Poor students frozen out

Unite community members from Durham University held a festive campus demonstration on Tuesday (November 13), to protest against accommodation costs and price increases that are leaving poorer students out in the cold.

Around two dozen students, bearing candles, gift wrapped boxes and Unite Community flags, marched from Durham Cathedral to the university’s Bill Bryson Library.

They were highlighting growing inequality at the university that has been caused, in part, by rising college accommodation fees that are amongst the most expensive in Britain.

In 2017 the annual price of a single room at the prestigious university’s halls of residence will increase by 1.6 percent to £7,171, while tuition fees are set to rise by £250 to £9,250 a year.

Rising costs have coincided with a 55 per cent decrease in Durham’s hardship funding for disadvantaged students over three years, down from £340,487 in 2012/13 to £154,335 in 2015/16.

Unite Community member and English literature student, Jasmin Bourke, helped organise the protest.

The nineteen-year-old said, “(The university) is increasingly pushing for diversity but they’re not giving people access to an education here unless they have a privileged background.

“If you’re working class it’s very difficult to come here. The maximum student loan you can get is around £8,000, so with accommodation fees you’re looking at about £900 a year to live on. After course books and things like that it’s just not viable.

“The university is also inhibiting itself. When only a minute section of the population can attend it limits the university’s intellectual potential and that of the students. We’re not going away until they listen to us.”

Unite Community member and psychology student, 20-year-old Charlotte Hall, also attended the protest.

‘Ridiculous’ fees

She said, “The accommodation fees here are ridiculous. I can’t live there next because it’s just too expensive. They just keep pushing it up, even though they know they’re forcing people who can’t afford the fees out of the campus. Durham sees itself as the flag bearer of the government’s marketisation of education, so it’s pushing it through as much as it can.”

As well as highlighting rising student costs, the protesters showed solidarity with the 60.5 per cent of Durham University staff who are on a-typical or zero-hour contracts, by unfurling a giant Unite banner which read “End Zero-Hours”.

Speaking at the protest, Unite Community regional coordinator John Coan, said, “Durham’s vice-chancellor is on £250,000 a year but, despite the university being high up on the league tables for education, it’s near the bottom of the league table for zero-hour contracts. Not only are students being sold short, but the university’s staff are as well.”

Pic by Mark Pinder