Dispatch 3The Education Issue

Featuring

Free Education For All: Higher Education in Britain over the last 20 years

How to Make a Community, One Rant at a Time

and

The Next Generation(and we don’t mean Captain Pickard!)

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Dispatch 3: 29 August 2015 CREATED LIVE!

Get talking: #KQCurious

The Education Issue

Drawing by Sam Cook

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A slogan put up during the student protests this year at the London School of Economics. Image source: The Guardian

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In March 2015 the latest wave of student protests demanding a fairer education system gripped the universities of London. Students from University of the Arts (UAL), London School of Economics (LSE), Kings College in London (KCL) as well as students at UAL’s Central St Martins here at Granary Square occupied and protested against the marketisation of education, calling on the government to make education fee and accessible for all.

University education used to be free in Britain. University tuition fees were first introduced in September 1998 under the Labour Government, as a means of funding tuition to undergraduate and postgraduate students, who paid up to £1,000 a year. University education was at that time still free to the poorest students because tuition fees were means tested and subsidised by the government, allowing all students to study, even those who may not have otherwise been able to afford to attend university. Fast forward to 2015, tuition fees are rising and enrollment is falling across the nation, especially in England.

Our question is, what is the UK education plan for the future, and is it time for university education reform? The Labour government policy change on tuition fees was in the making for 20 years. The ‘Timeline: tuition fees’ article published by the Guardian online on 27 January 2014...

(http://www.theguardian.com/education/2004/jan/27/tuitionfees.students)

...gives a blow by blow account of the dismantling of the fee university education system over two decades, from John Major’s 1996 Dearing enquiry report, to Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy’s 2001 assertion that the introduction of tuition fees is “one of the most pernicious political acts that has taken place”, to the Labour manifesto in the 2001 General Election which stated that Labour “will not introduce top-up fees and has legislated against them”, to Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith’s 2003 pledge to abolish tuition fees under a future Conservative government, condemning tuition fees as “a tax on learning”, all the way up to the present when international backing from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) of UK’s higher education tuition fees has lead to the marketisation of UK universities, flash brochures, upmarket student accommodation and its current £9,000 price tag.

The OECD maintains that the top-up fees are an “essential” process of revitalisation but he facts and figures do not add up: student enrolment numbers have been dropping since the introduction of capped top-up tuition fees, from 2006 onwards rising from £3,000 to the current £9,000 per year. Since 2012-13, when it became clear that the economic downturn we are experiencing—the financial crisis that hit the UK in September 2008—is here to stay. The government legislated for universities to charge up to the full £9000 a year tuition fee in 2012 and it coincided with a dramatic drop in enrolment at university, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. According to

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the 2014 government report on ‘Patterns and Trends in University Education’ published in collaboration with HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency), England–where the fees are highest and financial support is least available–has consequently seen the most dramatic decrease in student enrollment.

“Figure 6 shows that following the 2012 reforms to higher education, the number of students at institutions in England fell by 7.3%, following relatively static numbers from 2009–10.”

The Labour government that first introduced tuition fees created much opposition from the student community and even from within the Labour Party because, they, along with every other major political party as well as the Queen herself, consistently sent the message that university education in the UK would be protected against privatisation and would remain free or at least affordable.

Student protests

Although there are more students attending university than in early 2000s, the rate has been dropping from 21% in 2007-8, to 9% in 2009-10, to 6.4% in 2012-13. While enrollment rates are falling less dramatically for first degree undergraduate students and postgraduate research students over the last ten years, they too have fallen since 2012. “Other undergraduate student numbers, both full time and part time, fell between 2009–10 and 2012–13 (by 44% in aggregate).”

Approximately 2 million students study at UK universities every year, most of them are studying for their first degree with ¼ studying at postgraduate level. At least 2/3 of those students at university attend full time, and part time attendees continue to decrease. “Key factors identified by institutions as contributing to this fall include the economic downturn and reforms to undergraduate funding in England.”

2012 was also labeled the year of the MOOC (massive online open course) whereby universities in the UK adopted the US model by offering non-credit bearing courses online. Out of the 500,000 enrolled students, half attended online courses weekly and less than 10% completed the course. University of Edinburgh and University of London were the first to offer online courses, followed by Open University which launched ‘Future Learn’ earlier this year. I actually attended one of their film courses out of pure curiosity and it was better than I imagined it would be. I managed to complete about a 1/3 of the course before the course work became too time consuming to do with a full performance schedule and full time work commitments. Online learning is replacing traditional distance learning, which too has dropped in enrolment over the last ten years. However there is another recent trend in online learning; social learning conducted online whereby peer critique and online tutorials are incorporated into project-based, online blogging platform. This style of online learning is often a part of full time courses where it is supposed to complement the one-on-one tutorials, practical demonstrations and technical workshops and critical thinking lectures.

http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/highereducation/Documents/2014/PatternsAndTrendsInUKHigherEducation2014.pdf

EU student numbers also fell. The numbers of non-EU international students enrolling at universities in the UK is the only figure that has increased in the past ten years, from 8.6% in 2013-4 to 12.8% in 2012-13. In line with

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countries that are having an economic upturn such as Australia, the numbers of international students from those regions attending UK universities have increased over the last ten years.

Women… etc.

And what of women in education? Presently, female students outnumber male students; in 2012-13 56% of students were female. First degree female students made up 55% of the undergraduate student enrollment while 47% made up postgraduate student enrollment (an increase of 3% from 2003-4).”

“In addition, there was substantial variation in the proportions by gender and level of study between different subjects of study (Figure 14). It is beyond the scope of this report to explore the reasons for these differences, but the wide variation by gender between subjects is a striking feature of the student population.”

Sadly, this is not the case with women studying at higher levels of university education. There is a deficit in the number of female student researchers, professorships and higher positions at universities and education institutions.

There needs to be more discussion about women’s participation in higher education leadership. Further research into factors that inspire or discourage women’s aspirations and career orientations would be useful in education planning, factors such as gendered divisions of labour, gender bias, patriarchal management structures, greedy organisations and work/life balance challenges. These factors manifest in the women’s education and career progression and as such remain a feminist issue. Regardless, these factors affect everyone. Structured interventions have been developed to encourage more women to enter leadership positions in universities, however the gender bias has not been completely addressed.

The first generation of crisis graduates

When I (Ana) was a student at Slade School of Art, education was still free. At least it was for me; I had been working but not earning a great deal so the means test meant my education was subsidised by the government when I started in 2004. There was a great rumble and resistance to the introduction of top-up tuition fees even while I was studying. I remember a fellow student making a work with a slogan ‘education should be free, as free as the fruit on the tree’. Rumours had become reality and we worried over the situation facing younger generations to come. We were all already aware it was idealistic to

November 26 2003

The Queen's speech includes the forthcoming higher education bill

"A bill will be introduced to enable more young people to benefit from higher education. Up-front tuition fees will be abolished for all full-time students and a new Office For Fair Access will assist those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Universities will be placed on a sound financial footing."

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think of education as being free, if nothing else, surely somebody owns that tree!

Along with Renée (the other Lady of the Press*), we graduated in 2008 and in the same month as the financial crisis hit just as the first lot of university students started their courses in September with their university top-up fee.

“London has lots of parts, lots of pieces of it that make it what it is. We’re the biggest part of it, the next generation. We are going to be the people who are sustaining it. And if we can’t go to those places and have our voices heard then they’re never going to hear us. And when they realise that they haven’t taught us much and that they need us, they are going to regret their decisions.”

Student protest over tuition fees ends in scuffles with police.

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/nov/19/student-protest-tuition-fees-scuffles-police

Against recommendations in the Borwne Review to lift the tuition fee cap completely, the government made the decision to increase but cap tuition fees at 9000 per year in November 2010. Loans were marketed as a means to avoid up-front tuition fees and therefore enable poor students to study now and pay later. Immediately, students took to the streets of London to demonstrate against the proposals, aggrieved that they were not consulted in the decisions though it affects them most of all. At the time, former member of UK Youth Parliament and UKYP National Spokesperson Harrison Carter commented on behalf of the organisation saying: “Fees themselves are unfair and act as a barrier to education, widening the rich-poor divide which exists in this country. I and many other members of the UK Youth Parliament seriously condemn this action. The news that fees are set to go up, and that the graduate tax is to be dropped is truly worrying for young people.”

Over 1000 police officers were deployed to police the 2010 demonstrations in London, an overreaction that was condemned for it lead to ‘penning in’, ‘kettling’ student protesters for hours on end and blocking the protest route and in so doing, preventing our democratic right to protest. On 9 December 2010, the day of the House of Commons’ vote on whether to approve measures which could see the rise in tuition fees (which they did by a 323 to 302 vote) further demonstrations were held in London. The protests were policed by 2800 officers this time and tensions ran high. The media reported on angry scenes as the debate on the proposals was discussed in the Commons.

Education for all

So, is free education still a possibility? If we want to maintain the quality of teaching and quality of students at universities in the UK going forward, then it stands to reason that enroll ment should be based on ability rather than ability to pay. Should not the ultimate responsibility for education rest with a centralised government instead of being sold off to the highest bidder and forced to compete on international markets where it would be subject to market fluctuations, economic upturns and downturns. Education should be worth more than that!

The debate is ongoing and two alternative ways of funding university studies have emerged: from general tax or from a graduate tax. While general tax means that everyone has access to education it also means that the poor may in some cases be paying for the tuition

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fees of the rich. Conversely, graduate tax means that graduates would be the only ones to pay for their education, assuming their further education leads to employment, the issue is that the government has no way to recover the money owed in student loans if the graduate moves overseas.

In 2015, Labour leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn said that he would remove tuition fees by increasing National Insurance and Corporation Tax if elected.

Will he be the first in a long line of politicians over the last 20 years to keep his word?

Near our stand we met Fleur de Fear and Monsieur Shockeur, who did some magic tricks for us!

Things we learn at ‘The Salon’

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“What is the best thing about school?”

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“Have you any idea how long it’s been since I’ve been at school?”

—A visitor

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A conversation with a visitor who stopped by the Press Desk.

Ladies: Have you studied at university?

Visitor: Yes, a long time ago. I studied Chemistry.

L: And did that lead to a job in Chemistry?

V: Yes, for a couple of years. Chemistry got away from me and I moved into computer science. Actually, everyone is talking about innovation but the most innovative thing you can do is share skills across different fields. In the navy they have a saying “ships is different”, the reason is because ships are away from land for months and months and have to have everything with them. In other words, ships are different. The same applies on land.

L: Everything needs to be in the melting pot to make something truly innovative?

V: Yes, precisely.

The press desk in action!

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The press desk in action!

“It’s a three year old’s conglomerated mess”

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“So, we’re asking everyone to tell us what you think of school. What do you like about it? What do you hate about it? We’re curious because it’s been a really long time since we’ve been in school...”

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“Don’t worry, I don’t just speak tiger.”

—Kid with tiger facepaint

Guardian children’s literature tent

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Ladies* chat to Annette Kramer over a rogue pom pom...

Annette is curious, she sits right by us and pointing to the slogan on our table ‘is it time for university education reform?’ says, “Is that even a question?”

Ladies: Depends on who you ask?

AK: Are there indeed people who really think that university education does not need reform?

L: Yes.

AK: What do they say?

L: That there is a need to “balance the budget”.

We explain to Annette what it is we do, that it is a bit of an aberration because we are artists, performers, designers and on the go publishers.

L: What do you do?

AK: I am also an aberration. I help people communicate more effectively. I help people use what they say in order to develop their thinking… It is more complicated than that, but that is essentially it. I work with a lot of emerging companies and corporations that work with innovation and with anybody really, who has a business proposition and not very good at articulating it. I am not a coach. It is really about creating something to start with and developing that, in real time. The thing about learning is about practice and real feedback as well as information. Data is great but it doesn’t work on its own. The education system has disassociated us from the practice.

I started in the theatre.

Ladies: Ahhhh! We were just talking to some other people today who had a change of career; they studied one thing then took those skills to another field. Do you think that sort of thing helps innovation?

AK: Well, you’re a designer. The education system was designed to produce people to work in a particular field.

L: But we have moved on?

AK: Yes, but the education system is not. People don’t question anything. In my experience, cross-disciplinary thinking is essential. It is associative. Something is like something or something is not like something. If you put two odd things that don’t belong together automatically you see a connection between the two. It is not that complicated. The system exists as it does because it suits certain people and they do not want to disturb that. As soon as you start asking questions it becomes messy. But in order to change something you need to take it apart. I know a book you may like, or not? Doug Rushkoff’s ‘ Life Inc.’ He is a documentary maker, economist, teacher at NYU, a TED talker and a very nice guy too. This book really is disruptive. Instead of asking what we can do better he looks at the history of things, why we do anything at all. Anyway that is my shtick.

L: What brings you here today?

AK: It is a nice day, my favourite word is curious so it all came together.

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We met Fatima Diriye, who is helping out nearby at the SOAS language tasters, as we were setting up today. She was just looking for some sticky tape, but we ended up talking about the experience of being a student today, breakdowns in person-to-person interaction, and how we might make it better...

Fatima: I study Economics. At SOAS we include everyone and protest against everything that is wrong in the world.

Ladies: Well, then, talk to us! What are your views on education?

F: Everything is institutional, even our education. How can nine months of education be condensed into three hours, into an exam? The problem is, people think they are a number and it follows them for the rest of their life.

L: We haven’t been in education for a while (cough!), can you tell us what it is like?

F: I always feel like students don’t have enough choice. A-Levels are too focused, you get to pick three or four modules only. There is a lack of choice of subject.

By the time you get to university they have to pick courses that they have no clue about. At college you can have a taster session, but it is only for one hour and twenty people attend. It doesn’t make sense. Nobody tells you that you should learn about yourself. Personal development should be taught in school. I feel like taking a gap year has negative connotations. But I think they are needed, because education is not allowing us to explore.

PENS FOR THE MASSES! LOTP* meets Fatima Diriye, current SOAS student

How to make a community, one rant at a time

PENS FOR THE MASSES! LOTP* meets Fatima Diriye, current SOAS student

How to make a community, one rant at a time

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L: Is it about setting up more foundation courses? At art school for instance, you can do a foundation course that prepares you for studying art. You spend a year doing different subjects, like graphic design, 3D design, fine art, etc and you start specialising towards the end of the year. Would other university degrees benefit from foundation course that would allow students to study specific area and have a taster of everything to decide what you might be interested in?

F: That makes so much sense. Students don’t know what they want to do when they are doing their GCSEs. That is why we have mid life crises. The pressure is to go from secondary school to university and then you have to get a job, the highest paying job.

L: It is a constant conveyor belt into adulthood.

F: Already at university level you need to have relevant experience. I am not sure how we are supposed to know that at 15 years old? Then, once you graduate you still have to have years of relevant work experience, you volunteer for a few years but when are you supposed to be working?

I applied for a job at Sainsburys and they turned me down — I wasn’t qualified enough for Sainsburys!

L: It’s probably because the job market is full of people who are far overqualified.

F: University of London offers degrees distance learning degrees for 3000 over three years. I think that is a solution, we have the knowledge to find some solutions to the tuition fees and access to education. So we can take

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up a similar model in our communities and get graduates to teach affordable courses to whoever is interested. I think it is about us creating communities and offering workshops that would break down the growing class divide.

L: It’s not really about education for the sake of work, is it; it’s an education to allow you to think for yourself, to avoid a situation like 1984. There seems to be a drive to take this away from the wider masses.

F: And what is this thing with being ‘busy’? Busy? Why do we have to be busy? There is nothing wrong with not being busy? I think there is a lot of pressure to be seen to be busy. I think social media has to do with it. It is inappropriate to post a picture of yourself on facebook crying. You have to be seen to be having a social life, but only a happy one.

L: We’re indoctrinated into being vehicles of consumption. We thought it was only the art world, whenever you ask someone how they are they tell you they are ‘busy’.

F: Television doesn’t recommend we read a book. You can’t see that on television. You can only see reality TV, we’re told to watch people live their lives, and not living your own. The message is: Go and post you have a social life on Instagram. Make sure you have sociable posts.

F: Why do we need these apps? You measure your success by your ‘followers’ on social media. What are followers?

L: Is it because we are lacking real social skills?

F: The thing is, you can say hi to a stranger on Twitter and it is not considered odd. If however you say hi to random stranger on the street they would say “get away from me right now, weirdo!”. Nobody goes out and has real conversation on the streets.

L: You do!

F: It’s ‘hit or miss’ really, some people think I am crazy! It’s London really, up north it is not like this. I am from Manchester, we are a lot friendlier up there. London is so awkward, and passive. Everyone is rushing to catch the train.

L: Or on awkward Tinder dates, glancing at their phones every other second.

“Excuse me. Can you look after this for me please? I am going to the toilet.”

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“How do you spell science?” “S-C-I-E-N-C-E.”

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“Despite the government’s prioritising and subsidising of Stem subjects (science, technology, engineering, mathematics), where men still dominate, over arts and humanities, where women do, we are entering a situation in which more women, including working-class women (who attend university at a rate twice that of their male peers), are calculating that university debt is worth it.”

—Nina Power, The Guardian online, 18 August 2015

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/18/gender-gap-women-men-university-tuition-fees

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About the typefaceThe typeface used for the logo of Demo Press as well as headings used here is designed by Spike Spondike, font developer at Dalton Maag (daltonmaag.com).

‘Spike connected the diversity of shapes in the Thai script with the design of Blenny. She took on the challenge of creating Thai glyphs whilst maintaining the key features of Blenny’s design. Creative decisions on the Thai in turn led back to refinements to the original Latin.’

A great big thanks...Firstly to Camden50 curator Charlie Levine, for making this amazing project happen and dropping by today! Sophia Dawe, Simone Ruotolo for helping us out on the day. Thanks to Jodie Eastwood for putting KQ together! Pascal, for the beautiful centrefold image!

And to everyone who finished their sentences with “...and I LOVE your wigs”!

Ladies of the Press*Via pop up events in various sites and interactions with people on the streets of Camden, Ladies of the Press* challenge conceptions of engagement and go straight to the audience with their mobile printing press. Informed by DIY cultures, grass roots activism and inspired by Camden’s rich history of radical press they are making new works in print for the 50th celebrations. These are printed instantly and promote the hard working and revolutionary women of Camden. #Camden50 #DEMOpress