We won’t be scapegoats – Workers and students fight for safe universities

By Socialist Students Scotland

The shameful scandal in higher education in Scotland continues. Students, having been invited back to campus by their universities and colleges, are now being blamed and punished for the utter lack of a framework to control and reduce transmission of Covid-19. 

The outbreaks in accommodations at Glasgow University, Abertay University, Edinburgh Napier University have led to over 200 confirmed positive cases and hundreds more students are isolating in their halls. 

Only now have the University of Glasgow confirmed that a testing site will be up and running at Murano Village, the worst affected student accommodation in Scotland. This is little consolation to those students already impacted, and it begs the question of why universities were so eager to have students back on campus without the proper infrastructure in place. 

One student from Glasgow Uni quoted by BBC Scotland hit the nail on the head: “I do think they are just trying to make money off us being in halls”. Cairncross House and Murano Village, where the first COVID cases were confirmed, charge just under £5,000 in rent over the 2020-21 academic year; if we multiply that by the capacity of Murano and Cairncross then the potential revenue for the University of Glasgow is almost £7 million. 

And this is only two buildings at one university; factoring in the rest of Scotland’s 19 higher education institutions and all of their halls, it becomes clear that making money from charging students rent is a key part of the capitalist agenda of a privatised education system. 

With many classes etc now online, why did the Scottish government and Universities Scotland ask students to return en masse? Students are also being told by the government that they can’t return to their family homes either.

The clear profit-motive of the higher education sector has now put students at risk, and the ridiculous way in which we are expected to take the blame adds insult to injury.

The Scottish Government are complicit in this; the SNP’s Higher Education Minister Richard Lochhead has endorsed Universities Scotland’s decision to adopt a ‘yellow card, red card’ system for dealing with students breaching COVID regulations.

His fig leaf, that “our [the government’s] focus at the moment has to be to suppress the virus” blows away in light of the failure to get more than 4 or 5 testing sites set up at universities before students were invited back.

If the focus has to be suppressing the virus, then why were flats with as many as ten and twelve people allowed to be occupied by students from all around the globe?

If young people are not being “particularly blamed” for the outbreaks, then why are we singled out in what amounts to a ban on young people entering pubs, cafes and restaurants? 

This last point really beggars belief; when so many students work part-time in hospitality businesses, how can there be any logic in asking those same students not to go and socialise in those same businesses? Socialist Students Scotland have members in this exact situation, and we know there are thousands of students in the same boat. 

The path forward for students is clear; we have to rely on our own collective strength, not the goodwill or competence of the Scottish government and university chancellors.

Socialist Students call for health and safety committees to be established made up of elected reps of students and staff, and through these organisations we can discuss the kind of measures which need to be taken to protect public health without demonising or scapegoating students or education workers. 

We also need to question the fundamental drive of the privatised education model; a profit-driven higher education sector cannot and will not be accessible to working-class youth, it cannot and will not consider students’ safety as a decisive factor and it should not be tolerated by students and staff any longer. 

University vice-chancellors make a six-figure salary year-on-year. Universities themselves are run as money making institutions. The reason why that money was not put towards making campuses safe for students is because we live in a capitalist system, where the economy is organised from the top down, and always in the interest of those at the top.

If we want to truly solve the Covid crisis, the unemployment disaster and the runaway cost of living then we need to decisively break from this rotten system. 

Socialist Students Scotland is unapologetic in calling for an end to capitalism, and we propose a publicly-owned, democratically controlled socialist economy to replace it. 

Socialist Students say:

• No to the draconian ‘yellow card, red card’ policy of Universities Scotland and the Scottish Government! Students should not be punished for systemic mistakes!
• The right for students to return home and early termination of accommodation contracts! End the rent-seeking of university and privately-run halls! 
• We need mass testing and contact tracing now! Not a single student should have been called back to campus until this was in place!
• We need to build a mass movement of students and staff to fightback against unfair COVID penalties, cuts to education and the corporate agenda of university management! 
• For a publicly-owned, fully funded and democratically controlled education system! We need health and safety committees made up of students and staff! 
• For class and lecture sizes to be reduced to safe levels with social distancing
• For full funding for doctors surgeries and mental health clinics on campuses. Adequate numbers of GPs and other health workers to be determined by campus health workers unions and students. For universities to provide remote counselling services for students who require them.
• For regular mass virus testing and publicly funded test and tracing on all campuses.
• All halls and accommodation must be regularly deep cleaned plus space to socially distance. If accommodation is overcrowded, students must have the option to move without extra cost.
• For universities to produce emergency funding for the provision of support services for students who are forced to self-isolate, including the equipment needed for home study, health provision and food delivery where necessary.
• For universities to provide affordable and decent accommodation for students. End the driving of students into the arms of rip off landlords and letting agencies. Ban all agency and contract fees.