we cannot allow the student/university relationship to degenerate into that of business and consumer.

The decision to support free education is one which can put us on a course to reverse this diseased dynamic and move towards a society which values education as more than a commodity, and something which should be available to all.

The decline of western economies following 2008 is ongoing – yes we are no longer in recession, but wages are falling fast in real terms, GDP is nowhere near recovering to pre-crash levels, there is a crisis in economic productivity and the cap between rich and poor continues to expand. In the context of this ongoing crisis, we have seen the introduction of an austerity agenda which is more to do with changing society than it is to do with saving money. Specifically in education, the £9,000 fee system costs the treasury more than the system it replaced.
Austerity for the poor and profit for the rich is fast becoming a permanent feature of our society.

The response to this radical social remodelling, which seeks to secure the place of inequality as an organizing principle of our society, has to be one which opens up important avenues of social change and mobility to all. If education remains on its course towards privatisation, austerity will only become more permanent. Issue by issue, we need to challenge a state whose primary interest seems to be the exploitation of all for the good of some.

Do we want everyone, regardless of background, to have the chance to access education? Do we want universities to provide a critical analysis of society? Do we want students to have the chance to develop beyond the narrow boundaries of ‘employability’? If the answer to any of these is yes, then the degeneration of higher education into a huge source of debt for young people and a force for the expansion of social inequality has to be contested. Our society has plenty of wealth – it’s just that this wealth, which is produced by the work of us all, is concentrated in the hands of a few. We need to engage in a movement which uses that wealth to support things we value, like education.

And never doubt that we can win. Look at the example of Germany, where tuition fees were recently abolished, or Quebec in 2012 where a mass movement mobilising 100,000s of students and ordinary people overthrew a government that wanted to impose a tuition fee rise. Students in the UK have halted the privatization of student loans, defeated plans to cut Disabled Students Allowance (DSA), won the living wage for staff at many universities and now have set their sights, once again, on winning free education.

We need to support an education system that works for everyone in society, not just an elite minority. A progressive tax system which redistributes wealth could easily support free education, and wouldn’t saddle us with £27,000 of debt for a three year course. We can make that happen by fighting for free education on Warwick campus and nationally. As students, not consumers, we can fight and win.

The National Demonstration for Free Education will take place on November the 19th and is supported by the National Union of Students (NUS), the Young Greens, the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC), the Student Assembly Austerity, Warwick Autonomous Students Network (WASN) and other organisations.