Students occupy University of Arts London

The occupation virus is spreading. Great Britain already had recent experience with students protesting by occupying a building, but now, students have also occupied the main building of Central St Martins College of Art and Design (CSM). They protest against proposed cuts at the University of the Arts London (UAL).UAL will cut so-called foundation courses. These courses are for students that do not have formal qualifications and allow for an alternative route to higher education. According to the university, 580 places will be cut over the next two years. Students think that a lot more places will disappear, up to 800. They claim that cutting foundation courses will lower the quality of the college, because talented students without formal qualifications will now be excluded from UAL.Like all the others, the UAL occupants have a Twitter account, a Facebook account and a list of demands. On the list, among other things, the occupants demand no cuts to foundations, no institutional racism, democratization of the university and the right to protest.

Meanwhile, Dutch students still occupy the Maagdenhuis building in Amsterdam. In the next Univers, we will write about New University Tilburg, the new movement at our own university.

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