An open letter to the Vice-Chancellor, on the camp for education and the week of action at UWE

Addressee:
Steve West
Vice-Chancellor and CEO
University of the West of England
Frenchay campus
Coldharbour Lane
BS16 1QY
Bristol, Avon 

 

Dear Steve,

The quality of our education at UWE is rapidly worsening. This results directly from the restructure at UWE and, indirectly, from the stress and tensions that it has generated amongst staff. In parallel, government are planning massive cuts across the public sector, including education and universities while talking about doubling or even tripling tuition fees.

Those university-level and national plans, if they go through, will have a dire effect on students at UWE and elsewhere, but also more generally, on most if not all people living in this country. At the moment, even though such projects are highly and increasingly contested, no formally responsible 'leader' is defending students, jobs, UWE, our education or the public sector.

We are deeply concerned about such plans because we know that they will lock us on a trajectory toward a gloomy future for ourselves, our friends, our classmates, our lecturers, our families and people at large. We are thus taking responsibility for our education and our future by setting up a camp on Monday at 4pm inside Frenchay.

Our intention with this camp is to open a visible space to raise awareness about current problems, to imagine, further and elaborate alternatives and to figure out both how to resist plans that are imposed on us and how to advance our alternatives. Our intention is not to disrupt work or studies but instead to exchange, learn from each other, and work out better solutions together.
We thank you in advance for your understanding and your support and we remain available to answer any questions you may have about our initiative.
Best regards,

UWE students against the restructure, fees and cuts
uwe.better.together@gmail.com