Sussex

Higher education is going through significant transformations on an international, or at least European, level. The UK is not immune to these changes. Whilst there have been various small protests in places around the country to resist these changes, no major local campaign has existed as of yet. Sussex not 4 Sale was born out of this context.

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Since 9:30pm this evening, 80 students from the University of Sussex have occupied their library in support of the SortUSOut campaign, a campus wide campaign for better provision of welfare and education at the University of Sussex. Our focus is on local problems directly damaging the education of students at Sussex but also the wider issues around the commodification of higher education.

The 2005/6 academic year was definitely an interesting one for both students and staff at Sussex. The usual excessive drinking and falling over of freshers (which this writer was partial to) was also matched by an upsurge in political activity.

The slogan of the protest is "Free Education Not Business Incubation".

The students are protesting against the increasing involvement of private enterprise in universities. They call for a fully state funded higher education system without tuition fees and accessible to all by means of a grant students can live on.

We at libcom.org news spoke to one of the students taking part, and interviewed him about the students' last occupation of their library (pictured left) in March in protest against cuts.

What happened on the night of the occupation?