Free education/Free Education MCR/Initial Statement

The University of Manchester is in occupation. We are occupying because we know what five more years of a Tory government means. It means the hopes of millions of young people and workers shattered by cuts and privatisation. There is talk of another rise in tuition fees, funding apprenticeships through 24% cuts to further education, and scrapping the disabled students allowance once and for all.

We know what the market does to education, and we know we need to fight it. We are occupying to reclaim space from the university’s corporate projects—and to use it to educate ourselves freely. The area we are in is being redeveloped into a £50m hotel and “executive education centre”. We are occupying to begin to create a space where we are more than customers, and education is more than a business.

There are currently 30 of us in the Harold Hankins building of Manchester Business School, and whilst we want to welcome everyone into the space for debate and discussion, the university is currently ordering security staff to not allow free access to the occupation, or even allow food to be delivered to us.

We condemn the university attempting to starve us out of the occupation rather than let us use what is supposed to be our own space for our own education. We call management to allow us food and free access. We welcome the solidarity of all students and workers and invite them to join us.