“Stop the HE Bill!” emergency demo held at Parliament Square

An emergency demo against the Higher Education (HE) Bill was held during the Bill’s second reading earlier this week at Parliament Square.

The HE Bill looks to implement ways in which market competition in the higher education sector could be increased.

It also allows for institutions to raise their tuition fees, dependent on their performance against a new Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) to encourage the quality of education which is provided.

The implementation of a new body, named the Office for Students, to oversee and promote competition is also suggested.

Institutions will have new responsibilities for institutions to publish data on students as well as introducing access and participation plans and student protection plans.

There is also the suggested introduction of a new UK Research and Innovation body to oversee the funding and support for HE research.

Following the second reading of the Bill, it has been committed to a Public Bill Committee who are expected to report to the House by Thursday 13 October.

MA student, Jamie Sims who attended the protest said “the Bill will usher in greater privatisation and marketisation.”

Jamie added that the TEF “will mean higher fees and attack on workers’ conditions.”

Incoming Education Officer Hope Worsdale said that the HE Bill “represents the most drastic changes to HE we’ve seen in decades. It’s essentially a blueprint for a fully marketised system where students are treated as consumers and universities as corporate machines.”

Hope added that we “will see teaching quality measured on irrelevant market metrics which will be used to justify further tuition fee rises.”

“Students and staff up and down the country are united in opposition to these proposals. The government has a real fight on its hands!”